A Better CPU For Gaming

[Ludovicus V]

I have been thinking of purchasing an i5-4690K CPU solely for the purpose of gaming, more specifically to run 'The Witcher 3' hopefully on ultra settings. The specs for this game however recommend an i7-3770. My question is whether I should consider an upgrade to the i7-4790 to achieve these settings, or should the i5 do the job fine? I would like to avoid upgrading due to the price of i7's if possible.

If it helps, here is the build I'm currently looking at to go with the CPU(excluding the i5/i7):

-EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Superclocked ACX 2.0 4GB

-ASUS Z97-K Motherboard

-2x4GB DDR3 Ram

-Corsair 650W Power Supply

-Intel 530 Series 120GB SSD

Thanks for the help.

 

[TheKDub]

Don't bother with an i7 for gaming, hyperthreading won't help out in games much so its not worth the extra cost.

[teddyteddyteddy]

you'd probably be able to run the game at ultra with the i5.  Almost no games will benefit from the hyperthreading of an i7, and when they do, an i5 is usually almost as good.  I'd just get the i5 unless you were also doing video editing/rendering stuff.

[D2ultima]

I have been thinking of purchasing an i5-4690K CPU solely for the purpose of gaming, more specifically to run 'The Witcher 3' hopefully on ultra settings. The specs for this game however recommend an i7-3770. My question is whether I should consider an upgrade to the i7-4790 to achieve these settings, or should the i5 do the job fine? I would like to avoid upgrading due to the price of i7's if possible.

If it helps, here is the build I'm currently looking at to go with the CPU(excluding the i5/i7):

-EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Superclocked ACX 2.0 4GB

-ASUS Z97-K Motherboard

-2x4GB DDR3 Ram

-Corsair 650W Power Supply

-Intel 530 Series 120GB SSD

Thanks for the help.

 

IF you can buy the i7 and are worried about it, I would suggest to do so. I would also suggest a Plextor M6 Pro or a Crucial M550 for the SSD over that Intel. There is no way to tell if The Witcher 3 will take advantage of hyperthreading. If it does not, then your i5 will beat the 3770 i7 due to a better IPC and similar clocks. If it DOES, then it will likely cause a significant drop in performance to use an i5 over an i7.

 

Don't bother with an i7 for gaming, hyperthreading won't help out in games much so its not worth the extra cost.

 

you'd probably be able to run the game at ultra with the i5.  Almost no games will benefit from the hyperthreading of an i7, and when they do, an i5 is usually almost as good.  I'd just get the i5 unless you were also doing video editing/rendering stuff.

That isn't true. Hyperthreading either helps or doesn't. If it does, it can be a significant chunk of extra frames over the i5, but the number of games it helps in are few and far inbetween, and likely limited to AAA titles (possibly unoptimized ones). Watch Dogs is the last example I have where an i7 over an i5 instantly meant 10+ FPS without changing the system otherwise. BF4 also apparently benefits, but I do not know how much. Everybody's benching of BF4 appears to be incredulously different.

[i_build_nanosuits]

That isn't true. Hyperthreading either helps or doesn't. If it does, it can be a significant chunk of extra frames over the i5, but the number of games it helps in are few and far inbetween, and likely limited to AAA titles (possibly unoptimized ones). Watch Dogs is the last example I have where an i7 over an i5 instantly meant 10+ FPS without changing the system otherwise. BF4 also apparently benefits, but I do not know how much. Everybody's benching of BF4 appears to be incredulously different.

Dragon age inquisition and crysis 3 also significantly benefit from hyper-threading from my testing, it pretty much ends there though. So it total to about 4 games so far.

Many games now do take advantage of 6 or 8 cpu threads if you happen to have them, but those games are just not CPU intensive enough to actualy show a real noticeable benefit from hyper-threading...

there might be more and more games that take advantage of more CPU threads in the future as game evolve and get more complex to execute for the CPU we might see hyper-threading having more of an effect on gaming performance...but the question is: by the time games get there will an haswell i7 still be relevant to gaming?

i think so...but nobody can be sure.

[D2ultima]

Dragon age inquisition and crysis 3 also significantly benefit from hyper-threading from my testing, it pretty much ends there though. So it total to about 4 games so far.

Many games now do take advantage of 6 or 8 cpu threads if you happen to have them, but those games are just not CPU intensive enough to actualy show a real noticeable benefit from hyper-threading...

there might be more and more games that take advantage of more CPU threads in the future as game evolve and get more complex to execute for the CPU we might see hyper-threading having more of an effect on gaming performance...but the question is: by the time games get there will an haswell i7 still be relevant to gaming?

i think so...but nobody can be sure.

There are other games, I am sure, but they are usually a bit older and even current i5s are strong enough for them. But even so, if someone is UNSURE, then an i7 is the way to go (assuming it's affordable). If it's not, by all means get the i5. But don't gripe about it later, ya know?

[i_build_nanosuits]

There are other games, I am sure, but they are usually a bit older and even current i5s are strong enough for them. But even so, if someone is UNSURE, then an i7 is the way to go (assuming it's affordable). If it's not, by all means get the i5. But don't gripe about it later, ya know?

that's what i usualy recommend as well...if you don,t have to cut down on other parts of the build (especialy the GPU) or eat kraft dinner for weeks in order to get the i7..then go for it...that way you sleep better at night and you'll never have to ask yourself down the road: ''what if i would have picked a core i7 instead?..'' but maybe that's just me...i don't know...i own one and i truly love it.

[asker509]

that's what i usualy recommend as well...if you don,t have to cut down on other parts of the build (especialy the GPU) or eat kraft dinner for weeks in order to get the i7..then go for it...that way you sleep better at night and you'll never have to ask yourself down the road: ''what if i would have picked a core i7 instead?..'' but maybe that's just me...i don't know...i own one and i truly love it.

Same here I got one just in case and because I thought buying a placeholder gpu cause I would rather wait for the new ones but it's not a major difference and I would not recommend it

[i_build_nanosuits]

Same here I got one just in case and because I thought buying a placeholder gpu cause I would rather wait for the new ones but it's not a major difference and I would not recommend it

in some games it does feel smoother...i love to benchmark a lot these days and i'm testing games with and without hyper-threading and sometimes the difference can really be felt in smootness even though the framerates appear relatively the same...i feel that the minimum fps are better across the board and frame time variance are better... and even windows normal task are snappier when used on an SSD...give it a try you'll see.

[D2ultima]

that's what i usualy recommend as well...if you don,t have to cut down on other parts of the build (especialy the GPU) or eat kraft dinner for weeks in order to get the i7..then go for it...that way you sleep better at night and you'll never have to ask yourself down the road: ''what if i would have picked a core i7 instead?..'' but maybe that's just me...i don't know...i own one and i truly love it.

well as a streamer and a HUGE multitasker, there is no such thing as "buy an i5" where I am concerned. But I'm not most people .

 

That being said... I would sit with some kraft dinners for a week or two if it meant getting that perfect PC. 

[Daniel91]

If you're on a budget get a 4460 if not you can go for the 4690K or even better Broadwell is out already but I'm not sure if it's on sale yet

 

I would wait to see what the broadwell I5 brings to the table I hear it's got even better power saving like the GTX 970, more power saved = less money to the power bill and that means my dad will save more and get me better equipment for my rendering rig

 

I'm using i7 4790K but I intend to change to broadwell if the power savings are above 30%

[D2ultima]

If you're on a budget get a 4460 if not you can go for the 4690K or even better Broadwell is out already but I'm not sure if it's on sale yet

 

I would wait to see what the broadwell I5 brings to the table I hear it's got even better power saving like the GTX 970, more power saved = less money to the power bill and that means my dad will save more and get me better equipment for my rendering rig

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/289901-clearing-the-air-about-upcoming-broadwell-cpus/

[Briggsy]

If you have the money, get an i7. Newer AAA titles are murdering i5's, and it's only going to get worse in the next year or two. Sure it won't matter for a majority of less demanding games, but neither will having a high end GPU.

[asker509]

in some games it does feel smoother...i love to benchmark a lot these days and i'm testing games with and without hyper-threading and sometimes the difference can really be felt in smootness even though the framerates appear relatively the same...i feel that the minimum fps are better across the board and frame time variance are better... and even windows normal task are snappier when used on an SSD...give it a try you'll see.

I probably will one day right noway im messing with my fan curves in a new case I have seen slight differences with it off but it might be a placebo effect

[Daniel91]

thanks D2ultima in that case I would suggest a I7 in that case if you can afford it I was waiting for the broadwell  I think I'll stick with the i7 then