i5-6400: base frequency vs turbo frequency - gaming performance?

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sandal_

Commendable
Aug 11, 2016
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1,510
Hi,

Quite often people are advised to buy the i5-6500 rather than the i5-6400 because of the 6400's lower frequency. The 6400's 2.7/3.3 GHz is quite a bit lower than the 6500's 3.2/3.6 GHz, particularly the base frequency. On the other hand, some benchmarks suggest that the difference in performance is rather small. On cpu.userbenchmark.com the 6500 outperforms the 6400 by just 6 %, and various YouTube videos and reviews seem to confirm this.

What does all this mean? Is the turbo frequency the important one when deciding which CPU to buy? Certainly the difference in base frequency of 700 MHz would indicate a bigger difference in performance than 6 %. Does this mean that the 6400 is allowed to run closer to 3.3 in games and other demanding tasks, making the base frequency less important? Should I rather see the base frequency as a "power saving mode" for a "mostly 3.1-3.3 GHz" CPU?

My reason for asking is that the 6500 is quite a bit more expensive than the 6400 where I live, and I am not convinced that the extra performance of the 6500 would be worth the cost.

Any input on this is appreciated, to help me decide which CPU to buy and to understand a bit more about them.

 
Solution
basroil
i3 6100 with a better GPU ALWAYS wins out. At this point, skip the 970 and go straight to the 1060, it's the same price but faster.
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basroil

basroil

Glorious
Oct 19, 2013
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Why such a small difference? The benchmarks you are using don't actually need a 6500 to function fully. If you have older (or poorly ported) games that are single threaded, the 6500 will indeed be faster, but most likely the game will be running at such high (or low in the case of poorly ported crap like rust and ark) fps that it doesn't matter. For newer games at high settings, it's usually the PSU that holds you back.

That said, definitely go with the 6500, it will last you quite a bit longer since it is 20% faster. If all you care about is games though, forget the 6400 and go with an i3 6300/6320 (or even just 6100) and you will see it performs as well as the 6400 in multithreaded games and far better for single thread heavy games
 
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sandal_

Commendable
Aug 11, 2016
4
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1,510


Could you explain how and why the 6500 is 20 % faster? I don't understand it because the benchmarks and reviews that I have read suggest that the difference is much smaller.
 
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Andrew1337

Reputable
Apr 25, 2015
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Where do you live? And from where you are going to buy it?

If 6400 costs cheaper than 6500, you go for the cheaper.

When you are going to play games you will not see the difference. It would likely be the same when you play.
 
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basroil

basroil

Glorious
Oct 19, 2013
8,698
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Very simple: 3.3/2.7=1.22, in otherwords it's 22% faster. For chips of the same structure (same family, same core count, etc), absolute performance is linear with frequency.

What you are reading are overall gaming benchmarks most likely, which have secondary interactions with the CPU, memory, etc. For those, you'll see that even the much, MUCH cheaper i3 6100 usually outdoes the 6400 and even 6500
 
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sandal_

Commendable
Aug 11, 2016
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1,510


I live in Norway. The best prices I could find (USD equivalent):

i3-6100 $150
i5-6400 $221
i5-6500 $259
i5-6600 $276

The difference between the 6400 and the 6500 is about $38. The 6500 and 6600 are so close that the 6500 is out. Should I pay $55 more for the 6600 over the 6400? Or would I be better off with the i3-6100 and a more expensive GPU? The difference between the i3-6100 and the i5-6600 would make up for the extra cost of a GTX 970 vs a 960.
 
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justanotherjose

justanotherjose

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Jul 5, 2016
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Most games are GPU limited. I definitely think it's better to go with a GTX 970 and a i3-6100.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3012447/6100-gtx-970-6400-gtx-960.html
Here you go. This is perfect.
 
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Andrew1337

Reputable
Apr 25, 2015
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Actually you could go for i3-6100 because it's cheaper than 6400 but almost the same performance for 70 bucks cheaper, but it has only dual core with hyper-threading. So less future-proof in games and multi-core performance.
You can go for i5 6500 because it's better than all of the above.
And i5 6600 is OC'ed version of a i5 6500 for 20 bucks more.
It's your choice.
 
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