Is the i7 worth it?

[davidarad02]

I want to build a PC, and to go with my GTX 970 and MSI z97 Gaming 5, I want a beast of a CPU.

now, due to DX12 and games supporting "more than 4 core" CPU's better, I was wondering if its worth it to get the i7 4790k instead of the i5 4690k.

Is it worth it?

[nanowatt]

For pure gaming?Not really,but if you have too much money go for it

[Trik'Stari]

Can't hurt. Won't make much of a difference right now. Of course some game could come along that could take advantage of the better cpu.

[TheMcSame]

As Nanowatt said, there's not really any point in going with an i7 over an i5 for gaming. That being said, if you feel safer with 4 cores + HT but you don't want to spend the extra money for an i7 then get a Xeon.

[DrunkPenguinz]

I say just get the I5-4690k, if you're just gaming and doing simple video editing, it will last you a long time still, and save you some money. Of course, if money isn't a problem, then of course go for the i7.

[yNeolh]

For gamming... I think it doesn't but if you want to do other things while playing (+2 Monitors setup) Then yes, It would improve the general performance

[manikyath]

the reason i got an i7 over an i5 was multitasking, someone i know (and i know to be a reliable source of testing) tested the benefit of hyperthreading, if the additional threads are being used at all, about 10% increase most cases.

[Briggsy]

grab a xeon E3-1231 v3. 

 

The hyperthreaded Xeon will outperform an overclocked i5 in a majority of real-world uses, and consume far less power.

[DrunkPenguinz]

the reason i got an i7 over an i5 was multitasking, someone i know (and i know to be a reliable source of testing) tested the benefit of hyperthreading, if the additional threads are being used at all, about 10% increase most cases.

Personally, I don't think 10% is enough for me to shell out an extra $120

[manikyath]

Personally, I don't think 10% is enough for me to shell out an extra $120

me neither, but i'm a rather unhealthy multitasker, and my "old" 4770 actually had issues following me at times.

 

i also like the fact i have at least that 10% extra, above the 4 cores meant for gaming, so all the other junk has a place to go.

[SteveGrabowski0]

I want to build a PC, and to go with my GTX 970 and MSI z97 Gaming 5, I want a beast of a CPU.

now, due to DX12 and games supporting "more than 4 core" CPU's better, I was wondering if its worth it to get the i7 4790k instead of the i5 4690k.

Is it worth it?

 

I'd spend the extra $100 on the 4790k if it's money not coming out of some other important part of your system. If going i7 causes you to compromise say on GPU then definitely go 4690k instead. I'd tend to favor the i7 because most games are now using 8+ threads. Even if it's not offering a lot of performance now vs a straight quadcore i5, it seems like a canary in the coal mine warning of a better parallelized future, especially with the consoles having octacores with weak per core performance. Of course another line of thought on this is future-proofing when it costs $100 more is stupid. I mean that's already half the cost of getting a locked i5 a couple of years down the road if say i5 gets HT because it's needed then. It's an interesting decision to make right now. A couple of years ago getting an i7 for gaming was asinine since almost all games left threads 5-8 idle. But not any more.

[WastedEmu]

I want to build a PC, and to go with my GTX 970 and MSI z97 Gaming 5, I want a beast of a CPU.

now, due to DX12 and games supporting "more than 4 core" CPU's better, I was wondering if its worth it to get the i7 4790k instead of the i5 4690k.

Is it worth it?

 

 

grab a xeon E3-1231 v3. 

 

The hyperthreaded Xeon will outperform an overclocked i5 in a majority of real-world uses, and consume far less power.

 

I'd go with this option, last week I upgraded my system and chose the Xeon E3-1231 v3 CPU, at Microcenter it was only $10 more than the 4690k, so it was totally worth going that route to get HT for $10 more.

[davidarad02]

Guys I live in Israel, so the Xeon is not available. its the I5, or the I7.

[Briggsy]

Guys I live in Israel, so the Xeon is not available. its the I5, or the I7.

 

unless its a budget concern, I would go for the i7.  It's really hard to quantify the gains because hyper-threading doesn't split the resources of a core 50/50 between 2 threads. it could be 75/25 or 1/99, depending on the demand between 2 threads. It can even be 100/0 if only 1 thread is assigned to a hyper-threaded core. i7 makes much better use of a core's resources.

[Benielishackove]

ahi

 

Guys I live in Israel, so the Xeon is not available. its the I5, or the I7.

Ahi ma hamatzav ? I recommend i7 for super fast windows loading i7 with z97 chipset and an ssd a must David !

4 cores 8 threads when I restart my pc its 4-5sec when I turn it on its 1-2sec boot so windows 10 10122 ! shavua tov !

[ThomasD]

For any serious gamer the added cost of an i7, amortized over the life of the chip (figure four years minimum) is really quite small, and will serve to extend that estimated life span as newer and more demanding games come onto the market.

 

I'm still using an i7 860, it's getting long in the tooth, but had I got an i5 (no hyperthreading with Lynnfield i5s) it would already be done.

[BiG StroOnZ]

My 2600k is still chugging along in Multi-threaded games, only behind 9 fps compared to a 4770k:

 

 

Had I held onto my 2500k (not that its a bad chip at all) I would start to see its age in games, as you can see here 33 fps difference between the 2500k and 2600k. And a 2500k compared to a 4770k is a 42 fps difference. So while most people will scream an i5 is all you need, they are only looking into the moment and not into the future about which CPU will retain its longevity. As we progress into the future, games will start to become more multi-threaded and with the arrival of DX12 you will see that happen even more prominently.

 

Which means, while the i5 will still remain strong and perform well. In the future the i7 will perform better and hold onto its value better. I say the i7 is worth it because its a better investment. If you plan to keep your CPU and Motherboard for a decent amount of time only making GPU upgrades as time progresses, you are better off spending the money on the i7 because it will last longer. Not that the i5 wont continue to perform well, it still won't perform nearly as well as if you went with an i7 instead.