I7 or I5

ciparins10 · Sep 17, 2017

Hi guys.

So I want to upgrade from my Pentium G3420 to a better CPU until I upgrade my whole pc (2-3 years).

And I really can't decide which one to pick the I5-4690k or the I7-4790k there's a 100$ difference here in Latvia.

I use the pc mainly for gaming and I've read around the web and the reviews are mixed plus the reviews are from 2015.

My set up now.
R9 270X (2gb)
4GB Ram
Pentium G3420
Corsair VS550
MSI Gaming 7 Z97

The biggest issue I have is that I'm keeping this pc for 3 more years max so should I even invest the 100$ for the I7 or just grab the I5.

Dunlop0078 · Sep 17, 2017

If you are going to be sticking with the 270x and 4gb of ram I would just save some money and get the i5. The 270x or your 4gb of ram is almost certainly going to be the bottleneck in any game I am aware of, I doubt you would see any performance difference in games between the i5 an i7 with your system.

photonboy · Sep 17, 2017

I disagree.
I would get the i7-4700K, then keep the computer longer.

*When I got my i7-3700K everybody told me to "get an i5-3570 as the i7 is pointless and you don't need the extra clock speed"; well it may have been true at the time but not after a few years.

Had I gotten an i5 then I would have rebuilt my core system. As it stands the i7-3700K (OC to 4.4GHz) is holding on nicely now in the more demanding, thread-aware titles and when games utilize more threads I'll have them.

*There are already some games that will use 100% of an i5-4690K's processing power.

Having said that, if the extra $100 means the difference between getting a better VIDEO CARD then I'd spend the money that way, but if not I'd again go with the i7.

Warhammer (Total War) prior to DX12 for example (not saying it's the best example) said this:
"For those playing the game in its current state, just know this: you will want a beefy CPU, and even then, consistently hitting 60 fps may not be possible without a healthy overclock. Our 4.2GHz i7-5930K comes up short at 1080p Ultra, but a Skylake i7-6700K at 4.7GHz might get there"

I had several other examples showing an i7-4700K beating an i5-4690K at similar clock speeds, with the i5-4690K near 100% usage but I don't have the links anymore.

AOTS for example is arguably more benchmark than game, but experts I've talked to said it's actually a good example of what to expect with the threading capabilities of DX12/Vulkan implemented into updates gaming engines, and that we can expect many games to take near full advantage of 8+ CPU threads easily.

That's not just war games like the above two, but can include CPU physics, Artificial Intelligence and other tasks that are likely to end up eating up those extra CPU threads.

I guess it boils down to how soon it happens and how much that $100 matters to you right now, but IMO if the motherboard is solid I'd get the i7-4700K and aim to keep the core system another five years or so with a graphics card upgrade of course.

Dunlop0078 · Sep 17, 2017

Well the i7 would be be better in the long run if they upgrade that gpu. However with a 270x I highly doubt there will be any performance difference between the i5 and i7 in any game. If this is the only upgrade they can make for three 3 years I say save the money. If the OP could afford a new GPU that will actually leverage an i7 then sure get the i7 and a gpu.

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