Intel i5 4690K vs Intel i5 6600K (with motherboard cost in consideration)

Chirven

Commendable
Jul 28, 2016
11
0
1,510
I recently had an issue with my motherboard and instead of replacing the motherboard alone I decided to buy a motherboard that supports an Intel CPU so I could finally replace my AMD fx-6300. I settled with a MSI PC Mate Z97 and a Intel i5 4690K. I already had DDR3 ram so there would be no additional cost with this option. Now I wonder whether I should have gone with the i5 6600K. The price in my country is virtually the same but at the time I dismissed the idea because I wanted a cheaper motherboard and didnt have the money to buy DDR4 ram anyway which is one of the reasons to upgrade to the new skylake processors. I have a feeling I made the wrong decision but I wanted to ask here on the tom's hardware forums if the option to buy the i5 4690K was worth it or whether I should have gone with the i5 6600K. How much of a difference is there between the two options I have mentioned. Thanks in advance.
 
Solution
Performance wise there is minimal loss, they are fairly close to eachother.

However personally I would have gone with the 6600k for the future. DDR4 will be around for a while (as DDR3 has been and still will be) so you can use it in your next build. Also Intel will be releasing another generation of Skylake processors so in a few years if you want more performance the door is still open for an upgrade. Skylake as well (at least the Z170) has more PCIe lanes so when it comes to adding stuff its going to have more room.

At this point if you already have it and can't return it, you didn't fail, you still got a good combo, but looking back you could have done a little better value wise.
I personally would have gone for the i5 6600k simply because of the new architecture. That being said, I don't think you're going to regret your decision, and there's not much difference performance wise between the two. Most people using higher end Haswell chips are being advised not to upgrade to the Skylake chips from what I've seen.
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Performance wise there is minimal loss, they are fairly close to eachother.

However personally I would have gone with the 6600k for the future. DDR4 will be around for a while (as DDR3 has been and still will be) so you can use it in your next build. Also Intel will be releasing another generation of Skylake processors so in a few years if you want more performance the door is still open for an upgrade. Skylake as well (at least the Z170) has more PCIe lanes so when it comes to adding stuff its going to have more room.

At this point if you already have it and can't return it, you didn't fail, you still got a good combo, but looking back you could have done a little better value wise.
 
Solution

Chirven

Commendable
Jul 28, 2016
11
0
1,510
Thanks for the helpful responses.



In terms of performance differences between the two processors, roughly what would the percentage increase be with the new 6600K over the 4690K?