I7 with GTX 680 or i5 with GTX 670?

[jonnyb193]

[EDIT] The thread title is wrong and I don't know how to change it. Obviously I mean i7 w/ GTX 670 or i5 w/ GTX 680.

I'm in the process of buying a custom build pc for gaming. I was wondering what would be the better option, with price in mind. I have the rest of the configuration sorted and now just need to decide whether to get an i5-3570k with a GTX 680 or an i7-3770k with a GTX 670. the former option is £35 more expensive. (neither processor is overclocked)

Is the 680 worth the price difference over the 670? As far as I can tell from various comparisons it only benefits from a small increase in performance, around 5%. Having said that an i7 isn't necessary for gaming, so an i5 with 670 is also an option and would save me about £100.
Thoughts?

 

[aqualipt]

Hello buddy, the GPU decision is more than obvious, GTX 680 = more performance but the problem is.... how much performance will you get for the extra 100$??

take a look at this:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/555?vs=598

The overclock is 1100 on the core and 1760 on the memory.

Now...the CPU decision.

The i7 and i5 Perform exactly the same in every game, and if you turn the HT in the i7 your game performance will be reduced but your rendering/editing/transcoding/decoding/encoding/hashing/general performance will increase by about 20-35% (in some cases 50%) over the i5, this happens because games can not handle well more than 4 cores (some can only handle 2) making the extra virtual cores created by Hyper threading useless, if you want a deep explanation of this phenomenon let me know but i don't think you do, lol!

 

[GhislainG]

If I were you I'd save about £100 and get an i5 with 670.

 

[schnitter]

I say i5 and ASUS 670 GTX (yes, I know you meant to edit your title). I suggest this because, for gaming, i5 vs i7 is no different for the explanation given above. The charts shown above are of a stock 670 (I believe), but the ASUS 670 GTX DC2 is basically as powerful as the 680 GTX so you'd be saving $80 you could spend on a better MoBo (if you are about to build a computer instead of upgrading what you have).

I don't see why spend close to $500 on a video card that offers no new things. I'd justify spending $500+ when DirectX 12 cards start shipping.

 

[whatismyproblem]

i5 w/GTX 670

get a nice MSI OC board that will let you push the 670 to its true potential

i understand ur title edit, its just not worth the extra $$$

 

[jonnyb193]

The i7 and i5 Perform exactly the same in every game, and if you turn the HT in the i7 your game performance will be reduced but your rendering/editing/transcoding/decoding/encoding/hashing/general performance will increase by about 20-35% (in some cases 50%) over the i5, this happens because games can not handle well more than 4 cores (some can only handle 2) making the extra virtual cores created by Hyper threading useless, if you want a deep explanation of this phenomenon let me know but i don't think you do, lol!

Thanks for your reply. I don't really understand hyper threading, so if you could give me a simple explanation I would appreciate it.

 

[jonnyb193]

I say i5 and ASUS 670 GTX (yes, I know you meant to edit your title). I suggest this because, for gaming, i5 vs i7 is no different for the explanation given above. The charts shown above are of a stock 670 (I believe), but the ASUS 670 GTX DC2 is basically as powerful as the 680 GTX so you'd be saving $80 you could spend on a better MoBo (if you are about to build a computer instead of upgrading what you have).

I don't see why spend close to $500 on a video card that offers no new things. I'd justify spending $500+ when DirectX 12 cards start shipping.

I'm using pcspecialist to build my spec and they offer the stock GPUs I believe, so I would have to buy that separately and do it myself, which is probably very easy but I'm not confident and have no experience with building or fitting anything!

 

[schnitter]

I'm using pcspecialist to build my spec and they offer the stock GPUs I believe, so I would have to buy that separately and do it myself, which is probably very easy but I'm not confident and have no experience with building or fitting anything!

I suggest you get an ASUS ROG Motherboard and an i5 3570K (k means unlocked for overclock). That intel chip comes with Intel HD Graphics so basically, the computer would work without a video card because the intel chip gives you a crappy one.

Use PCspecialist website and just not include a video card, then get the asus 670 elsewhere and just slide in, connect the 2 power connectors and thats it.

The "hard" part is wiring chassis fans and power buttons and front USB ports etc which you wont need to do by ordering from them with no video card. It is really easy no way you can mess it up.

 

[aqualipt]

I'm using pcspecialist to build my spec and they offer the stock GPUs I believe, so I would have to buy that separately and do it myself, which is probably very easy but I'm not confident and have no experience with building or fitting anything!

Build it yourself.

Building a PC is extremely easy and even a blind person can do it, there billions of guides on the internet, i can link you a few if you want.

 

[aqualipt]

Thanks for your reply. I don't really understand hyper threading, so if you could give me a simple explanation I would appreciate it.

Simple explanation:

Hyper threading emulates two logical core per each physical core. if you have 1 Physical core and you enable hyper threading you will have two logical cores, the 3770k has four physical/logical cores and when you enable hyper threading those 4 cores emulate 8 cores, the result?? better usage of the calculation units

 

[jonnyb193]

I literally have *no* experience whatsoever with anything like this, you're talking to a person who finds a screwdriver difficult to use. It would be a pretty big undertaking and I would gladly pay the extra money to get the computer built for me.

 

[jonnyb193]

Simple explanation:

Hyper threading emulates two logical core per each physical core. if you have 1 Physical core and you enable hyper threading you will have two logical cores, the 3770k has four physical/logical cores and when you enable hyper threading those 4 cores emulate 8 cores, the result?? better usage of the calculation units

and better usage of calculation units means... better performance? Sorry I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to this stuff

 

[aqualipt]

I literally have *no* experience whatsoever with anything like this, you're talking to a person who finds a screwdriver difficult to use. It would be a pretty big undertaking and I would gladly pay the extra money to get the computer built for me.

You might be right but after you build this PC you will have the necessary knowledge to take apart and reasamble almost any PC in the world!!!

besides...even a retarded person can build a PC, is a LOT easier than what you think!! let me know if you want a few guides

Edit: i know its a bit scary doing something new when you know for sure you suck at it but until a few months ago i was afraid of water cooling my PC but i decided to buy everything i needed and guess who has 4 GTX 680s/i7 3960x/Asus Rampage IV water cooled with no leaks??? and i did it in barely 1 hour

 

[mocchan]

and better usage of calculation units means... better performance? Sorry I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to this stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkrqyEpINSQ

This will help shed some light on HyperThreading for you

Also regarding this thread...i5+670 gets my vote.

 

[aqualipt]

and better usage of calculation units means... better performance? Sorry I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to this stuff

Yes, emulating the extra cores makes the OS think that you have an 8 core CPU, that allow the OS to use more threads... that means better performance, but not in games.

 

[aqualipt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkrqyEpINSQ

This will help shed some light on HyperThreading for you

Also regarding this thread...i5+670 gets my vote.

lol, that video is.... false marketing, it makes people belive that with HT you will get 2X the speed of a normal CPU.

 

[mocchan]

lol, that video is.... false marketing, it makes people belive that with HT you will get 2X the speed of a normal CPU.

:lol: yeah they over-glorify it a little bit, but I just used that video to give OP an example of what it actually is since he seemed confused

 

[jonnyb193]

:lol: yeah they over-glorify it a little bit, but I just used that video to give OP an example of what it actually is since he seemed confused

Thanks for your reply. So when does hyper-threading come into play? Does it only start when many CPU intensive applications are running at once or is it all there constantly (as I imagine that would increase power consumption + heat)

 

[aqualipt]

Thanks for your reply. So when does hyper-threading come into play? Does it only start when many CPU intensive applications are running at once or is it all there constantly (as I imagine that would increase power consumption + heat)

it doesn't increase power consumption but it reduces the overclocking potential.

HT comes into play when you use applications like Maya, Mathlab, CAD, Adobe suites, HEAVY rendering, etc.

 

[jonnyb193]

You might be right but after you build this PC you will have the necessary knowledge to take apart and reasamble almost any PC in the world!!!

besides...even a retarded person can build a PC, is a LOT easier than what you think!! let me know if you want a few guides

Edit: i know its a bit scary doing something new when you know for sure you suck at it but until a few months ago i was afraid of water cooling my PC but i decided to buy everything i needed and guess who has 4 GTX 680s/i7 3960x/Asus Rampage IV water cooled with no leaks??? and i did it in barely 1 hour

Thanks for the encouragement and reassurance but I am set on using pcspecialist, or a similar design-your-pc site. Perhaps I will realise what a "mistake" I've made in a year or so when I realise how easy building it yourself actually is! But my budget has been aimed at a particular pc and now I have the money I don't really want to concentrate on anything else. Besides I am pretty sure it will keep me happy for quite a while and will be able to play all current and near-future games at high or max at good fps. If I change my mind I'll let you know though!

Also that rig is just unbelievable! What in all that is holy do you run that needs all that?! You must play at 20,000x15,000 resolution ha!

 

[whatismyproblem]

Thanks for the encouragement and reassurance but I am set on using pcspecialist, or a similar design-your-pc site. Perhaps I will realise what a "mistake" I've made in a year or so when I realise how easy building it yourself actually is! But my budget has been aimed at a particular pc and now I have the money I don't really want to concentrate on anything else. Besides I am pretty sure it will keep me happy for quite a while and will be able to play all current and near-future games at high or max at good fps. If I change my mind I'll let you know though!

Also that rig is just unbelievable! What in all that is holy do you run that needs all that?! You must play at 20,000x15,000 resolution ha!

build it yourself

 

[mocchan]

Here's an example -

That may be kind of confusing, but Hyperthreading is always on. At idle, my processes aren't using much CPU power, so Hyperthreading will also be in it's 'off' state. It's only using the cores without Hyperthreading.

When I open a program that is HEAVILY CPU bound, it will utilise almost all of the threads like this -

 

[jonnyb193]

Seems as if most people think going for the i5 with 670 is the best option. If so what do you think the saved £100 should go into?

 

[mocchan]

Seems as if most people think going for the i5 with 670 is the best option. If so what do you think the saved £100 should go into?

An SSD to improve your overall day-to-day computer experience perhaps

 

[jonnyb193]

Here's an example -

That may be kind of confusing, but Hyperthreading is always on. At idle, my processes aren't using much CPU power, so Hyperthreading will also be in it's 'off' state. It's only using the cores without Hyperthreading.

When I open a program that is HEAVILY CPU bound, it will utilise almost all of the threads like this -

Took the URLs out to reduce the post size but thanks for that, I actually understood what was going on there, I have a basic understanding of how it works now!