If no overclocking is involved, is 5820K still better than 6700K for streaming at Twitch?

The i7 has less cores but more preformance per core so that would be good for games, the 5820k has ore cores which would benifit streaming more but as the i7 6700k is strong enough for gaming and streaming at the same time too you would see much of a difference

It is a challenge to give a definite answer, because most people in you situation would be overclocking !!

Two more cores will help, but the i7 5820K will be around 20 to 25% slower per core, some due to clock speed 3.3/3.6 vs 4.0/4.4, and the rest due to Haswell to Skylake differences.

Without overclocking, the throughput of the i7 5820K will be higher, by a bit, but the speed lower. A 6 lane freeway at 100kph vs a 4 lane freeway at 125kph.

I would vote the 5820K over the 4790K but not the 6700K.

How likely is expanding to editing and other non-gaming stuff over the life of the system. This probability shifts in favor of the 5820K.

6 x 3.3 Ghz cores, with 1 and a bit cores of Turbo Boost, vs 4 x 4Ghz cores, with 1 and a bit cores of turbo boost, and a 10 to 15% core advantage for the Skylake sounds reasonable to me.

Of course, if you overclocked the i7 580K to 4.2GhZ

That isn't an accurate statement by any means, for one thing not every game is optimized off of the cpu. You can't expect every game to behave the same way with a cpu o.c.

What you should've noticed is the fact that the o.c. made the frames dip less, and retain higher more stable frames. Not maximum frame rate overall. If you compare an oced 5820k in say fallout 4 which is cpu intesnive you'd even see a noticeable rise in frame rates. To say overclocking does little to nothing in streaming and editing is also nonsensical, heck when you oc a 6 core chip the biggest, noticeable gains should be in vm's and rendering.

Another thing o.p. you can't really compare a 5820k and a 6700k as their completely different micro arch. I personally find the videos by digital foundry to be much more revealing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDo-j00vUtw
6700k/6500k oc vs non oc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sx1kLGVAF0
6700k/4790k/3700k/2700k difference

granted the benchmarks are done on a titan to maximize any bottlenecks but the general concept should be the same across the board.
Single core throughput is going to be substantially higher on a 6700k compared to a 5820k, and it again really comes down to the kind of software you're running.

Also if you're afraid of ocing newer mobos have actual auto o.c. software built in all you do is download the driver off the included driver disk and press a button. Just make sure that you have a decent air or water after market cooler put on and it'll do the rest sure it'll be a bit bullish and to get a true o.c. you will have to fine tune it if you want to push all the pony's, but it'll give you a rough estimate at little to no expense.

Okay then, I stand correct! OCed CPU will benefit the CPU more.

My initial questions remains - assuming I prefer not to OC at all (not in the near future, at least) and plan to stream almost on a daily basis, is 5820K the better choice? Even more, is it worth taking 5820K just for its OC potential?
(I even found more benchmarks)

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Well for starters what you're talking about is a kind of grey area. The thing with ocing is that you don't know how far you can push a chip so you might a 1% 5820k with insanely good temps and a great oc, but the general consensus over ocing is that the 6700k is a pretty great oc and you'll generally get a high oc as opposed to a 5820k. Which may not be as great for the simple fact, when you're ocing a 5820k, you're ocing multiple cores 6 vs 4. 6 cores create much more heat so the o.c. won't be as high gigahertz wise as a 6700k, but in multi tasking applications like running a ton of stuff at once or video rendering the 5820k should pull a head, now i don't know whether the single core performance and the updated micro architecture will give the 6700k that much of an edge over 6 cores. But at least in pure performance (rendering/virtual machines) it shouldn't pull ahead. But in games generally a 6700k will do better. Will the difference be massive no as you're comparing only two gens behind, but their is a difference. That said it also depends on the kind of games you play.

If you play games like civ or total war rome 2 things of that nature rts's with a lot of things going on at once, then 5820k would have distinct lead over the 6700k in those specific situations.

If I go for 6700, I will get Maximus VIII Hero, but if I choose 5820K over Skylake, my motherboard will be modest because of the X99 prices. I was thinking about Asus X99-A (with 3.1), is it considered to be a good and a stable one when it comes to OCing (you know, in case I will OC)? Should I search for other X99 motherboard that has more phases?


Honestly unless you're doing heavy rendering you don't need all the fancy bells and whistles that x-99 platform offers. I had to make the same decision between the z170-a from asus and the deluxe, the deluxe offers a bunch of features, but the core features between the z170-a and the deluxe are the same, all the same thermals same heatsinks save the little extra water cooled heatsink for the chipset itself which is a deluxe only feature. Really if you're going to drop big cash like that i'd look into making it aesthetically pleasing something you will enjoy looking at, because at a certain price point all mobos will pretty much be identical. It's just giving up that extra little bits here and their maybe you'll only 32 gb of max ram instead of 64 or one less m.2 port. If their are features you know for a fact you won't use then you don't need them. I mean if a pigs got lipstick on it it's still a pig.

I am leaning towards 5820K, but every time I remember that 6700K is much more updated (and as a bonus, with a more attractive mobo), I am getting confused all over again. However, your comments do help me so thanks again

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Really it comes down to useability, you know what you're gonna use the pc for if you're gonna play games more then render videos go for the 6700k, if you're gonna be running a ton of applications vm's and render a ton 5820k's an excellent choice. Maybe streaming would work better with a 5820k? So why not go for that i mean it'll at least spread the load across 6 cores as opposed to 4.

Also what we're here for giving our opinions however wrong or right they may be to the best of our abilities.

Another question: let's say I do try to OC but don't like the voltage, is returning to stock speed will be as if I didn't try to OC at all? If OCing might damage the CPU (even in terms of too much voltage or whatever), will cancelling it (sort of like undoing all the changes) will actually be as if I haven't touched the CPU? Is it even possible to undo OC?
(Sorry if my questions are ridiculous. As you can see, I know nothing when it comes to OC)

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Well it depends, if you crank the voltage up superhigh when doing an o.c. and you don't have the proper cooler say a stock one, or even then it could potentially fry something. You have to remember to do it in increments, feed the power until you get to a point where it's no longer stable and just crashes, then start dialing it down or the clock down, maybe find a clock you want to achieve and slowly dial it up. Their's plenty of good oc guides all over toms hardware. Plus generally cpu venders are a bit better about you frying your stuff from ocing. Plus if you don't trust yourself i know for a fact that gigabyte,asus, and msi all offer their own priopraitry one touch o.c. software, just dial in the little checkmarks on the kind of cooler you have and it should give you a rough o.c. If you don't like it or feel its too high you can just dial it down.

Right back to the original topic, if you overvolt a cpu and then try to undervolt it if the damage is already done it's done, theirs no way to fix it if something gets fried. Just keep it within the max temp guidelines of the cpu, push it above and you're killing your cpu life span. Just know you're not guaranteed a good o.c. as by definition you're pushing something past it's specs. Anyway GL with the buy. May the silicone gods be in your favor.

Just to clarify things, fudgecakes99 is simplifying things because it is hard to be technically exact and intelligible at the same time.

If you use too much voltage at too high a temperature, it degrades your CPU; the longer you do it, the more it degrades. The effect of this degradation is to require more voltage to maintain the same speed (which speeds up degradation further). Then I started with my i5 4690K, I could get 4.8Ghz ay 1.373 Vcore, and sensible temperatures. After a month of use and testing, I needed 1.378 Vcore for stability. I read the warning signs, and now run the chip at 1.283 Vcore and 4.6Ghz and it tested stable in the weekend after three months.

'Frying' is a bit of hyperbole. It could happen but it is VERY unlikely.

You also need to consider memory speed too. The 5820K is good for memory up to 2666Mhz easily, but beyond that things get a little funky. (for complex technical reasons, if you want to know) The 6700K can use faster memory.

To answer you real question fully will require more time for us to see how the 6700K 'technosystem' handles tasks and works in the long term. All we have is the initial impressions. It's only been out a couple of months and all the ballots have yet to arrive at the counting office.

Because of the nature of the 5820K, being the lowest rated of its series, essentially all X99 boards are good for what you want to do. 'Budget' means a different thing here, like a 'budget' Formula 1 car.


It will be completely safe to overclock the 5820K to at least 4.0 to 4.1Ghz (25% faster) at a Vcore of around 1.200V and using standard 'big air' cooling.

No. 2666 is fine. It's more than that that can make things tricky.

Yes. Having found 4.3 is OK, running at, say 4.1, is fine, save, and what most people do. As I said, I my i5 will do 4.8, but I run it at 4.6 to prolong its life and there is no negative to the chip for that.

For PSU, the 5820 is a 140W chip and will use more when overclocked, the 6700 is only a 91W chip.

I'd make an easy decision and go with the EVGA 110-B2-0750-VR. It's a Tier 2 PSU, and can usually be found in the USA at between $45 and $60. Unless there is a super deal elsewhere, it is usually the best PSU available in that price range, without consideration for Wattage, and it is semi-modular. 750W is more than you need, but this will allow for the future.

If you keep your voltage reasonable, within 1.2-1.4 you should be fine for any o.c. Granted the higher the o.c. the more juice needed to keep it stable. So maybe go in increments of .01 to start with or whatever your comfortable with. Look at the intel specs to, other people o.c.s to get a guesstimate about what you can expect at what relative volt.

Regarding power managment, an r9 390 has a rec. spec of 500 watts you have 650, in my opinion you want to go at least over spec by 50 at most or what i recommend 100, you're at 150 so you can do a fairly decent o.c. But theirs plenty of programs online that can give you a more dollars to donuts conversion of power usage.

Why did i choose a 6700k? I had an old nehalem i7 870 one of the first if not the first of the i7 lines. Just time to change it when i upgraded from my 7950 to a 980 ti. Why not do the whole thing as well. Did notice a fairly big difference over my 5 year old chip. I mean i guess newer games made me change it? I know what i'm gonna use my pc for, and a i don't really need 6 cores, don't really render/photoshop. Again just weigh what you're and aren't gonna do. Maybe even flip a coin, if you're that conflicted really you can't go wrong with either chip. Though if you're asking why i choose an intel chip over amd, thats because no amd chip is near intel at the moment maybe when zen drops they'll get back into the game, but for now intel has almost a monopoly on performance.

Keep the 650. It will run your CPU, with overclocking, and the GPU you plan, to use and it is very good. Once you have your system going, keep an eye out for friends that would like to have you help them build a cool computer like yours. You may be able to sell them your lightly-used parts (fully tested, of course ) as you upgrade.

650 watt psu is plenty for a decent oc on gpu and cpu, it's plenty though if you want to run sli yes you're gonna need a bigger psu, i'd wadger 140 watt for an 5820k 12-15 watts per drive you add. 2 drives 30 watts. 170 watts, Assume you got 4 fans 6 watts a fan 24 watts so 194 watts. 300 from the non oc gpu 494. you got plenty of room for ocing. Granted it's a rough guesstimate.

Regarding dx12 i wouldn't expect any massive benefits for multi core cpu's or cpu's in general. I'm thinking somewhere in the realm of maybe 2-4 fps gains with it. The real important part is that mix and match gpu's which i find highly unlikely, as theirs no way those to companies would be ok with that in my mind. If it does happen, i don't even want to think about how they'd implement the support for it. More likely and more useable in my opinion is mixing and matching nvidia with a different nvidia or amd with an amd. So they'd have to be cards that support full dx12 i'm wondering if having the same gpu chipset so maybe a ti with a titan black gm200 chips. Or a fury x with a fury maybe an r9 390. Though 390 is still using the old slightly modified Tahiti chip set.

I hope i'm wrong. But regarding who to choose as a best answer i think i can speak for both donkey and i when i say, it doesn't matter, i mean as long as you have a more informed decision about what to choose it's fine with me whomever you choose. Heck flip a coin i call heads. GL with build.

Yes. It's all about helping people.

Aio are alright, swiftech makes a good aio with possible custom rad support. So you can make it into a open loop. Their are also plenty of closed loop and air coolers. If you go the way of custom though know it's going to cost quite a bit. And the price v performance ratio is definitely not worth it. Granted it's the only way to get the most out of your cpu.

depends on the oc. If it's over the recommended voltage or the heats above a certain threshold yes. It'll shorten the life span by a margin. How long i can't say but it'll be shorter if it's not oced properly.