How important are GHz?

[Yoo Song Won]

I own an Intel i5 4590 at 3.3GHz and turbo boosts up to 3.7GHz and was wondering if thats any good. However, I read that an Intel Pentium K Anniversary Edition G3258 processor can be overclocked up to 4.5GHz. Way above mine. It can be found here: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-best-pc-gaming-cpus-processors/

 

I also read that an intel i5 4690K can also be overclocked above 4.4GHz+ at only about $20-$30 more!

 

Is my CPU a bad deal and not that great compared to other CPUs I could've got like any of the 6th generation i5's and any of the K series i5's?

 

If a CPU can be overclocked that high then why is it only a little bit more expensive than my CPU or any other CPU that can't be overclocked like mine and much cheaper than any of the i7 4th gennerations or below?

[Guest]

For the 4690k and Pentium Anniversary edition its a gamble.

Go with the 4690k because its the gamers choice of CPU's. More cores then the Pentium and faster.

[minibois]

You can't compare CPU's in GHz only. Did you know your CPU has two times as much cores as the Pentium CPU? Yeah, another fact that doesn't mean anything if you put it in context.

The context is the benchmarks, look those up and you know how a CPU actually performs

[Guest Kloaked]

Depends on the application. In gaming, games prefer faster cores in general, more than multiple cores. When games don't really fully utilize multiple cores, a dual core like the Pentium, when running at the same speed as a four core CPU, will keep up with the four core CPU, though the multicore CPUs (four cores I mean) will always come out on top for the most part.

 

You have a great CPU. Don't feel like you have a gimped part, because you don't. What you gain in my previous example is a few extra frames for the most part. In some extreme cases like in MMOs when many players are on screen casting spells and stuff, more Ghz and even more threads would finally show their colors.

[Arwanell]

are you a gamer? then your i5 is perfectly fine

 

fun fact: (gaming) 2.7Ghz i5 6400 beats 5.0Ghz Pentium in gaming

[Lotus]

For the CPUs you listed, comparisons of GHz actually works because they're all the same architecture. The difference is the G3258 has only 2 cores, whereas your i5-4590 has 4. The i5-4690k is identical in core count and lack of hyper threading, so a 4.6 GHz i5-4690k is roughly 24% better than your 3.7 GHz i5-4590, and that's overall not just in multi-threaded tasks. The thing is though is that overclocking speeds are not guaranteed, hence "overclock." For instance, many people hit 4.7-4.8 GHz with their G3258, and mine wont go over 4.5 GHz. Granted I only paid $50 for it and it's great for emulation (it's in my living room PC), so it's perfectly fine for me.

[Guest]

are you a gamer? then your i5 is perfectly fine

 

fun fact: (gaming) 2.7Ghz i5 6400 beats 5.0Ghz Pentium in gaming

do you have benchmarks for that?

Not trying to be a dick, I believe you I just wanna see by how much

[Arwanell]

do you have benchmarks for that?

Not trying to be a dick, I believe you I just wanna see by how much

no i don't lol

but trust me, it does in every game

 

this video will show you what i'm talking about

check the OC on Pentium

and these guys have the best benchmarks

[Yoo Song Won]

So overall, is my Intel i5 4590 good? 

[Quinnbeast]

For starters, the majority of games are bound by the GPU power and not the CPU. There are several exceptions of course, but most frame-rate / frame-time comparisons are between GPUs with good reason.

 

GHz alone doesn't tell you much, unless the core architecture is the same same i.e. it's of highly limited value. Games are slowly but surely making better use of multi-core chips, and the i5 series from Intel remains one of the best overall gaming CPUs, be it K or non-K. The likes of the G3258 can and does lag behind the i5 in many games but not others. For a dedicated gaming machine, i7s are slightly poorer value because the gains are fairly modest over the equivalent i5, but can be a great option if you're also recording gameplay or doing other things in the background that benefit from hyper-threading.

 

I have a K series CPU, but I choose not to overclock it. It's fast enough as it is for my use (3570K - 3 years old), and I value you a cool, quiet and stable system just as much as raw processing power. I'd just have happily bought the non-K model, and probably will do next time around.

 

Enjoy your CPU, it's a good choice and should last you a long time.