Intel 6700k vs 6600k with modern games

ShadowOdysseus

Honorable
Apr 23, 2014
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I'm working on a new build, and I have run into the modern classic of i5 vs i7. If I dont get the i7, I will put the extra money towards sleeved cables or a fast and small ssd. Is it worth spending that 100 instead on i7 for that extra little bit.
 
Solution
Few games can use more than 2-3 threads, so the extra hyperthreads of the I7 will go largely unused.
The 6600K can be overclocked to the same limits as the 6700K.
As of 5/2016
What percent can get an overclock at a somewhat sane 1.40v Vcore.

I5-6600K
5.0 2%
4.9 11%
4.8 36%
4.7 64%
4.6 88%

I7-6700K
4.9 2%
4.8 17%
4.7 59%
4.6 93%
4.5 100%

And.. 14nm skylake actually runs cool.
Heat comes from excessive vcore when overclocking.
I find a Noctua NH-U12s to be entirely adequate for a I6-6600K@4.8.

FWIW.
I will never again build without a ssd for the "C" drive. It makes everything you do much quicker.
120gb is minimum, it will hold the os and a handful of games. If you can go 240gb, or 500gb you may never need a hard drive...
What is your build budget? I can put something together for you.
Are you overclocking?
What form factor do you prefer?
It is most definitely worth spending that money on an SSD and i5 instead of an i7 if it is primarily a midrange gaming rig.
An i7 isn't worth it unless you're going into 1080 territory and have the money to blow.
 
Few games can use more than 2-3 threads, so the extra hyperthreads of the I7 will go largely unused.
The 6600K can be overclocked to the same limits as the 6700K.
As of 5/2016
What percent can get an overclock at a somewhat sane 1.40v Vcore.

I5-6600K
5.0 2%
4.9 11%
4.8 36%
4.7 64%
4.6 88%

I7-6700K
4.9 2%
4.8 17%
4.7 59%
4.6 93%
4.5 100%

And.. 14nm skylake actually runs cool.
Heat comes from excessive vcore when overclocking.
I find a Noctua NH-U12s to be entirely adequate for a I6-6600K@4.8.

FWIW.
I will never again build without a ssd for the "C" drive. It makes everything you do much quicker.
120gb is minimum, it will hold the os and a handful of games. If you can go 240gb, or 500gb you may never need a hard drive.

I would defer on the hard drive unless you need to store large files such as video's.
It is easy to add a hard drive later.
Samsung EVO is a good choice.
 
Solution


You can't overclock non-k processors unless you have the AsRock K4 Hyper series.
Even then the only CPU I would recommend doing this with is the i5 6500 or the 6600, as the 6400 will not be a good overclocker due to its design of low voltage draw and temperatures over performance, hence its lower clock speed.
It is essentially a lower binned i5 6600 for example.
Asus motherboards are perfectly fine, they are very good in most cases.
 


That means that the CPU is suffering from instability due to higher voltages/clocks than it can handle.
You should know by following an overclocking guide that this means that you have essentially hit your limit when you cannot achieve a stable clock no matter the voltage supplied to the CPU. Revert to your last stable clock and then some in order to achieve your final speed. Adjust voltage accordingly.
 

I would say that 250GB is the min for SSDs, the OS can grow in size to hit what I have found to be an average of about 100-120GB of space. Add to this the fact that games are increasing in size nowadays, and its not hard to see why a 250GB may be needed.
Also yes, the 6600k can overclock to match the i7 6700k in most applications, save for those which utilize hyperthreading, where the i7 gains an advantage in speed and stability due to the extra virtual threads.
A much better option economically to pick up a Z170 board and a 6600k.
 
Why not just get a 6700? If not overclocking you can buy a cheaper motherboard and use stock/cheaper cooler. Overclocking in gaming PC's only returns material gains in high fps builds so unless running a 120/144Hz you won't notice the loss in cpu Ghz, even with a 120/144Hz OC'ing the gains are game specific and not that big.