i5 vs i7

[Karatekidhero]

Hello!

 

I have heard that i5 is the best option for gaming rather than using i7.

Is that true?

 

And if it is true, how big of a difference does it do?

 

Thanks in advance! 

[MrSuperb]

Hello!

 

I have heard that i5 is the best option for gaming rather than using i7.

Is that true?

 

And if it is true, how big of a difference does it do?

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

 

the i5 is not better, but cheaper.

some heavily multithreaded games might run better on the i7

[Karatekidhero]

the i5 is not better, but cheaper.

some heavily multithreaded games might run better on the i7

 

Thank you very much!     

[Analog]

The i7 is a faster and overall better processor, because it has 8 threads. It is said that an i5 is better for gaming simply because only a very limited amount of games actually benefit from hypertreading, therefore, the extra cost is not justified. In many occasions it is actually better to have a processor with more cores rather than more threads. For example the last Tomb Rider does run with higher FPS when it is run on an i7 6-core, compared to an i5 or a mainstream i7 with 8 threads. 

[JorenBus]

Just wondering, a good i5 is just as fast in Windows itself (not games) than an i7, right?

[Karatekidhero]

The i7 is a faster and overall better processor, because it has 8 threads. It is said that an i5 is better for gaming simply because only a very limited amount of games actually benefit from hypertreading, therefore, the extra cost is not justified. In many occasions it is actually better to have a processor with more cores rather than more threads. For example the last Tomb Rider does run with higher FPS when it is run on an i7 6-core, compared to an i5 or a mainstream i7 with 8 threads. 

 

Thank you for all the information, it makes my decision much easier: Im going for i7

[i_build_nanosuits]

Just wondering, a good i5 is just as fast in Windows itself (not games) than an i7, right?

no, when i disable hyper-threading i can tell the whole computer is a little less responsive...not much, but it's noticeable.

[SteveGrabowski]

no, when i disable hyper-threading i can tell the whole computer is a little less responsive...not much, but it's noticeable.

 

Really? Because for light usage like web browsing and writing up documents I can't tell any difference at all between my Xeon and my Pentium. Obviously the difference is night and day when I'm gaming, encoding a video, decompressing an archive, running MATLAB, compiling a large library, and other heavy tasks, but for light things like browsing LTT you could stick my Pentium back in my board and I'd never know the difference.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Really? Because for light usage like web browsing and writing up documents I can't tell any difference at all between my Xeon and my Pentium. Obviously the difference is night and day when I'm gaming, encoding a video, decompressing an archive, running MATLAB, compiling a large library, and other heavy tasks, but for light things like browsing LTT you could stick my Pentium back in my board and I'd never know the difference.

no, in fact when i come to think about it the time i noticed it was slower in ''i5'' mode is because i was testing 3.4ghz haswell with games and then i noticed it was not as snappy under windows tasks as well but it has to be because of the much lower clockspeed than usual...i guess.