I'm wanting to build a new PC, and I know this subject has been discussed several times. But honestly is the i7 6700k worth buting over the i5 6600k? I have the extra $100 it would take to buy the i7 and I'm wanting to make this build last me for a while. The main question I have is do games even benefit from the extra threads or will they at all in the future? I've been seeing sometimes up to a 10fps difference between the two on benchmark videos on YouTube. The main game I'm worried about for choosing the best cpu is ArmA 3. But I'm not wanting to be limited to that game if that makes sense. When I get this PC built I'd like to expand my games to Battlefield 1, Battlefield 4, and games in "that" category. I'm pretty set on the i7, but just wondering if it's truly worth it. Looking for advice/reassurance.
i5 vs i7 does HT matter for gaming
- Thread starter Jared_15
- Start date
Solution
If you have the choice between, say, a 6600K and a 1080 or a 6700K and a 1070, the one with the better GPU is the better gaming PC. The 6600K isn't going to bottleneck any GPUs so you have no worry there.
A large part of the difference between the 6600K and the 6700K isn't the HT -- it's the fact the 6700K is a 4.0GHz part and the 6600K is a 3.5GHz part. That's a 14% difference. Personally, I'd say get the 6600K and O/C it a bit to bring it up to 4.0GHz and you should find that HT doesn't do much of anything for games since few games can use more than 4 threads anyways.
A large part of the difference between the 6600K and the 6700K isn't the HT -- it's the fact the 6700K is a 4.0GHz part and the 6600K is a 3.5GHz part. That's a 14% difference. Personally, I'd say get the 6600K and O/C it a bit to bring it up to 4.0GHz and you should find that HT doesn't do much of anything for games since few games can use more than 4 threads anyways.
Ryan_78
Honorable
- Jan 17, 2016
- 2,019
- 0
- 12,960
1. Most games will do just fine on ultra on that quad core i5. There is not a huge difference over the i7 when gaming. Mostly only a few fps. And four intel cores and the ability to overclock make the extra 100$ seem useless
2. Only get the i7 if you plan on streaming heavily and editing/rendering. The i7 has 8 threads over 4 which editing and streaming will hugely benefit from. But also you can overclock.
3. If you do it plan to overclock, consider a Xeon E2 1231 V3 or 1230 V5. Both are quad core hyperthreaded, and at 3.4 ghz it almost matches clock for clock of the i7 6700, no k. It is as good as a 4770. But I cannot overclock. Streaming and editing still benefits from this over the i5 6600k.
4. So it's up to you what you do. If you don't stream and only game the 6600k, streaming and editing the 6700k or E3
2. Only get the i7 if you plan on streaming heavily and editing/rendering. The i7 has 8 threads over 4 which editing and streaming will hugely benefit from. But also you can overclock.
3. If you do it plan to overclock, consider a Xeon E2 1231 V3 or 1230 V5. Both are quad core hyperthreaded, and at 3.4 ghz it almost matches clock for clock of the i7 6700, no k. It is as good as a 4770. But I cannot overclock. Streaming and editing still benefits from this over the i5 6600k.
4. So it's up to you what you do. If you don't stream and only game the 6600k, streaming and editing the 6700k or E3
photonboy
Titan
- Jun 20, 2006
- 21,567
- 13
- 85,015
1) Currently very rarely.
2) In the future it's very difficult to say. The code for DX12 and Vulkan will be more efficient so you need less CPU cycles to do the same thing. It also allows you to potentially use almost 100% of the four cores (many games can only approximately 70% or less, though some manage to use 90%, but not many).
So in theory the i5-6600K is plenty.
However... there's a strong chance developers will find ways to utilize those cores such as physics, artificial intelligence etc. so nobody can truly answer that question.
3) So based on your total comment I'd say get the i7-6700K.
4) It does benefit converting videos using programs like HANDBRAKE. I can use almost 100% of my i7-3770K's eight threads. Total time savings is about 20% likely (because it doesn't use all threads the entire time). It could go higher than that.
Max benefit is probably 30% to 40%.
Update:
Avoid the Xeon processors. You can find some value if heavily editing for one that's similar cost to an i5-6600K however the i5 will overclock more which is going to benefit you most often.
It works out that a Xeon of the same architecture at 3.8GHz rarely beats an i5-6600K at 4.4GHz. But the i5 definitely wins much of the time.
2) In the future it's very difficult to say. The code for DX12 and Vulkan will be more efficient so you need less CPU cycles to do the same thing. It also allows you to potentially use almost 100% of the four cores (many games can only approximately 70% or less, though some manage to use 90%, but not many).
So in theory the i5-6600K is plenty.
However... there's a strong chance developers will find ways to utilize those cores such as physics, artificial intelligence etc. so nobody can truly answer that question.
3) So based on your total comment I'd say get the i7-6700K.
4) It does benefit converting videos using programs like HANDBRAKE. I can use almost 100% of my i7-3770K's eight threads. Total time savings is about 20% likely (because it doesn't use all threads the entire time). It could go higher than that.
Max benefit is probably 30% to 40%.
Update:
Avoid the Xeon processors. You can find some value if heavily editing for one that's similar cost to an i5-6600K however the i5 will overclock more which is going to benefit you most often.
It works out that a Xeon of the same architecture at 3.8GHz rarely beats an i5-6600K at 4.4GHz. But the i5 definitely wins much of the time.
Let's say for the sake of argument I found an i7 6700k in box on eBay for $299. Would this be a bad idea coming from eBay or not? Here's the link http://m.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Boxed-Core-I7-6700K-4-00-GHz-8M-Processor-Cache-4-LGA-1151-/301881159030?nav=SEARCH
I'd definitely choose the 6700k + 1070 due to the fact that you'll likely buy 2-3 GPU's in the liftet ime of that CPU choice. A slightly lesser GPU for better CPU performance over the next few GPU's should be a sound choice. More and more AAA titles make use of the i7. It's seen mostly in the minimums.
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