Advice needed for new CPU

[Shevvie]

Hi all!

 

I'm seriously considering upgrading from my AMD 8350 @ 4.4ghz to something from Intel but I will hold my hands up and say that I don't really know anything about Intel CPU's. Before I go on I'll show my current system specs:

 

Asus Sabertooth 990FX R1.0

AMD 8350 @4.4ghz

16GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance @1600mhz

EVGA 980Ti SC

Windows 10 64bit installed on SSD

 

System is primarily used for Gaming.

 

What I'm looking for is something with good price to performance and the only Intel CPU that I've heard is good consistently is the i7 4790K. The bonus of going with the 4790K is that I wont need new RAM I suppose, but its now 2 generations behind and I'm not sure I want to drop cash on something that should now be behind the curve?. When I decided to look a little more into getting one I also noticed that there's a 5000 series which seems to have more PCI lanes and ideally for SLI/Crossfire configs and now LMG have been doing builds in videos with a 6700 but these have built in GPU's? The really sad thing is that they didn't show any comparisons to the AMD CPU's and although I completely understand why with AMD being so far withdrawn from the race right now until Zen hits shelves, it would have made my decision making much simpler by showing me some hard data.

 

Basically I really don't know what I should go for. I don't mind paying the extra bit of cash for the DDR4 RAM motherboards and Chips but only if I'm going to benefiting from it.

 

So to wrap up

 

1. Is it worth the upgrade from a price to performance perspective? Am I really going to see a good improvement?
2. Would you wait until Zen comes around and compare more data?
3. Which Intel CPU/Motherboard combo would you go for?

Thanks for your time guys

[Rune]

The 5000 series CPUs are designed with beefy iGPUs in them. If you are using a discrete GPU, you probably want to avoid them. 4790k is still great for overclocking and will last for years to come on the z97 platform. If you plan on needing native usb 3.1c or other specific features in the future, z170 is the most up to date, so the 6700k might be a better option even though you would need ddr4 in most cases.

 

Edit: I know nothing about Zen. And specifically, I would look at the 4790k and any z97 asus board.

[KemoKa]

if you're just gaming then an i5 will more than suffice for your needs.

The reason that there haven't been any comparisons lately between AMD and Intel parts is because we now have a stock-speed bottom-of-the-barrel i3 utterly wasting the 8350 in gaming situations. Basically we're at the point where any Intel part that isn't an Atom, Pentium or Celeron is better than AMD. That's just CPUs, though. The same cannot be said for graphics cards, where AMD is still quite competitive. But you have a 980Ti, so that doesn't matter.

 

What intel platform you want to go with depends on what you want to do. If you want to overclock, go with Z170/97. If you don't, then an H170/97/B150/85 motherboard will do just fine.

 

There's not a huge amount of benefit from going to Skylake from Haswell, DDR4 doesn't affect anything other than memory capacity. RAM speed hasn't been a system bottleneck for the past 10 years. IPC is an incremental step at best. The biggest benefit from going to Skylake is the gobs of PCIe lanes that you get on the chipset.

[Shevvie]

Okay so looking at the 4790K and an Asus Z97-A board comes to £379.97

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/645546-intel-core-i7-4790k-4ghz-socket-1150-8mb-l3-cache-retail-boxed-bx80646i74790k

http://www.ebuyer.com/640892-asus-z97-a-socket-1150-vga-dvi-hdmi-displayport-8-ch-audio-atx-motherboard-z97-a

 

For £472.97 I can get a 6700 rig

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/705443-corsair-vengeance-lpx-16gb-2-x-8gb-2400mhz-ddr4-c14-memory-kit-cmk16gx4m2a2400c14

http://www.ebuyer.com/720062-asus-z170-pro-gaming-socket-1151-vga-dvi-hdmi-8-channel-hd-audio-z170-pro-gaming

http://www.ebuyer.com/722916-intel-core-i7-6700-3-4ghz-socket-1151-8mb-l3-cache-retail-boxed-bx80662i76700

 

Is the leap in performance between the 4790K and the 6700 significant enough to warrant an extra £100?

 

 

if you're just gaming then an i5 will more than suffice for your needs.
 

 

Which i5 in particular would you recommend? As I said I have zero experience shopping for Intel CPU's as I've always stuck with Intel and gone for a good GPU.

 

 

There's not a huge amount of benefit from going to Skylake from Haswell, DDR4 doesn't affect anything other than memory capacity. RAM speed hasn't been a system bottleneck for the past 10 years. IPC is an incremental step at best. The biggest benefit from going to Skylake is the gobs of PCIe lanes that you get on the chipset.

 

I know that DDR4 isn't going to help much but it is the next step up for motherboards now and will become the standard in the future. I'm on the fence as to whether or not I want to be stuck on DDR3 for another 4-5 years or just take a leap and get DDR4.

[App4that]

4790k for the win. It's a beast.

[incarnate]

Is the leap in performance between the 4790K and the 6700 significant enough to warrant an extra £100?

Which i5 in particular would you recommend? As I said I have zero experience shopping for Intel CPU's as I've always stuck with Intel and gone for a good GPU.

I know that DDR4 isn't going to help much but it is the next step up for motherboards now and will become the standard in the future. I'm on the fence as to whether or not I want to be stuck on DDR3 for another 4-5 years or just take a leap and get DDR4.

Honestly, ddr4 vs ddr3 is up to you. But seeing as how ddr2 is still totally fine for gaming, I don't see ddr3 being a bottleneck in the next 5 years.

No the difference I between Haswell and skylake isn't worth 100£

As for i5s, the 4690k and the 6600k are the ones to look at if you want to overclock, 4460 and 6400 if you don't.

Haswell and devils canyon will be the better options for price to performance, unless you can find ddr3 (not ddr3lp) skylake boards.

[Nena Trinity]

The only worthy upgrades are i7-4790K or a Skylake chip...