Intel Gaming Question

Howy_F · Apr 25, 2016

So im looking at getting an Intel based gaming rig. I was looking between the i5 6600K and the i7 6700K.
mainly what i do is game, stream, record videos and edit with after effects and of course render said video, i also do some 3d motion tracking but nothing fancy, and a few other things like audio and photo editing.

The games i play:
GTA5
The Witcher 3
Battlefield Hardline
and Doom when it releases.

Is it worth the extra money to get the i7 or will the i5 suffice enough.

Ecky · Apr 25, 2016

Rendering and editing are improved with the i7, but an i5 is still respectable in these tasks.

Food for thought: Do you plan to overclock? An i7 6700 + H170 motherboard can be purchased for around the same price as a 6600K + Z170 motherboard + aftermarket heatsink.

AUnlikelyPotatoe · Apr 25, 2016

Well, the i5 is great for most things, but editing and streaming will Benefit from an i7

Howy_F · Apr 25, 2016

Well i was looking at getting the MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition so i can run dual GTX 980 cards. as far as OC goes im looking at the Corsair Hydro H80i

AUnlikelyPotatoe · Apr 25, 2016

Btw, I have that motherboard and it is great, get it

Howy_F · Apr 25, 2016

yeah ive always gone to MSI. ive never had a problem with them. i cant say much about other Manufacturers as ive mainly stuck to MSI but like i said, ive never had a problem with msi. however though im not a fan of ASUS anyways. BUT does that board support 3 way SLI though

Ecky · Apr 25, 2016

Corsair H80i is too much to spend on a cooler, IMO. With the extra money spent on cooling, you could just about afford to upgrade to Intel's 6-core i7 5820K.

I recommend going with something more like the $35 Cryorig H7. Even with that heatsink, you'll run into a 6600K's voltage wall before temperatures get too high. Anything more than that is a waste.

Howy_F · Apr 25, 2016

plus on top of that will my current Thermaltake 650 Watt support an i7 with dual 980s

Howy_F · Apr 25, 2016

Ecky :

So will the Heatsink work with a i7 if i choose the i7. and how low can i keep the temps under heavy load

Ecky · Apr 25, 2016

Depends on how far you overclock it, but the i7's max temp is 100c. It will happily run at 80c+ for longer than you'll want to keep the computer.

I expect with a Cryorig H7 you can stay well below 80c, even with a hefty 4.6-4.8ghz OC, which is likely all you'll get out of it before moving into definitely-dangerous voltages.

Howy_F · Apr 25, 2016

well i know the i7 runs at the base speed of 4GHz. im wanting to hopefully push it somewhere between 4.7 and 5 GHz so thats why im looking for a liquid cooled Heatsink unless theres another alternative heatsink good enough to handle an OC up to 5GHz given the massive heat production it will make.

Ecky · Apr 25, 2016

Most Skylake CPUs will not hit 4.8-5.0ghz, regardless of what cooler you have, and it's not a matter of heat. Rather, they just stop responding to voltage, and adding more doesn't help. Skylake chips run relatively cool, it's just a limit of the silicon they're made on.

gondo · Apr 26, 2016

What resolution do you plan on running? And what monitor are you using. I'd be tempted to get a single 980ti instead, or look into the AMD 390/390x with a freesync monitor. Unless you already own the dual 980's. If your buying new, consider freesync since they are the more popular and cheaper monitor. Pair it with an AMD card. If you absolutely want NVidia for PhysX or for another reason consider a GSync monitor at a bit higher cost.

I wouldn't recommend the Corsair Hydro. I'd get a good air cooler first. The Intel's can clock quite well on air. If going liquid the minimum I'd get is a good AIO like the Enermax or Fractal Kelvin. I'd personally recommend the EKWB Predator series AIO. Or better yet a kit in a box from EKWB for an open loop. If the cost of the EKWB is too much I'd prefer the air cooler such as a Cryorig or Noctua.

I'd stick to a single card with that 650w PSU. And the I5 will run great. Yes the I7 is faster, but for gaming it won't make much difference. And for editing if you can wait 50 seconds for a task to complete compared to 40 seconds compared to the I7 then what's the difference. For 95% of computing and gaming the I5 will run great and you won't notice the difference. But if you can afford it then go ahead.

With an I5 the money saved can go towards other things like a better video card, larger SSD, etc... For your editing 16GB of RAM compared to 8GB is better. And CPU doesn't always make a big difference with editing. Sometimes it's memory bandwidth and software settings. Get a Z170 board and faster RAM like DDR4-2600 as opposed to 2133. It'll help.

A lot of editing software is not core or CPU dependent. Faster front side bus speeds and memory speeds often make more difference. It depends on your particular software. Not much editing software uses all cores properly which is why AMD does squat with their fake 8 cores. Intel still wins at editing with major programs like Adobe Lightroom, even with half as many cores.

gondo · Apr 26, 2016

Ecky :

Exactly why Intel overclocks quite well on Air. A lot of people don't understand how to overclock properly with all the voltages and do stress tests. A reason why a good PSU and motherboard is required for a good overclock....VOLTAGES. It has nothing to do with heat.

I like the open loop liquid coolers to get the huge heat sink off the motherboard, and to remove the pump from the waterblock like most AIOs. I also like using a waterblock on the video cards. Those things heat like a bitch and cause problems. It also gets rid of the big bulky heatsink and fan combo on the video card so it only takes 1 slot as opposed to 2. Also removing the fans from the video card and CPU reduces your fan exhausts by 1 to further enhance positive air pressure and air flow within the case.

synphul · Apr 26, 2016

Something to keep in mind, 80c+ definitely shouldn't be a 'target' temp for intel cpu's. That's more of a max temp you'd want to see under max load while rendering or under stress testing. 70c or less would be much more preferable for every day use.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

Also make sure the hardware you're considering is compatible, the two cpu's you mentioned are skylake (socket 1151) and the z97s motherboard is a socket 1150 (haswell). If looking at a z series board for skylake make sure it's a z170, not z97 or the cpu and motherboard won't work together. z97 would be for the 4690k or 4790k i5/i7.

Howy_F · Apr 26, 2016

Well i want to run 3 monitors at 4k im sure ill probably need more than a 650Watt PSU for all of that Considering that im leaning twards the i7 2xGTX980's 4k Res and i do want to run VR later on

also im looking at a MSI Krait DDR4 motherboard

Ecky · Apr 26, 2016

Two 980's in SLI will not cut it for multimonitor 4K. In fact, no existing cards, in any quantity, will handle that in modern games. Quad Titan X would likely have trouble.

If you're going to spend multiple thousands of dollars on GPUs and monitors, I'd recommend going for a 6700K, at least, and possibly a 6-core 5820K. The CPU overhead for multiple GPUs is quite a bit higher, and LGA2011v3 has more PCIe lanes, which are essential if you're going to run more than 2 cards.

Howy_F · Apr 26, 2016

well is it still possible to run multi monitors but just run one in 4k for gaming with even one 980 or even 2.

gondo · Apr 26, 2016

Wow your demanding a lot. Here's what you do. Get the I5. You can get the I7 if you want but it really won't make much difference. make sure you get a Z170 board for the PCI-E lanes.

Get a single 980Ti. Get yourself the GSync 144HZ monitor. Or get a 390X and a Freesync 144HZ Monitor. You can get 4k now if you want and the sync will help since you won't hit close to 144fps. Or you could save the money and get 1440p which will perform half decent. if you went 1440p you could save money and just get the 980 instead of the Ti or just the regular 390.

At the end of 2016 or early 2017 Nvidia will release the gaming Pascal cards, and AMD the Vega cards with HBM. Sell your single video card and get one of these. They will be 4k capable. At this point upgrade your 1440p to 4k or add a second 4k if you get a 4k now. My money is going on Freesync as I think GSync will die off. More manufacturers are getting into Freesync especially BenQ and Intel whom both have a lot of push.

Howy_F · Apr 28, 2016

Well after some thinking ive made my decision.

Im going with the i7 6700K, the Z170A GAMING M7 DDR4 mobo, and im going to get a GTX 980(for budget reasons im not wanting to exceed) but will eventually down the road opt in on a newer card that i can save for later on down the road once Nvidia starts releasing new cards. Ive seen a few benchmark videos of the 980 vs 980 Ti and the Ti is better by around 30% or so, so im not to worried. the 390X looks good but the TDP is insane from what ive seen on AMD GPUs. but overall it wont be a bad build in my opinion, it wont be a beast machine most likely, but it will do the job its built for mainly. especially for allot of the game im playing/will be playing that require 2-4 GB of VRAM and with doom coming out next month that i really want to play im going to need a 4GB card. Also as far as the monitor goes ive got 2 1080p monitors but will eventually start replacing with 3 144HZ 1440p ones once a little time has gone by after buying the initial parts for the PC itself

But thank you everyone that has posted ive taken everything into consideration done some more homework on what ive read here and now i just need to start buying the parts and assemble and play.
Again thank you to everyone.

gondo · Apr 28, 2016

With triple 1440p and the new gen cards next year you might be able to do an eyefinity gaming on 3 monitors. The super wide screen thing. It may be powerful enough to push it.

Maybe virtual reality will be better than triple monitors and you'll opt for that. A VR headset is cheaper than 3 monitors.

Jared2606 · Apr 28, 2016

To answer your question, get the i7. It will help a lot.

Intel Gaming Question

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