Intel Core i5 4690K "Devil's Canyon" - Review - Overclocking & CPU Benchmarks

[harrynowl]

Intel Core i5 4690K "Devil's Canyon" Review.

 

So the i5 4690K has kind of quietly sat in the background as between the £56 Pentium G3258 and the i7 4790K hitting 4.4GHz out of the box it seems a little uninspiring at a modest 3.5Ghz base clock and 3.9Ghz turbo clock.

 

 

 

So I bought this processor to replace my G3258 that I used very briefly in my ITX build. I was a bit naive as to how far a Dual Core- a super fast dual core will go in 2014. It wasn't really cutting it and was causing a few bottlenecks so it had to be replaced.

 

The box:

 

If you've seen a i5 4670K (or pretty much any Haswell box) you should know what this looks like by now. It's a nice high quality design but between this and the old Ivy/Sandybridge box I prefer the look of the old one .

 

Performance:

 

So you can find performance numbers for the 4670K floating around everywhere at stock speeds (and it's only a 100mhz difference) so I'm not going to run stock benchmarks. What I can tell you is that it runs just fine at stock and all my games/applications were great. My CPU comes in with a stock vcore of just 0.987v which is quite something coming from AMDs running at 1.45v out of the box.

 

Overclocking performance:

 

It's a Haswell chip so you kind of know what to expect here. They're all over the place. The average overclock on HWBot is around 4.5ghz, the G3258 I had achieved a whopping 4.2GHz @1.3v, @Jumper118 got 4.6GHz @ 1.2v and so on. So general rule with Haswell is don't expect to get more than 4.2GHz from your CPU as you buy it or you'll be disappointed.  Some people pick specific batch numbers etc, I have an L3 from Malay.

 

My CPU can do 4.5GHz @ 1.22v, 4.6 @ 1.26v, 4.7 @ 1.3v (I used 1.325v to bench) and 4.8@1.425v. 4.9 was a no go without extreme voltages (1.4 and above). I intend for this CPU to last so I don't want to do that.

 

I am using a £30 air cooler and a £110 ITX board (that I picked up for £66 ). I'm sure people who want to get more can spend £150 on a Z97-OC Force or an Mpower and £100 on a big liquid cooler but I don't really have that money to spend.

 

For my benchmarks I am going to be running at what I'd call a reasonable mid point, my 4.7GHz setting @ 1.3v.

 

Overclocked Synthetic Benchmarks: 

 

Black Hole Benchmark ver4.2:

Cinebench R11.5 Benchmark:

Cinebench R15 Benchmark:

HWBot Prime Benchmark:

SuperPI 1m Benchmark:

WinRAR Benchmark:

wPrime 32M Benchmark:

AIDA64 Cache & Memory:

**copy is 27235MB/s

***write is 29297MB/s

(from running separate dedicated benchmark)

 

Game benchmarks:

 

All will be run on the 14.6 RC2 driver from AMD.

 

Starswarm (synthetic game benchmark):

Extreme preset, "follow" scenario

DirectX:

Mantle:

 

If I have time.

 

Conclusion:

 

The good:

- Overclocking performance is better on average than 1st gen Haswell

- The CPU is wicked fast

- Temperatures rarely exceed 60c while benching at 75c while stress tested

- This thread was my 2,000th post

 

The bad:

- It's quite expensive, it cost me £175

- Overclocking is still very hit and miss

 

The ugly:

- Bad voltage scaling past 4.7Ghz

[lani100]

That is a nice clocking chip mate.

[harrynowl]

That is a nice clocking chip mate.

It also runs very cool

 

I'll post some results in a minute I'd just need to reboot and didn't want to lose what I'd typed (I don't trust autosave)  

[lani100]

It also runs very cool

 

I'll post some results in a minute I'd just need to reboot and didn't want to lose what I'd typed (I don't trust autosave)

And I'm stuck with a 4770k that won't go over 4.2 @1,31V

[Gung Pow Chicken]

And I'm stuck with a 4770k that won't go over 4.2 @1,31V

almost got mine to 5, would boot and the first time it took a little of usage it would shut down.  Stable at 4.8 but want to go higher lol

[lani100]

almost got mine to 5, would boot and the first time it took a little of usage it would shut down.  Stable at 4.8 but want to go higher lol

Lol

[harrynowl]

And I'm stuck with a 4770k that won't go over 4.2 @1,31V

Aww, I feel your pain

[Gung Pow Chicken]

Aww, I feel your pain

It's kind of just luck of the draw on how far you can oc your processor.

[harrynowl]

It's kind of just luck of the draw on how far you can oc your processor.

I know

 

Between this and my 2600K I prefer this just for the platform features and the fact this motherboard is so much more stable than my Z77 was

[Gung Pow Chicken]

I know

 

Between this and my 2600K I prefer this just for the platform features and the fact this motherboard is so much more stable than my Z77 was

Talk about it my last build before that was an 8350 which was ok but until I graduated high school I was running a core 2 quad with a 460. This thing was so unstable it's not even funny but didn't have money to spend on my computer back then lol

[harrynowl]

Talk about it my last build before that was an 8350 which was ok but until I graduated high school I was running a core 2 quad with a 460. This thing was so unstable it's not even funny but didn't have money to spend on my computer back then lol

I was lucky enough to get a job that pays for my hardware addiction

 

I had an 8320 for quite a while but as I mainly play mmo/rts I was kind of falling short with that CPU

[Gung Pow Chicken]

I was lucky enough to get a job that pays for my hardware addiction

 

I had an 8320 for quite a while but as I mainly play mmo/rts I was kind of falling short with that CPU

Now that I have a good paying job and graduated college my money either goes into my truck or into my nerd cave lol

[Gung Pow Chicken]

It's a vicious cycle but I love it

[Chiko]

Very nice chip you got there

 

Can't wait to see the in game benchmarks

 

Any thoughts what games you are going to use ?

[harrynowl]

Very nice chip you got there

 

Can't wait to see the in game benchmarks

 

Any thoughts what games you are going to use ?

I'm looking at Battlefield, Watch Doges and maybe a couple of others, but that will be later this evening

[consoleconvergence2pc]

Those temps of you're cpu and you say you are only using a air cooler 

[harrynowl]

Those temps of you're cpu and you say you are only using a air cooler 

Yep, well it does dance up to 80c here and there in the XTU stress test but Haswell does that so I wouldn't consider it a concern myself

 

I think Intel did a good job with the TIM this time

[Jumper118]

 

good review so far. it was a good idea to get rid of the pentium while they are still in high demand. . i'm glad to see >700cb, that is a great score. 4.7ghz is good for an itx board as well.   thats a nice sempron box you have there 

[Faa]

@harrynowl

Do you mind if we run some cpu bound games (can be star swarm) to compare the single core performance? My 3930K is on par with a 3570K according to CB, would be informative for many SB/IB owners if Haswell can be worth it or not since they complety bashed that platform.

[harrynowl]

@harrynowl

Do you mind if we run some cpu bound games (can be star swarm) to compare the single core performance? My 3930K is on par with a 3570K according to CB, would be informative for many SB/IB owners if Haswell can be worth it or not since they complety bashed that platform.

I can do, just keep in mind I got a very slow download speed

[harrynowl]

good review so far. it was a good idea to get rid of the pentium while they are still in high demand. . i'm glad to see >700cb, that is a great score. 4.7ghz is good for an itx board as well.   thats a nice sempron box you have there 

Thanks, I got more to add this evening

 

Yes Pentium sold in 45 mins of listing

 

Don't think the board affects Haswell overclocking that much either from what I've seen

 

is my score on the doc?

[Faa]

I can do, just keep in mind I got a very slow download speed

Star Swarm is just 300MB, its a synthetic one. The unfairness is I have here a 780 I still see it sometimes flipping to 99% so it's kinda a cheat against your 7950, I'd have to downclock the gpu. As far as I can remember I got a result of 45 fps with a 780 and someone with a 4670k at 4.8GHz got 75 fps with the same card.

[harrynowl]

Star Swarm is just 300MB, its a synthetic one. The unfairness is I have here a 780 I still see it sometimes flipping to 99% so it's kinda a cheat against your 7950, I'd have to downclock the gpu. As far as I can remember I got a result of 45 fps with a 780 and someone with a 4670k at 4.8GHz got 75 fps with the same card.

I'll see what I can manage, downloading now will be done in 40 mins :rolleyes:

 

Not sure how much faster a 780 is than a 7950. At the overclock I run I get 2000 in valley benchmark (max settings) if that's of any help.

[Jumper118]

Thanks, I got more to add this evening

 

Yes Pentium sold in 45 mins of listing

 

Don't think the board affects Haswell overclocking that much either from what I've seen

excellent.

 

that is too fast. you could have probably got a bit more for it. never mind.

 

it might not do at normal levels. once we are looking for the last couple of points it makes a tiny difference. its always good to know i can run 2v with a 8+4 pin for an i7 if i ever wanted. i plan on keeping my board forever. at some point a dc i7 will be £50 and i might have ln2 by then might try 4 way cf as well, its just a matter of time and money!  

[harrynowl]

excellent.

 

that is too fast. you could have probably got a bit more for it. never mind.

 

it might not do at normal levels. once we are looking for the last couple of points it makes a tiny difference. its always good to know i can run 2v with a 8+4 pin for an i7 if i ever wanted. i plan on keeping my board forever. at some point a dc i7 will be £50 and i might have ln2 by then might try 4 way cf as well, its just a matter of time and money!

I did £40 as it was just the CPU. I want to keep the box as a keepsake kind of thing

 

I usually upgrade every 4 years or so but this year I went mad...