Best For Gaming? I7 6700k vs I7 5820K vs I7 4790K vs I5 6600k vs ?

[FirstTimePC]

What CPU is the best for gaming? Planning to build a $1200-1300 computer. Please tell me what I can improve in my build! Feedback needed!

 

Component		Selection	Base	Promo	Shipping	Tax	Price	Where
CPU		Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor	$364.99		FREE		$364.99	Newegg
Combo discount automatically applied. (View details.)
CPU Cooler		CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler	$34.50		FREE		$34.50	Newegg	Buy
Motherboard		MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$163.99	-$10.00	$2.99		$156.98	Newegg	Buy Combo
Combo discount automatically applied. (View details.)
$10.00 mail-in rebate
Memory		Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory	$59.99				$59.99	Amazon	Buy
Storage		Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$87.77				$87.77	OutletPC	Buy
		Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$45.89				$45.89	OutletPC	Buy
Video Card		MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card	$329.98		FREE		$329.98	SuperBiiz	Buy
Case		NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case	$61.59				$61.59	NZXT	Buy
Power Supply		EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$69.99	-$20.00	FREE		$49.99	Newegg	Buy
$20.00 mail-in rebate
Monitor		Asus VX238H 23.0" Monitor	$129.99	-$20.00			$109.99	Micro Center	Buy
$20.00 mail-in rebate
Keyboard		Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse	$29.99	-$5.00	$1.99		$26.98	Newegg	Buy

[Aytex]

i5 6500 for gaming

[vanished]

Well the 6700K should offer the highest performance for 4 threads, and more overall than the 6600k so that would be my vote

[Starelementpoke]

Better psu.

[Vercii]

6700k

[SurvivorNVL]

6700K and try and get a better PSU.  4c/8t will be the best, given if you multi-task and game - it will offer a good level of performance.  

[DGB]

6700k. It has a higher clock speed and better thread performance.

[DoubleSolid]

17 minutes ago, Starelementpoke said:

Better psu.

This.

[DoubleSolid]

14 minutes ago, DGB said:

6700k. It has a higher clock speed and better thread performance.

The 5820K can easily be overclocked to 4 GHz, and it has more cores for future proofing. It is also less expensive most of the time.

[vanished]

54 minutes ago, DoubleSolid said:

The 5820K can easily be overclocked to 4 GHz, and it has more cores for future proofing. It is also less expensive most of the time.

I've learned to never assume any overclock is guaranteed, no matter how small.  Just words of wisdom, learned the hard way for whatever they're worth  

[Cheddle]

4 hours ago, DoubleSolid said:

The 5820K can easily be overclocked to 4 GHz, and it has more cores for future proofing. It is also less expensive most of the time.

 

4 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I've learned to never assume any overclock is guaranteed, no matter how small.  Just words of wisdom, learned the hard way for whatever they're worth  

 

True. but it is a safe gamble to expect a 5820 to clock to at least 3.8ghz at stock or close to stock voltage (note, very low) and at that speed the single thread is going to more or less comparable to the i5-6500 - except rather than having 4 threads - you have 12 of them... 

 

It all comes down to budget. I certainly would go an i5-6500 + an r9 390 compared to an i7-6700k/5820k + an r9 380 for gaming. If you plan on "some now, more later" then neither are a good choice as new gear has a premium to pay compared to 2nd hand gear and your only setting yourself up to spend more money than buying it all in one hit!

[Doowstados]

If gaming is all you do then really the price to performance would be better offset by grabbing an i5-4690K and putting the rest of the money into a video card. Even with a good amount of multi-tasking the 4690K will hold up well - I only recently upgraded from my old i5-2500K to the rig in my signature because the software I am currently writing required me to. On the older sandy bridge i5-2500K I was able to play Farcry 4 maxed out at 1080p, have several excel windows with thousands to tens of thousands of cells open, a couple of programming IDEs and very large word documents (300+ pages) with no problems. Oh, and a typical load of 20 ish Firefox tabs.

 

If this sounds like more than what you do (probably is) then the i5 will be fine. Take the savings from not getting the i7-6700K, DDR4, Z170 board, etc. and get a 980 or 980Ti. The Devil's Canyon chips will be viable to max out pretty much anything at 1080p for at least another 3-4 years.

 

If you REALLY want the Z170 chipset and the new USB 3.1 features, etc. then the i5-6600K is the budget sweet spot.

[Sintezza]

6700K is simply the best cpu for gaming on the market atm, there is realy nothing to argue about.

And it would also be the cpu that i would recommend going with in this case.

If you dont have to sacrefice on the gpu.

 

Of course an i5-6600K is also still a good choice.

But we do see some games that are starting to benefit from having more threads availeble.

Like FO4.

[Doowstados]

11 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

6700K is simply the best cpu for gaming on the market atm, there is realy nothing to argue about.

And it would also be the cpu that i would recommend going with in this case.

If you dont have to sacrefice on the gpu.

 

Of course an i5-6600K is also still a good choice.

But we do see some games that are starting to benefit from having more threads availeble.

Like FO4.

Just because it is the "best on the market" doesn't mean it is a good value or the most important component of a gaming rig. Games, even the most demanding, are simply not as CPU intensive as they are GPU intensive (e.g. my old 2500K maxed out FO4 easily with usage usually under 25-30%).

 

If you are building a computer specifically for gaming there is no reason, and will not be a reason in the near future, for more than four cores / four threads.

A rig with an i5-6600K and a GTX 980 will be more viable for much longer than a rig with an i7-6700K and a 390 if the purpose of the rig is gaming.

 

With a $120 price delta between the two CPUs that $120 would be better moved to grab one of these over the 390:

 

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GAMING-GTX-980-4G/dp/B00OD38516/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1460366315&sr=1-2&keywords=gtx+980

[Sintezza]

44 minutes ago, Doowstados said:

Just because it is the "best on the market" doesn't mean it is a good value or the most important component of a gaming rig. Games, even the most demanding, are simply not as CPU intensive as they are GPU intensive (e.g. my old 2500K maxed out FO4 easily with usage usually under 25-30%).

 

If you are building a computer specifically for gaming there is no reason, and will not be a reason in the near future, for more than four cores / four threads.

A rig with an i5-6600K and a GTX 980 will be more viable for much longer than a rig with an i7-6700K and a 390 if the purpose of the rig is gaming.

 

With a $120 price delta between the two CPUs that $120 would be better moved to grab one of these over the 390:

 

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GAMING-GTX-980-4G/dp/B00OD38516/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1460366315&sr=1-2&keywords=gtx+980

I agree and also disagree on this at some points.

 

i have seen certain scenario´s in games in which the i5 was realy hitting its upper limmits, in certain area´s in Fallout 4 for example.

But Watchdogs is also a game that scales realy nicely if you have more cores availeble.

Some area´s in Crysis3 aswell.

Also and i7 can be realy handy for other things aswell, like streaming, video editing, virtualization and what not.

 

I do agree that for most games, 4 cores / 4 threads is still more then enough.

But some games we do see benefits from having more threads at certain scenario´s.

 

There is realy no reason to not go with the 6700K at this very moment for a gaming rig.

If you have enough money to spend to not sacrefice on the gpu.

 

If you have to make too much sacrefices on the gpu, then yes go with the i5, if you only care for gaming.

I do agree on that, because the price diffrence between those 2 cpu´s for only a few games, does not weight up against the overall performance arround the board in terms of a better GPU.

 

So wenn we look at it from a price to performance standpoint.

Then I totaly agree with you.