Core i5 vs core i7?

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Joseph_102

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Aug 9, 2016
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Hi, I am planning a build and I have no parts. I am an engineering student and I need a good PC for 3D modeling and simulations, and I game a lot.

I can't choose between 2 CPUs:
- Core i5 6500 (212$)
- Core i7 6700 (331$)

Does the core i7 justify the extra cost in simulation softwares like Inventor, Solidworks and ANSYS Workbench?

Other parts:
PSU: Silverstone Strider Essential Bronze 500W
Motherboard: ASUS Z170-A
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB 2400MHz
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
HDD: WD Blue 1TB

P.S: Please don't say "get the i5 and put the extra money on GTX1070", it's twice the price of 1060
 
Solution
Solandri
The i7 gets you two things over the i5 (for desktop CPUs):

  • ■8 MB of L3 cache vs 6 MB on the i5
    ■Hyperthreading
The extra cache will speed up anything which requires accessing a lot of data. 3D modeling kinda falls into this category (moreso than office tasks), as it usually involves reading a lot of data from RAM. It's just usually not a speed constraint like it is with, say file compression.

Hyperthreading is really hit and miss. Hyperthreading works by allowing a different thread to use unused parts of a core. So for example if a thread is using a core for integer math, the floating point math part of the core can be used by another thread. So in order to take advantage of hyperthreading, not only must the program be...
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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Oct 15, 2009
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The i7 is ideally suited to tasks that exploit multiple threads. It has hyperthreading that effectively doubles the number of concurrent processes.

PCPartPicker.com is a great site to assemble your components on. It also helps with compatibility and sizing a correct power supply unit.
 
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Ecky

Ecky

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Feb 3, 2013
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From Solidworks' website:

Simply put, most modeling tasks (including rotating and viewing models) and even launching Solidworks itself are single threaded so core count is largely irrelevant. However, there are a number of tasks within Solidworks that are often reported to be multi-threaded and thus should benefit from having a higher core count.
Click to expand...

Regarding Invetor:

Due to the lack of multi-threading, Inventor is not capable of using more than 50% of the CPU on a dual-core computer, so there is no significant performance gain over a single CPU computer.

The only way to take advantage of a dual-core processor when using Inventor is to run multiple Inventor sessions on your computer.
Click to expand...


Reading forums about ANSYS Workbench suggests that it's mostly single-threaded too, though some parts of it do benefit from more cores. So, no, none of the tasks you've listed would really benefit from an i7 over an i5, assuming that's all you're running, but if you have a bunch of things going ato nce you might appreciate the extra threads.

I'd like to ask, why are you choosing a Z170 motherboard to pair with non-K series CPUs? I would either save money with a cheaper H170 board, or get a "K" CPU to pair with your Z170 board.
 
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ryguybuddy

ryguybuddy

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Jul 3, 2016
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Get the i7-6700k instead of i7-6700, because you have a Z170 chipset which is designed for OCing. And yes, in CPU-intensive tasks like that the i7 will help immensely(K at the end of a CPU means you can overclock it).
 
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Joseph_102

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Aug 9, 2016
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My knowledge about computer hardware is quite good (so I know the difference between K and non-K; Z and H chipsets...), but I posted the question to see if someone has first-hand experience with this subject.
i7 6700k is 60$ more, plus the cheapest cooler where I love is around 50$, so it will get out of the budget.
I chose Z170 because it has the same price as H170 from ASUS and MSI, so I get the benefits of Z170 for no extra cost.
 
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Ecky

Ecky

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Feb 3, 2013
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Given that none of your programs are well-threaded, you would likely be better off with an overclocked 6600K, if you're willing to overclock a PC that you use for productivity. If the chance of BSODs and instability is unacceptable, I'd probably go for the i7, because the additional cost when you consider the price of the whole PC is pretty small, and in addition to hyperthreading you're also getting 400mhz higher stock frequency.
 
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Joseph_102

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Aug 9, 2016
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I live in a 3rd world country, so I don't have lots of options.
The good-enough CPUs are: i5 6400, i5 6500, i7 6700 k and non-k.
Plus, no CPU overclocking will be done. Z170 is there just because it's the same price as other H170
 
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Solandri

Solandri

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Jan 4, 2012
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The i7 gets you two things over the i5 (for desktop CPUs):

  • ■8 MB of L3 cache vs 6 MB on the i5
    ■Hyperthreading
The extra cache will speed up anything which requires accessing a lot of data. 3D modeling kinda falls into this category (moreso than office tasks), as it usually involves reading a lot of data from RAM. It's just usually not a speed constraint like it is with, say file compression.

Hyperthreading is really hit and miss. Hyperthreading works by allowing a different thread to use unused parts of a core. So for example if a thread is using a core for integer math, the floating point math part of the core can be used by another thread. So in order to take advantage of hyperthreading, not only must the program be multi-threaded, but those threads have to be doing different things. Very few apps meet these requirements. The most common one is video rendering. Sometimes compilers benefit Most other apps see little to no benefit, and some can even perform worse with hyperthreading (a thread gets assigned to a virtual core so takes longer to complete a calculation, and other threads have to wait for that thread to complete before they can proceed).

So for your purposes, I'd say overall the speed difference between those processors will be just about the clock speed difference. The i5 is 3.2 GHz + 1/2/3/4, the i7 is 3.4 GHz + 3/4/5/6. That is when using:

4 cores: i5 = 3.3 Ghz, i7 = 3.7 Ghz
3 cores: i5 = 3.4 Ghz, i7 = 3.8 Ghz
2 cores: i5 = 3.5 Ghz, i7 = 3.9 Ghz
1 core: i5 = 3.6 Ghz, i7 = 4.0 Ghz

So the i7 is a bit more than 10% faster. Add in a bit more for the extra cache. Hyperthreading will likely make no difference, or even slow things down (if you get the i7 you can turn HT off in the BIOS and test for yourself).
 
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