i7 4790k GTX 970 SC vs. i7 6700k GTX 960

EagleOD1 · Sep 19, 2015

So I am buying an Alienware x51 (please stop posting "build your own pc", I have reasons why I can't). There is an R2 model and and R3 model. The R2 has an i7 4790k and the R3 has the i7 6700k. The R2 is $1650 (PC is $1350 + buying seperate GTX 970 SC card is $300) and the R3 is also $1650 (i7 6700k with GTX 960). So which one should I get? I fear that the i7 4790k will be outdated soon.
Thanks.

jakegroves · Sep 19, 2015

the i7 2700k still isn't outdated, the 4790k is a beasty cpu and will not bottleneck your system.
The i7 6700k is a bit better than the 4790k.
But regardless the GPU is the main issue here, the gtx 970 with the 4790k is perfect match for gaming. But i7 6700k with gtx 960 your GPU will be poor, you will be severely bottlenecked by your GPU.

So your answer is i7 4790k + gtx 970 for a mile!

This vidoe might help proove my point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx8bBCY4Ugk
gtx 960 + i7 4790k, and the gtx 970 + i7 4790k.
Big difference in performance, because of the GPU not the CPU underperforming.

RCFProd · Sep 19, 2015

The i7-4790k won't be outdated soon and is still one of the most powerful processors on the market, especially for gaming. The i7-6700k is only a bit more powerful.

For gaming performance, you will always get better performance on the i7-4790k + GTX 970.

The i7-6700k might be a bit more future proof when you upgrade the graphics card and/or RAM in the future.

Kunkkaaaa · Sep 19, 2015

EagleOD1 :

Ofc i7 4790 & Gtx 970 . There is a lot performance difference between GTX 970 & GTX 960 (around 54%)

http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=2909&gid2=2815&compare=geforce-gtx-970-msi-gaming-100-me-4gb-edition-vs-geforce-gtx-960-msi-gaming-2gb-edition

And i7 4790k wont be outdated soon.

jakegroves · Sep 19, 2015

Kunkkaaaa :

can you remove that link please, it provides false stats for the 970 when somone is looking to buy lol

Nvidia advertised the GTX 970 as having 4GB of vram running at 224GB/S. However, it is well known now that the first 3.5GB operates at 192GB/s (7/8th) while the remaining 0.5GB operates at 1/8th that speed.

Also it states 56 ROPS, when it runs at 52 ROPS.

So can you remove it please to not mislead purchasers

EagleOD1 · Sep 19, 2015

Thank you so much guys!

RCFProd · Sep 19, 2015

@jake you quoted the wrong post.

Vic 40 · Sep 19, 2015

Since your so on being correct,

jakegroves :

the 4790K isn't a "card" it's not a gpu it's a cpu.

jakegroves :

If the gpu works at full performance is there no real bottleneck.You just will get less fps,but whether that's a problem depends on the wishes of any OP.What settings he/she wants to play at or the monitor used.

jakegroves · Sep 19, 2015

Vic 40 :

obviously a typo towards the 4790k.
What is the point of buying a 4790k or 6700k with a poor GPU i.e. 960. If the GPU is utilised at 100% will always wil lbe for a 960, the CPU will hardly be utilised for that card, so what is letting you down in your gaming is your GPU, thus your GPU is the bottleneck if you have a 6700k and gtx 960.

Bottlenecking is an engineering term refeering to the whole system's performance being restricted by some specific components. Therefore the bottleneck would be the 960. You really should know what your talking about, before attempted to correct somone on not being wrong lol.

jakegroves · Sep 19, 2015

RCFProd :

thanks was early morning for me l;ol

jakegroves · Sep 19, 2015

RCFProd :

thanks was early morning for me l;ol

Vic 40 · Sep 19, 2015

Since when is the gtx 960 a "poor" gpu? It's not as good as the gtx 970,but calling it poor is just a mistake on your part.

I'm not saying that the gtx 970 isn't better,but the gtx 960 will,imo,just not be a "bottleneck".Don't see why That is an "engineering" term on a computer systems performance.You just make that up.

RCFProd · Sep 19, 2015

A graphics card can not bottleneck a processor, only the other way around. The GTX 960 will often work at 100% whilst the i7 processor would be sitting between 30-70% load, meaning the graphics card's power is fully unleashed.

jakegroves · Sep 19, 2015

RCFProd :

a bottleneck is on the system, the CPU is only at 30-70% load like you say, meaning to fully utilise your system with no bottleneck is to have components giving 100% load.
You don't buy an amazing GPU and a cheap CPU, or an amazing CPU and a cheap GPU, you have to balance otherwise your expecting amazing performance by just one component.
You see what i'm trying to say ? You have to balance it, not always a better CPU then the GPU because you are wasting money lol.

jakegroves · Sep 19, 2015

Vic 40 :

why choose a gtx 960 over a 970 if you can afford it? lol you are limiting the capacity of your graphics output.
You should refer to: http://www.amazon.com/Every-Computer-Performance-Book-Computers/dp/1482657759/ or even check wikipedia if you don't believe me, it is basic computer science terminology

RCFProd · Sep 19, 2015

I understand your argument but It's not what bottlenecking is. The CPU is simply able to handle a better graphics card but neither in this case are limiting their ability of performance.

jakegroves · Sep 19, 2015

RCFProd :

But technically it is, bottlenecking is the system performance being limited by components, and the GPU is limiting your performance. I can see what your saying is that the graphics card component is being fully utilised. But the CPU isn't, you want to utilise the CPU aswell to give you greater experience and performance i.e. a 970 or 980 ir 980ti. Because, i might aswell stick with a fx8350 instead of a $350 processor which would be more utilised.

ALso, some games like starcraft etc are CPU heavily dependant, not well threaded and hardly use the GPU while maxing out the CPU load.
However games like battlefield are GPU dependant and not so much on the CPU.

So if you had the i7 6700k, and the gtx 960 you would do amazing on CPU games, but maybe 1080p 30-45fps on battlefield (dunno the exact FPS ranges for those gpus on battlefield)
But on a i7 4790k and gtx 970, you would do amazing on CPU games still!!!, but you could do 1080p, ultra 60fps+ or even 1440p no problem.

So you can see where the bottleneck in the i7 6700k system would be

You could arguably say matching of the GPU and CPU is important, but really it is not, because you need to work out what games you play, if they CPU or GPU dependent or both. But regardless of your choice there will be a bottleneck

RCFProd · Sep 19, 2015

Ofcourse. By the way, the GTX 960 2GB does ultra in Battlefield 4 (With no higher than 2X MSAA) at 60 fps. Great balance is everything at HIGH, HBAO and 2x MSAA in BF4 which will result in the game looking very good and consistenly easily over 60 fps. Very good GPU.

jakegroves · Sep 19, 2015

RCFProd :

I see, i didn't bother checking and cannot remember the performance of the card on it. But fair enough, i would personally of went with the R2 build.
Apologies if it felt like i was being abrupt and argumentative, was just trying to get my point across.

Vic 40 · Sep 19, 2015

jakegroves :

I never told the OP to do that or even you.My point was that you call gpu's poor when they aren't.Your flaunting with some not really relevant knowledge by correcting people with it and i wanted to say stop doing that.I mean those facts about the gtx 970.Whatever they are it's still a very good gpu and Kunkkaaaa was in his intentions right and with his choice of hardware as well regardless of the link he posted.

I support the choice for the 4790K with the gtx970 to be clear.

jakegroves :

You mean buy that book? :lol:

thisdugan · Sep 19, 2015

The GTX 970 is a much better option. Arguing about bottle necking will not change that. The new skylake i7 is ONLY better in synthetic benchmarks. The 970 + 4770k will be faster than the 6700k + 960 in a video game. Just because a 960 is a good card does NOT mean it is as good as a 970. I can't believe this is even in question...

Vic 40 · Sep 19, 2015

thisdugan :

It isn't. I'm arguing about how and what kind of things are said here.Saying that the gtx 960 is a "poor" card isn't right as well.

Probably getting abit of topic with that,but couldn't resist.

thisdugan · Sep 19, 2015

Fair enough, agreed.

Vic 40 · Sep 19, 2015

Thank you.

i7 4790k GTX 970 SC vs. i7 6700k GTX 960

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