i5 4690k vs Xeon e3 E3-1231V3B

[StalinDaBomb]

If you wanted to build a computer that does primarily gaming but would also do some fairly intense rendering with autodesk. I need advice on which one I should buy. Money is a very serious concern and with a xeon I would also have to buy a gpu and a heatsink. But I would run into the consideration that between all of the things i would have to buy it might run into that an i7 4790k would be almost the same price as the xeon. so for price what should i get. a 4690k, xeon e3, or the 4790k. Or would it just be a better deal to buy a discreet gpu that would actually be adequate for gaming as opposed to a gpu that simply tries to rival intel hd, for the xeon.

 

[Hideous Elf]

Definitely not the xeon e3. The 4690k and the 4790k are both great processors, obviously the 4790k has superior performance, I would recommend both of them and I think it really just depends on your budget. As for the graphics, you should know that with intel hd graphics you wont be playing much more than minecraft, games are generally more gpu intensive than cpu intensive and if your going to make a gaming rig with a $200+ cpu, you should probably also get a $200+ gpu.

 

[balamindin]

If you wanted to build a computer that does primarily gaming but would also do some fairly intense rendering with autodesk. I need advice on which one I should buy. Money is a very serious concern and with a xeon I would also have to buy a gpu and a heatsink. But I would run into the consideration that between all of the things i would have to buy it might run into that an i7 4790k would be almost the same price as the xeon. so for price what should i get. a 4690k, xeon e3, or the 4790k. Or would it just be a better deal to buy a discreet gpu that would actually be adequate for gaming as opposed to a gpu that simply tries to rival intel hd, for the xeon.

I'm not sure what this "B" version is but my E3-1231 V3 came with its own heatsink and fan (which I'm told is better than the stock i5/i7 ones) though I use Hyper 212 Evo cause it's cheaply available. This Xeon is really a refreshed i7-4770K without the iGPU, overclockablity and 100MHz less clockspeed. As such, its performance is great for gaming and rendering/editing works. I've very little experience with the latter so I do advise you look into it yourself but I've read positive feedback all over the Internet.

Regarding a discreet GPU, wouldn't you need that for rendering and gaming anyway?? I don't think the Intel HD graphics can match a dedicated GPU. Imo, Xeon + H97 mobo is cheaper than 4690K or 4790K + Z97 mobo + an aftermarket cooler which is required for overclocking. If you're not interest in OC, no point getting the 'K' CPU. For gaming only, i5 4460 or 4590 will do but because you talked about the rendering, I think the Xeon would be a better choice.

Obviously, the i7 4790K is the best (in terms of raw performance) out of the listed 3 but it's also the most expensive.

 

[Hideous Elf]

If you wanted to build a computer that does primarily gaming but would also do some fairly intense rendering with autodesk. I need advice on which one I should buy. Money is a very serious concern and with a xeon I would also have to buy a gpu and a heatsink. But I would run into the consideration that between all of the things i would have to buy it might run into that an i7 4790k would be almost the same price as the xeon. so for price what should i get. a 4690k, xeon e3, or the 4790k. Or would it just be a better deal to buy a discreet gpu that would actually be adequate for gaming as opposed to a gpu that simply tries to rival intel hd, for the xeon.

I'm not sure what this "B" version is but my E3-1231 V3 came with its own heatsink and fan (which I'm told is better than the stock i5/i7 ones) though I use Hyper 212 Evo cause it's cheaply available. This Xeon is really a refreshed i7-4770K without the iGPU, overclockablity and 100MHz less clockspeed. As such, its performance is great for gaming and rendering/editing works. I've very little experience with the latter so I do advise you look into it yourself but I've read positive feedback all over the Internet.

Regarding a discreet GPU, wouldn't you need that for rendering and gaming anyway?? I don't think the Intel HD graphics can match a dedicated GPU. Imo, Xeon + H97 mobo is cheaper than 4690K or 4790K + Z97 mobo + an aftermarket cooler which is required for overclocking. If you're not interest in OC, no point getting the 'K' CPU. For gaming only, i5 4460 or 4590 will do but because you talked about the rendering, I think the Xeon would be a better choice.

Obviously, the i7 4790K is the best (in terms of raw performance) out of the listed 3 but it's also the most expensive.

I'm not sure where you've been looking but everywhere I've been the Xeon e3 E3-1231V3 is more expensive than the 4690k, with a lower clock speed no overclocking, and no integrated graphics(I understand if your getting a discreet gpu the intel hd graphics might not be super important to you but In my opinion they'r still a buying point as I have a good gpu and I have my second and 3rd monitor running of intel hd) I honestly don't see how you can ever say the E3-1231 V3 is better than the 4690k(which considering he was going to pay 200+ for an overclockable cpu I would hope he would be getting a aftermarket cooler) But if you really aren't interested in overclocking, I think the 4460 and 4590 would still be better choices than the xeon.

 

[balamindin]

If you wanted to build a computer that does primarily gaming but would also do some fairly intense rendering with autodesk. I need advice on which one I should buy. Money is a very serious concern and with a xeon I would also have to buy a gpu and a heatsink. But I would run into the consideration that between all of the things i would have to buy it might run into that an i7 4790k would be almost the same price as the xeon. so for price what should i get. a 4690k, xeon e3, or the 4790k. Or would it just be a better deal to buy a discreet gpu that would actually be adequate for gaming as opposed to a gpu that simply tries to rival intel hd, for the xeon.

I'm not sure what this "B" version is but my E3-1231 V3 came with its own heatsink and fan (which I'm told is better than the stock i5/i7 ones) though I use Hyper 212 Evo cause it's cheaply available. This Xeon is really a refreshed i7-4770K without the iGPU, overclockablity and 100MHz less clockspeed. As such, its performance is great for gaming and rendering/editing works. I've very little experience with the latter so I do advise you look into it yourself but I've read positive feedback all over the Internet.

Regarding a discreet GPU, wouldn't you need that for rendering and gaming anyway?? I don't think the Intel HD graphics can match a dedicated GPU. Imo, Xeon + H97 mobo is cheaper than 4690K or 4790K + Z97 mobo + an aftermarket cooler which is required for overclocking. If you're not interest in OC, no point getting the 'K' CPU. For gaming only, i5 4460 or 4590 will do but because you talked about the rendering, I think the Xeon would be a better choice.

Obviously, the i7 4790K is the best (in terms of raw performance) out of the listed 3 but it's also the most expensive.

I'm not sure where you've been looking but everywhere I've been the Xeon e3 E3-1231V3 is more expensive than the 4690k, with a lower clock speed no overclocking, and no integrated graphics(I understand if your getting a discreet gpu the intel hd graphics might not be super important to you but In my opinion they'r still a buying point as I have a good gpu and I have my second and 3rd monitor running of intel hd) I honestly don't see how you can ever say the E3-1231 V3 is better than the 4690k(which considering he was going to pay 200+ for an overclockable cpu I would hope he would be getting a aftermarket cooler) But if you really aren't interested in overclocking, I think the 4460 and 4590 would still be better choices than the xeon.

I meant 'better' for what OP said he's going to do i.e. gaming + rendering in Autodesk. With the Hyperthreading (and assuming 4790K is out of price range), isn't the Xeon a smarter choice? I get that most games don't use more than 4 cores but it can help massively with rendering, right?

True, Xeon by itself is a little more expensive than the i5 4690K but Xeon + H97 (or even H81) and 4690K + Z97 (and the cooler?); isn't the Xeon cheaper? It certainly was for me.

I can't argue the benefits or drawbacks of overclocking as I've very little experience...but will it actually make a lot of performance difference?? I mean is the Xeon that much slower than say...the oc'd 4690K at 4.7GHz?? In things like rendering, wouldn't the Xeon's Hyperthreading be beneficial? Also, because we're talking about a budget CPU that will be good for both gaming and rendering, I thought (and still do) that Xeon is a better choice.

 

[Hideous Elf]

If you wanted to build a computer that does primarily gaming but would also do some fairly intense rendering with autodesk. I need advice on which one I should buy. Money is a very serious concern and with a xeon I would also have to buy a gpu and a heatsink. But I would run into the consideration that between all of the things i would have to buy it might run into that an i7 4790k would be almost the same price as the xeon. so for price what should i get. a 4690k, xeon e3, or the 4790k. Or would it just be a better deal to buy a discreet gpu that would actually be adequate for gaming as opposed to a gpu that simply tries to rival intel hd, for the xeon.

I'm not sure what this "B" version is but my E3-1231 V3 came with its own heatsink and fan (which I'm told is better than the stock i5/i7 ones) though I use Hyper 212 Evo cause it's cheaply available. This Xeon is really a refreshed i7-4770K without the iGPU, overclockablity and 100MHz less clockspeed. As such, its performance is great for gaming and rendering/editing works. I've very little experience with the latter so I do advise you look into it yourself but I've read positive feedback all over the Internet.

Regarding a discreet GPU, wouldn't you need that for rendering and gaming anyway?? I don't think the Intel HD graphics can match a dedicated GPU. Imo, Xeon + H97 mobo is cheaper than 4690K or 4790K + Z97 mobo + an aftermarket cooler which is required for overclocking. If you're not interest in OC, no point getting the 'K' CPU. For gaming only, i5 4460 or 4590 will do but because you talked about the rendering, I think the Xeon would be a better choice.

Obviously, the i7 4790K is the best (in terms of raw performance) out of the listed 3 but it's also the most expensive.

I'm not sure where you've been looking but everywhere I've been the Xeon e3 E3-1231V3 is more expensive than the 4690k, with a lower clock speed no overclocking, and no integrated graphics(I understand if your getting a discreet gpu the intel hd graphics might not be super important to you but In my opinion they'r still a buying point as I have a good gpu and I have my second and 3rd monitor running of intel hd) I honestly don't see how you can ever say the E3-1231 V3 is better than the 4690k(which considering he was going to pay 200+ for an overclockable cpu I would hope he would be getting a aftermarket cooler) But if you really aren't interested in overclocking, I think the 4460 and 4590 would still be better choices than the xeon.

I meant 'better' for what OP said he's going to do i.e. gaming + rendering in Autodesk. With the Hyperthreading (and assuming 4790K is out of price range), isn't the Xeon a smarter choice?

True, Xeon by itself is a little more expensive than the i5 4690K but Xeon + H97 (or even H81) and 4690K + Z97 (and the cooler?); isn't the Xeon cheaper? It certainly was for me.

I can't argue the benefits or drawbacks of overclocking as I've very little experience...but will it actually make a lot of performance difference?? I mean is the Xeon that much slower than say...the oc'd 4690K at 4.7GHz?? In things like rendering, wouldn't the Xeon's Hyperthreading be beneficial? Also, because we're talking about a budget CPU that will be good for both gaming and rendering, I thought (and still do) that Xeon is a better choice.

Ok I can see what your getting at, overclocking can yield far superior performance (in my opinion outdoing the benefits of hyperthreading) but the cost of the motherboard? cpu cooler can get out of hand to get this kind of performance, I geuss I kind of assumed that he was planning to go all out on the overclocking. But I geuss it depends on what he's actually planning on doing, I myself thought that I was going to just simply overclock my system and get better performance , without actually having to put any effort into it, but overclocking is definitely not an easy performance boost to the newcomer. My thinking was that he was an experienced pc-er and he actually was going to buy everything necessary for ocing and yield the benefits from it. But to the average system builder the advantages of the xeon's hyper threading would ought weigh the performance and extra price tag of overclocking.

 

[balamindin]

Ok I can see what your getting at, overclocking can yield far superior performance (in my opinion outdoing the benefits of hyperthreading) but the cost of the motherboard? cpu cooler can get out of hand to get this kind of performance, I geuss I kind of assumed that he was planning to go all out on the overclocking. But I geuss it depends on what he's actually planning on doing, I myself thought that I was going to just simply overclock my system and get better performance , without actually having to put any effort into it, but overclocking is definitely not an easy performance boost to the newcomer. My thinking was that he was an experienced pc-er and he actually was going to buy everything necessary for ocing and yield the benefits from it. But to the average system builder the advantages of the xeon's hyper threading would ought weigh the performance and extra price tag of overclocking.

OP may very well be an experienced builder but because he's on a budget, I brought up the Xeon (i7 at an i5 price or cheaper). @OP let us know how it turns out for you

I'm surprised to hear that a 4-core oc'd can out perform a 4-core 8-thread non-oc. I would've thought Xeon would shine in multi-threaded (editing, rendering, etc.) applications but as said before, I don't have a lot of experience with oc to compare/contrast, so maybe you're right.

 

[timeconsumer]

In Cinebench (rendering benchmark) a Xeon 1231v3 performs roughly equal to an i5-4690k overclocked in the 4.5Ghz range (a fairly average and achievable number for someone with a decent setup).

A 4690K + Hyper 212 Evo + Decent Z97 board ($120ish) = $362
A Xeon 1231v3 + H97 board + stock cooler = $327

That's assuming an equal power supply, the i5 will draw a little more juice OC'd and prefer a slightly higher quality PSU for stability, but we'll assume the OP gets the same PSU for either setup. So you can get equal rendering performance on the Xeon for $35 less and you don't have to fiddle with installing aftermarket coolers or spend the time finding a stable overclock (non-issues for some people). However the i5 gets an advantage in single-threaded titles.

Is the single-threaded advantage of the 4690K worth the $35 price premium? Does the plug-and-play nature of the Xeon and the lower price make it a better decision? The answers to these questions will vary depending on the person you ask, everyone has different wants, needs, and priorities. FWIW I don't think you can make a bad decision either way, both processors are excellent and will do very well for your needs. My personal preference leans toward the Xeon as I just don't care to overclock anymore, I used to do it for fun, now I find it tedious.

 

[Hideous Elf]

In Cinebench (rendering benchmark) a Xeon 1231v3 performs roughly equal to an i5-4690k overclocked in the 4.5Ghz range (a fairly average and achievable number for someone with a decent setup).

A 4690K + Hyper 212 Evo + Decent Z97 board ($120ish) = $362
A Xeon 1231v3 + H97 board + stock cooler = $327

That's assuming an equal power supply, the i5 will draw a little more juice OC'd and prefer a slightly higher quality PSU for stability, but we'll assume the OP gets the same PSU for either setup. So you can get equal rendering performance on the Xeon for $35 less and you don't have to fiddle with installing aftermarket coolers or spend the time finding a stable overclock (non-issues for some people). However the i5 gets an advantage in single-threaded titles.

Is the single-threaded advantage of the 4690K worth the $35 price premium? Does the plug-and-play nature of the Xeon and the lower price make it a better decision? The answers to these questions will vary depending on the person you ask, everyone has different wants, needs, and priorities. FWIW I don't think you can make a bad decision either way, both processors are excellent and will do very well for your needs. My personal preference leans toward the Xeon as I just don't care to overclock anymore, I used to do it for fun, now I find it tedious.

Yeah you brought up a good point, and I agree with your reasoning, the xeon is definitely a better choice(especially if he's buying a powerful gpu for gaming so he doesn't need the integrated graphics) I guess I jumped the gun a bit, what you said makes a more sense.

 

[StalinDaBomb]

I ended up going with the 4790k and getting a hyper 212 evo. I decided to just bite the bullet because of the superior performance. As previously mentioned i can't afford a gpu and so am just using dedicated, FOR NOW. don't worry I know integrated GPU is garbage. I am not oc'ing as my asus mobo decided to die and am now running a less powerful msi board. Plus the current speed of 4.0 Ghz is plenty.