Age old question... Skylake vs. Haswell-E for pure-gaming - which one?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
bloom691

bloom691

Honorable
Nov 18, 2013
11
0
10,520
Hello!

After about a year I am ready to buy a new gaming rig. I just play games - Elite : Dangerous (with an Occulus Rift) is my favorite right now. I need something with some serious GPU oompf, so I know I will be starting with a single 980ti and maybe adding a second in SLI - although one is probably enough. I would certainly like the option of dual SLI "just in case".

Pricing between the system's seem very similar. So which do I get?

Choice #1 - i7-5820K (so an X99 system)

Choice #2 - i7-6700K (so a Z170 system)


5820K Pro's - option to upgrade to 40 PCIe lanes with a 5930K. Bigger Cache. Not wasting silicon die area with an on-board GPU I will never use. 6 physical cores must be better than 4? :)

6700K Pro's - faster clock, maybe much easier to over-clock (if needed) and may run cooler. I like the thought of 14nm - better technology? ;)


So I am really stuck! I know either are probably fine, but does a faster clock now outweigh a possible second GPU PCIe lane-benefit later? Or is the lane-bandwidth not really going to show up in a dual-SLI system?

Any thoughts please - I am ready to hit "buy" today and hopefully have the rig up-and-running in just a couple of days.

Thanks,

Mark


 
Solution
Forever Oleg
At PURE gaming, then i7-6700K. It will also allow for faster DDR4 RAM. It is also 14nm process. It also has faster single thread performance. It also produces less heat and uses less power.

i7-5820K is not worth buying now to upgrade to i7-5830K. That's just wasting money. Also, single GPUs are always better so if you wanna game hard, get a single powerful GPU first like a 980 Ti, and then upgrade if you need to. Z170 boards can use one GPU at x16 speed (normal speed) and the second one at x8 speed (half the speed)
Sort by date Sort by votes
thor220

thor220

Splendid
Dec 15, 2009
4,025
2
23,965
The 5820k not only has 6 cores but 12 threads. It'll definitely run better in anything that's threaded and be very close to the 6700k in single threaded. Unless you're running single threaded applications or games, the 5820k is hard to beat.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dudeman509

Dignified
Jan 23, 2015
4,077
35
17,040
Gaming alone - go for the Skylake build. 4 (fast) cores + HT will be more than enough for any game for the next 3+ years.

However, if you do editing, streaming, or anything that could really take advantage of having 2 more physical cores on a CPU, then go for the 5920.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Forever Oleg

Forever Oleg

Admirable
Jul 15, 2015
3,283
0
8,960
At PURE gaming, then i7-6700K. It will also allow for faster DDR4 RAM. It is also 14nm process. It also has faster single thread performance. It also produces less heat and uses less power.

i7-5820K is not worth buying now to upgrade to i7-5830K. That's just wasting money. Also, single GPUs are always better so if you wanna game hard, get a single powerful GPU first like a 980 Ti, and then upgrade if you need to. Z170 boards can use one GPU at x16 speed (normal speed) and the second one at x8 speed (half the speed)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
Supermuncher85

Supermuncher85

Distinguished
Aug 18, 2010
1,685
0
20,160
If you do ANYTHING but gaming, the 5820k stomps in multi threaded. The prices are pretty much the same so I went 5820k and I think it's just amazing. As always depends on your use but having 10+sata ports and 12 threads is amazing.

So if you only game, 6700k. If you transcode etc. the extra 2 cores are errrrrmmaaazziinnggg (also more ram if you need it).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
thor220

thor220

Splendid
Dec 15, 2009
4,025
2
23,965


Even for gaming, a good chunk of modern games can use all those threads. Of course, I doubt you'll see this CPU reach 100% utilization.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom