When to buy Intel I7 4960x

Jack_122 · Apr 23, 2016

Hi everyone,

I'm going to upgrade my CPU to an Intel I7 4960x soon and I've been doing a bit of reading into it and was wondering if you could shine any light on the matter for me.

Basically I'm going to pick one up second hand, but as I understand it from seeing Intel's roadmap there are going to be new generations of CPU coming out this year. I think there are three sets coming out.

I was wondering if you know when those sets are coming out or when CPUs are generally released as I haven't been in a position in which I've learned when releases generally are yet. My plan is once the first or second release of new CPUs hit the market, I'll pick up the 4960x when people upgrade.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

ThePurpleJay · Apr 23, 2016

Jack_122 :

Dear Jack,

An i7-4960X? It's pretty outdated. Gets outperformed by a 5820K in multiple tasks. What you want is one of the new Broadwell-E chips (wait a little more) or get a 5820K now, as it is one of the best price-to-performance upgrades for a hexa-core chip.

Hope this was helpful.

Jack_122 · Apr 23, 2016

ThePurpleJay :

Really? I do a lot of video editing and right now I've got a 3820 maxing out under certain tasks. I really thought the 4960x was an absolute beast in general.

When do you expect the Broadwell-E chips? I imagine they will push prices down of the 5820k and others. The thing is though, is that I'd then have to upgrade my entire mobo from my LGA 2011 Sabertooth. That's going to cost even more! I reckon I could pick up a 4960x for £200-£400 second hand.

Are there any decent but affordable boards around for the 5820k?

ThePurpleJay · Apr 23, 2016

Jack_122 :

ThePurpleJay :

Really? I do a lot of video editing and right now I've got a 3820 maxing out under certain tasks. I really thought the 4960x was an absolute beast in general.

When do you expect the Broadwell-E chips? I imagine they will push prices down of the 5820k and others. The thing is though, is that I'd then have to upgrade my entire mobo from my LGA 2011 Sabertooth. That's going to cost even more! I reckon I could pick up a 4960x for £200-£400 second hand.

Are there any decent but affordable boards around for the 5820k?

I reckon the Broadwell-E chips would be coming around Q2 this year (like the summer or something). I heard there's gonna be a 10-core 6950X, which is gonna be absolute badass, but it's gonna cost a FORTUNE.

Anyways, a decent affordable board would be the MSI X99 Sli Krait, around $250. I'm going to the bathroom now, we'll chat again.

Ecky · Apr 23, 2016

I think you're actually on the right track. A 4930K or 4960X would offer you 50% more cores, without the need of replacing your motherboard and thus needing to reinstall Windows.

The best place to get one of these CPUs today is eBay, since they're discontinued. 4930K is currently going for around $350 on eBay.

It's worth noting that the i7 5820K is faster, and can be purcahsed new for only $390, but you'd need a new motherboard and RAM for it. I don't think an entire platform is justified for the small performance difference Haswell brings over Ivy Bridge, unless you also want some of the other things a platform upgrade brings.

Jack_122 · Apr 23, 2016

Ecky :

Is there much difference between the 4930k and 4960x? I've read there's little difference. Also what's your view on this being very outdated as the previous poster commented?

Would I really have to buy new RAM too?! I didn't realise you would be forced to use DDR 4 RAM, am I right in understanding that's what you mean? I couldn't just use mine Corsair Vengeance 1866 RAM on a new board?

Lastly, how small a difference in performance would the upgrade to the 5820k yield and would it be a considerable increase in performance coming from my 3820 to a 4930k?

ThePurpleJay · Apr 23, 2016

Jack_122 :

Actually, when you get Haswell-E chips such as the 5820K, you're gonna have to use DDR4 RAM. I hate to break it to ya, but it's true. You might wanna sell those RAM sticks if you're gonna get the 5820K.

On the bright side however, some DDR4-2400 RAM sells at the same price of DDR3-1866 RAM, which is a pretty distant clock speed if you ask me for the same price.

Ecky · Apr 23, 2016

The difference is 100mhz, which is inconsequential - maybe 2%.

LGA2011 is a 4.5 year old socket. Being old isn't an issue in and of itself, but the CPUs and motherboards are no longer in production, which would make it a poor choice if you were building from scratch. Since you already own a 2011 board though, an upgrade seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Compared with a 2011v3 or socket 1151 CPU, you're going to miss out on some things like M.2 sockets, USB 3.1, and will be using DDR3 instead of DDR4 (which isn't an issue since you already have DDR3 RAM). The 5820K is 5-10% faster per clock, also, but that's minor.

DDR4 is used on Intel's socket 2011v3 (what the 5820K uses) and socket 1151. If you stick with your current board and just upgrade your CPU, you can, of course, still use your existing RAM. All you need to do is drop the new CPU into the socket. If you move to a new board, you'll need new DDR4 RAM.

I don't think a 5820K is worth the extra cost of replacing your motherboard, personally. Go with the 4930K.

ThePurpleJay · Apr 23, 2016

Ecky :

The difference is 100mhz, which is inconsequential - maybe 2%.

LGA2011 is a 4.5 year old socket. Being old isn't an issue in and of itself, but the CPUs and motherboards are no longer in production, which would make it a poor choice if you were building from scratch. Since you already own a 2011 board though, an upgrade seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Compared with a 2011v3 or socket 1151 CPU, you're going to miss out on some things like M.2 sockets, USB 3.1, and will be using DDR3 instead of DDR4 (which isn't an issue since you already have DDR3 RAM). The 5820K is 5-10% faster per clock, also, but that's minor.

DDR4 is used on Intel's socket 2011v3 (what the 5820K uses) and socket 1151. If you stick with your current board and just upgrade your CPU, you can, of course, still use your existing RAM. All you need to do is drop the new CPU into the socket. If you move to a new board, you'll need new DDR4 RAM.

I don't think a 5820K is worth the extra cost of replacing your motherboard, personally. Go with the 4930K.

That might be true, but DDR3 is getting obsolete faster than DDR4, but if the OP wants to go with the 4930K, he/she can go right ahead.

Ecky · Apr 23, 2016

OP already has a bunch of DDR3 sticks, and in quad channel, it's not going to be a problem. DDR4 is minimally faster, and I would not bother replacing motherboard and RAM for the sake of a few percent (tops) extra performance.

ThePurpleJay · Apr 23, 2016

Ecky :

I guess you're right. The prices for DDR4 over 2400 MHz is absurd compared to DDR3. I might of missed mentioning that. I guess we should let the other person get a 4930K.

Jack_122 · Apr 23, 2016

I've got 16gb of RAM so far and I was thinking I could double that and get an upgrade on the the CPU as I've maxed both out. Will I notice much of a difference between my current CPU's performance and the 4930k?

The thing is, whilst DDR3 may be getting more obsolete, I feel like there may be more pressing matters to attend to. I don't have the finances to do a super-massive overhaul and my system at the moment isn't struggling a huge amount, it's only during certain processes. So I figure if I RAM up, upgrade the CPU and eventually GPU this will give my system a few more years. Then I can properly invest in moving forwards onto more recent boards and RAM etc and it'll likely be a lot more cost efficient too.

Does that sound reasonable to you?

Ecky · Apr 23, 2016

A 4930K has 50% more cores, so anything that can fully utilize 12 threads will show benefit from the extra cores. Most video editing software will take advantage of the extra cores.

I'd argue that there isn't anything specifically obsolete about DDR3 in terms of performance - DDR3 1866 performs the same as DDR4 2133. It's just that manufacturers are moving over to DDR4 now, so DDR3 will begin gradually rising in price, and DDR4, gradually falling. DDR4 uses a bit less voltage, and can clock higher down the road, and I expect is probably a little cheaper to manufacture too, which is why they're moving over to it.

ThePurpleJay · Apr 23, 2016

Ecky :

A 4930K has 50% more cores, so anything that can fully utilize 12 threads will show benefit from the extra cores. Most video editing software will take advantage of the extra cores.

I'd argue that there isn't anything specifically obsolete about DDR3 in terms of performance - DDR3 1866 performs the same as DDR4 2133. It's just that manufacturers are moving over to DDR4 now, so DDR3 will begin gradually rising in price, and DDR4, gradually falling. DDR4 uses a bit less voltage, and can clock higher down the road, and I expect is probably a little cheaper to manufacture too, which is why they're moving over to it.

Precisely.

Jack_122 · Apr 23, 2016

As always, thank you for being so helpful

ThePurpleJay · Apr 23, 2016

Jack_122 :

What can we say? It's the PC community

Jack_122 · Apr 23, 2016

You got that right matey

- Whilst I've got you, the 4930k will open up my RAM to 1866 yeah? I read that my current CPU cannot handle 1866.

ThePurpleJay · Apr 23, 2016

Jack_122 :

The 4930K will handle DDR3-1866 fine and good matey. Check out Intel's specs page on it. (It's reliable because it's Intel's own page):

http://ark.intel.com/products/77780/Intel-Core-i7-4930K-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz

Jack_122 · Apr 23, 2016

Thank you

When to buy Intel I7 4960x

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