4690k vs 4790k

[Koroka]

The PSU in my long in the tooth gaming PC's died and took just about everything with it...so I've been buying some parts for a new build and am trying to figure out which processor to buy. The build will be a fairly budget gaming rig, part list here.

 

This will be my new every day PC as well as being used for games. The only game I'm currently playing is WoW because the PC I have right now doesn't even meet WoW's new "recommended" specs to let you know where I'm at, lol. I'll be getting back into modding the crap out of Skyrim and probably working my way through some of the more "demanding" games in my Steam/Origin library like Tomb Raider and Batman Arkham 2 & 3 etc now that I can play the off near minimum settings. And I'll probably pick up the new Borderlands soon™.

 

When playing WoW and other games that don't take me a lot of brain power I do tend to watch tv shows, movies, LTT videos I'm catching up on since my limited amounts of free time means I need to stack my entertainment. I even watch a lot of my videos at 1.25-1.5x speed when I can.

 

 

TL;DR  :blink:  

• gaming PC
• I like to watch HD videos/streams while gaming
• video encode/stream rarely but might do more in the future
• two monitors (if it matters)

Would the 4790k be worth $80 more to get hyper-threading and higher clock speed or is this level of multitasking child's play for a lightly-moderatly OC'd 4690k?

[Enderman]

The 4690k will be enough for all the stuff you listed. I recommend getting the i5 now, skipping broadwell, and saving up to buy an i7+new motherboard when skylake is released.

[Queek]

Maybe someone with more recent MMO experience than me can corroborate this, but I seem to remember hearing that WoW is taxing on cpus especially in raids.  A 4790k with the extra threads might help you there.  

In addition, if you get into encoding and streaming in the future, a 4790k will also suit you better.  

 

It may be worth the extra $80 for your use case, although a 4690k will do all these things, just maybe a little slower.  

 

I stand corrected

[dizmo]

The 4690k will be enough for all the stuff you listed. I recommend getting the i5 now, skipping broadwell, and saving up to buy an i7+new motherboard when skylake is released.

+1

Especially since Pascal will be out around the same time.

[Faa]

Maybe someone with more recent MMO experience than me can corroborate this, but I seem to remember hearing that WoW is taxing on cpus especially in raids.  A 4790k with the extra threads might help you there.  

In addition, if you get into encoding and streaming in the future, a 4790k will also suit you better.  

 

It may be worth the extra $80 for your use case, although a 4690k will do all these things, just maybe a little slower.  

I did play that game, it just has one big main thread, a 2nd thats smaller and a tiny 3rd thread with the rest being extremely minor. You just need 2 cores and single core performance, so hyperthreading is a complete waste.

@Op get the 4690K instead, 4790K is completely a waste of money. Use that money for something else like a better monitor orsomething. Also a 970 is quite overkill for WoW, something like a gtx 750 Ti is more than enough.

[Queek]

I did play that game, it just has one big main thread, a 2nd thats smaller and a tiny 3rd thread with the rest being extremely minor. You just need 2 cores and single core performance, so hyperthreading is a complete waste.

@Op get the 4690K instead, 4790K is completely a waste of money. Use that money for something else like a better monitor orsomething. Also a 970 is quite overkill for WoW, something like a gtx 750 Ti is more than enough.

Thanks for clearing that up, I guess I misunderstood or was misinformed.  

[Faa]

Thanks for clearing that up, I guess I misunderstood or was misinformed.  

Well HT will help when streaming though.

[yourdad165]

i5 processors are fine now, but if you want to be set for the long-run get an i7. I have an i5 and until that starts under-performing I'm going to stick with it, and even then I'm going to overclock it first.

[Koroka]

Thanks for all the input!

 

The 4690k will be enough for all the stuff you listed. I recommend getting the i5 now, skipping broadwell, and saving up to buy an i7+new motherboard when skylake is released.

 

This is what I figured, it's been a while since I've built a new PC so just wanted to check in before spending a large chunk of my budget.

 

I did play that game, it just has one big main thread, a 2nd thats smaller and a tiny 3rd thread with the rest being extremely minor. You just need 2 cores and single core performance, so hyperthreading is a complete waste.

@Op get the 4690K instead, 4790K is completely a waste of money. Use that money for something else like a better monitor or something. Also a 970 is quite overkill for WoW, something like a gtx 750 Ti is more than enough.

 

Yeah, I was even originally going to get a 750 ti but then the Nvidia released their new cards and the price to performance for the 970 made it very appealing. While the GTX 970 is way overkill for WoW, even with the new models in 6.02/Warlords, its all I play right now because its all this computer can handle other than Steam ports of some phone/flash games etc. My Skyrim install had almost 100 mods but I was installing low res texture packs and turning down view distance and near the end going well below even 30fps most of the time. A new monitor is in the plans but probably more like early next year since I'll be needing two of them and the ones I've been sort of looking at are a little expensive when you double the price.

[andrewg94]

Get i7 4790k and gtx 970, if you spend a lot of time on the computer, more power is never a waste, you never know when you need it. I bought a i5 4690k and now i realized i should get a 4790k. Also i recommend a 24" monitor, i have a 21.5" and it's too small IMO.