i5 4690K vs i7 4790K for GTX 1070 upgrade

Kops · Aug 9, 2016

Hi all,

I have i5 4690K that I keep on 4.6GHz.
My max overclock using asus AI Suite3 5way optimization is 4.8GHz at 1.264 voltage on load.

Now I want to upgrade my gpu from GTX 770 to GTX 1070, I saw that i5 4690K might bottleneck this new pascal card in few games and that many new games and upcoming DX12 will be able to utilize more threads aka. hyperthreading might come in handy.

I have an opportunity to sell my i5 4690K 2 years old and buy new i7 4790k for ~80$ difference. Is it worth it ?

I have 1080p monitor @60Hz atm, but I plan to upgrade to 2K with freesync and maybe get vega when it comes out next year

bootcher · Aug 9, 2016

The i5 will not bottleneck a single gtx 1070 in any game. DX12 will enable pc's to better utilize multiple core cpu's, so any CPU will benefit from this, also an i5.
Upgrading from an i5 to an i7 is good if you actually need the extra cores, for gaming it will make not much difference, if any at all. Keep in mind you also don't know how the i7 will clock. It should go above the 4.4 ghz, but you might not get it as high as the i5.

Kops · Aug 9, 2016

Many people reported that i5 4690K bottlenecked 1070 is some cpu intensive games while working on 100% all 4 cores gpu worked around 70% which is why I ask

Well I do have my browser always opened while listening to music, antivirus in the background (not scanning tho) and some other stuff while gaming but I never experienced fps drops etc. I have 16GB of ram @ 1866MHz

So it's not worth to spend $80 on i7 4790K in your opinion ? I want this pc to last for at least another 4 years, with only upgrade GPU

hdmark · Aug 9, 2016

do you know what the people had their i5's clocked at when they bottlenecked? something tells me you have yours set quite a bit higher than most people so id imagine youd be fine.

personally i have an i7 4790(non k) and i dont think id ever buy lower than an i7. but thats just me wanting 100% peace of mind

trampus123 · Aug 9, 2016

if all you spend is $80 and your I5 to get a smoking I7 then yes it is a good deal.
The I7-4790k is fast and will be good for a bunch of things for years to come.
A bud of mine is getting 4.7 on that CPU he has no problems at that clock under a AIO water cooler.

bootcher · Aug 9, 2016

Kops :

Well, some people must be high on crack. Even older i5's will not bottleneck an 1070. It has 4 excellent cores that will push any single GPU to its limits. You will even get solid perfromance in SLi/xfire setups.

To want a pc to last 4 years is a bit much to ask in my opinion, you can never be sure a pc will last 4 years. The performance will be good if you stick to your current resolution, but in my experience 4 years often one thing or another breaks and has to be replaced. So to replace a used i5 with another used i7 would not guarantee it lasting for 4 years. You might even get a highly overclocked/abused i7, that will not last you as long as the i5 would have.

Kops · Aug 9, 2016

You missed the point.. I'm selling my i5 4690K that is 2 years old to get NEW i7 4790K for ~80$ difference. The only thing that's bad is that I have really good 4690K batch and I don't know what i7 will be like on OC, the only thing I know is that they are the latest batch from costa rica.

Now as for the bottlenecks I guess it happens in cpu intensive - bad optimized games, such as Arma3 or dark souls 3, but would happen to any processor no matter i5 or i7 I guess...

It's really confusing listening to people where few people say it's gonna be bottlenecked in some new games and maybe in the games to come, where other people say there's no way that it's gonna be bottlenecked ever.

I know I maybe said too much when I asked for 4 years, but when I see this 2500K still killin' it I just expect for haswell to last that long also

hdmark · Aug 9, 2016

Kops :

honestly... id keep the i5 . seems like you won the lottery so might as well let it run its course. save the 80, and grab an i7-7xxx or 8xxx in a year or two

bootcher · Aug 9, 2016

In that case the i7 sounds like a good deal if it's new. For gaming performance it will not make much difference between the two, if you have the i5 running at 4.6 anyways. the i7 should be able to get that too without much trouble. If the hardware will last you for 4 years both the i5 as the i7 will still be good for at least 2-3 years. In 4 years I dare not say, but if you look in the past as you mentioned, 4 year old (high end) CPU's still can be very good CPU's now.

Kops · Aug 9, 2016

hdmark

Yea it's a pretty good cpu, I can get it to 5GHz stable by manually overclocking when I set voltage to 1.35+ (smth like that) but I never left it so highly clocked since I never needed anything above 4.5GHz to be honest... Well next gen is kaby lake, I'd have to change my whole platform, same like with skylake now and I don't know will it be worth it. Skylake offerend almost 0 gains (i5 6600K compared to i5 4690K) so I guess kaby won't offer that much either.

bootcher

Yea after 3 years I will probably sell mobo+cpu+ram and go with the platform that comes after kaby lake. But since I got a pretty good deal for an i7 and I can sell my pc better later on I guess I will go with the i7 4790K after all, no matter the "bottlenecks" and the 1070 upgrade.

Here's what I got now

CPU: i5 4690k @ 4.9GHz stable (running on 4.6GHz)
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D15
MOBO: ASUS Z97-A
RAM: 2x8GB 1866MHz hyperx
GPU: ASUS GTX 770 DIRECTCUII OC
SSD: 840EVO 250GB Samsung
HDD: Seagate 1TB 7200rpm
CASE: FractalDesign Arc midi R2
PSU: XFX 850W XXX Black edition semi modular

Thank you all for the insight and suggestions, you helped me a lot

theonerm2 · Aug 10, 2016

I actually have the hardware to test this. Let me try it out and get back to you with the results.

Kops · Aug 10, 2016

Awesome, let me know pls !

theonerm2 · Aug 10, 2016

In Rise of The Tomb Raider the Core i5 scores 63.91 FPS overall.
In Rise of The Tomb Raider the Core i7 scores 64.48 FPS overall.

In DOOM the Core i5 scores 187 FPS overall.
In DOOM the Core i7 scores 186 FPS overall.

In Just Cause 3 the Core i5 scores 78 FPS overall.
In Just Cause 3 the Core i7 scores 79 FPS overall.

In Sleeping Dogs the Core i5 scores 73.6 FPS overall.
In Sleeping Dogs the Core i7 scores 73.3 FPS overall.

In Grand Theft Auto V the Core i5 scores 115 FPS overall.
In Grand Theft Auto V the Core i7 scores 118 FPS overall.

The difference is very minimal at least in the games I've tested. So upgrading probably isn't worth it unless you do other tasks that really take advantage of the hyperthreading.

Kops · Aug 10, 2016

1) was your gtx 1070 at 99-100% load all the time
2) What was resolution 1080p or ?
3) Did you max out all graphic settings in the game

theonerm2 · Aug 10, 2016

Actually I tested with an underclocked GTX 1080 producing 6.6 TFlops. I ran it in pstate 2 to underclock that far and to prevent gpu boost from taking it any higher. I ran every game maxed out at 1440p except I ran DOOM at 1080p and I didn't max out Grand Theft Auto V I just ran it with the default settings at 1440p and no vsync. The GPU ran at 97% most of the time with a few dips to 96%.

sizzling · Aug 10, 2016

You could end up worse off. Overclocking has quite a bit of luck if you get a good/avg/bad cpu. You have a very good i5 and could easily end up with an average or even bad overclocking i7. As most games don't take advantage of the i7's extra threads you could actually loose out if you end up with a lower clock speed.

theonerm2 · Aug 10, 2016

Let's further study the Core i5 vs Core i7 using an overclocked GTX 1080. I'm actually curious myself to see if there is a difference between the Core i5 and i7 in games.

Rise of The Tomb Raider. Core i5. Overall score 82.58 FPS. +125 core +400 mem GTX 1080
Rise of The Tomb Raider. Core i7. Overall score 89.50 FPS. +125 core +400 mem GTX 1080
Same settings as before but with DX12 turned off. There were artifacts in DX12 mode with any sort of OC. The Core i7 does a little bit better.

DOOM. Core i5. Overall Score. 153 FPS. +125 core +400 mem GTX 1080
DOOM. Core i7. Overall Score. 147 FPS. +125 core +400 mem GTX 1080
DOOM appears to do better with the Core i5. This is at 1440p. Max settings.

Just Cause 3. Core i5. Overall score. 111 FPS. +125 core +400 mem GTX 1080
Just Cause 3. Core i7. Overall score. 108 FPS. +125 core +400 mem GTX 1080

Grand Theft Auto V. Core i5. Min. 30 FPS. Overall Score. 125 FPS. +125 core +400 mem GTX 1080
Grand Theft Auto V. Core i7. Min. 77 FPS. Overall Score. 137 FPS. +125 core +400 mem GTX 1080
This test is probably the most CPU intensive. I wanted to include the minimum here because there was noticeably more stutter on the Core i5. This is the only game I noticed it in though. Settings are the same as in the last test.

GPU usage was 99-100% in every game but Just Cause 3 where it was 97%. The 97% figure that I got last time was also from Just Cause 3 because I didn't take note of the GPU usage in any other game.

bystander · Aug 11, 2016

CPU bottlenecks most certainly happen with a GTX 1070 on 1080p at least (or any attempt to reach high FPS) in some games. As the above poster noticed in GTA 5, the minimums were certainly different as a result, but the difference between an i5 and i7 is not always going to remove the bottleneck, as the game has to take advantage of HT for it to matter.

I have an i7 5820K at 4.4Ghz, and an OC GTX 1070, and I see bottlenecks. It's obviously game dependent, and some games simply will not allow you to fully utilize the 1070. It's going to vary drastically depending on the games you play. For example, WoW will massively bottleneck around crowds and/or in cities and raids. So will just about any MMO. Playing any RTS is also going to massively bottleneck. Then you get games like GTA V where you'll bottleneck, just not as much. Playing DOOM on the other hand, and there is no issue, nor will most first person shooters, unless you play Arma or DayZ, then you'll bottleneck online for sure.

I always leave on Afterburner displayed on my G13's LCD display, and even when playing Dragon Age Inquisition, with my i7 5820K @ 4.4Ghz, and MSI GTX 1070 Armor, I see it drop into the 80% range of usage quite often in CPU demanding areas.

scuzzycard · Aug 11, 2016

I think you should keep your CPU until something more compelling hits the market. A golden 4690K at 4.8GHz is equal to a 6600K at 4.4GHz. There's really nothing on the market that's significantly faster than what you have in games.

Kops · Aug 11, 2016

Ok so to conclude:

1) i5 4690K does not bottleneck GTX 1070/GTX 1080 because it's game dependent, if I see bottlenecks in certain games i7 would have it also

2) I shouldn't upgrade to i7 because I don't know what kind of silicon I would get and should stick with the i5 for the time being

Thank you all for your time, I don't know which select as best answer as you all have helped me both with personal benchmarks, insights and knowledge.

bystander · Aug 11, 2016

Kops :

1) That's not entirely true. There are a few games which an i7 will lift the bottleneck, but generally not significantly.

scuzzycard · Aug 11, 2016

^ Sounds like you're good to go.

BTW, this is just my opinion, but in the case of multiple good solutions, the "Best Solution" should always go to the first person with the right answer. It's only fair

i5 4690K vs i7 4790K for GTX 1070 upgrade

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