Do I really need that i7?

[Mr.Twabfish]

Here is my problem: I am building a PC over the course of this summer, and no matter how much I research, read, and double back upon myself, I cannot choose between buying an i7 6700k and a i5 6600k, I do plan on overclocking, and am planing on buying a GTX 1070 or RX 490 depending on what gives me better boom for my moolah. I will be playing your average AAA titles at 1080p, and looking at upgrading to 4k with SLI/crossfire in the future (a year or so down the road). Maybe its the purist in me, but I just cannot seem to bring myself to buy the i5, even when I feel that it will perform better for my $$. What are your opinions? Do I really need that i7 now, and will it pay off down the road? Is it worth it? Oh please help me, for I hast prayed to Lord Gaben and received no answer!

[JabroniBaloney]

No, you don't need an I7.

[daniielrp]

For gaming alone, I don't believe you gain much, and if you're sticking at 1080p then your 1070 with an i5 will be more than enough. 

 

However, if the price difference isn't too much overall, then it can't hurt. I'd think about it in terms of the entire PC cost. 100 more might seem a lot, but if it's only an extra 10-15% of the overall cost with everything else then why not. You could even swap out other bits to put more towards the i7 - cases can be mighty expensive but cheap ones generally do just as good a job. Also with a i7 and and 1070 your power consumption will be quite low, so no need to do what some people do and get a 1600W MOAR POWER PSU - a 500-600w would do fine. 

[Vengeance_K1ng]

5 minutes ago, Mr.Twabfish said:

Here is my problem: I am building a PC over the course of this summer, and no matter how much I research, read, and double back upon myself, I cannot choose between buying an i7 6700k and a i5 6600k, I do plan on overclocking, and am planing on buying a GTX 1070 or RX 490 depending on what gives me better boom for my moolah. I will be playing your average AAA titles at 1080p, and looking at upgrading to 4k with SLI/crossfire in the future (a year or so down the road). Maybe its the purist in me, but I just cannot seem to bring myself to buy the i5, even when I feel that it will perform better for my $$. What are your opinions? Do I really need that i7 now, and will it pay off down the road? Is it worth it? Oh please help me, for I hast prayed to Lord Gaben and received no answer!

Ignore the "i3/i5/i7" in the product name. Look at the specs and stuff you need. and of course its nice to have an i7 for bragging rights, BUT its not what you should be worried about, do your research and get what you need.

[artificialRAGE]

Just get the i7. You will need it sooner or later

[Vengeance_K1ng]

2 minutes ago, artificialRAGE said:

Just get the i7. You will need it sooner or later

I disagree, you don't "Need" an i7. Its all about the specs man.

[mikat]

7 minutes ago, Vengeance_K1ng said:

Ignore the "i3/i5/i7" in the product name. Look at the specs and stuff you need. and of course its nice to have an i7 for bragging rights, BUT its not what you should be worried about, do your research and get what you need.

bragging rights AND faster rendering times AND more threads that are handy for virtualisation

[JefferyD90]

12 minutes ago, Mr.Twabfish said:

Here is my problem: I am building a PC over the course of this summer, and no matter how much I research, read, and double back upon myself, I cannot choose between buying an i7 6700k and a i5 6600k, I do plan on overclocking, and am planing on buying a GTX 1070 or RX 490 depending on what gives me better boom for my moolah. I will be playing your average AAA titles at 1080p, and looking at upgrading to 4k with SLI/crossfire in the future (a year or so down the road). Maybe its the purist in me, but I just cannot seem to bring myself to buy the i5, even when I feel that it will perform better for my $$. What are your opinions? Do I really need that i7 now, and will it pay off down the road? Is it worth it? Oh please help me, for I hast prayed to Lord Gaben and received no answer!

I personally would go for the i7-6700k...  but I'm like you, a purist, I'd get it just because it "completes" the system.

 

The great part about the i5 is you have a upgrade path/option in the future, but the great part about the i7, is you don't have to upgrade!  haha.

 

Seriously though, the i5 doesn't give you ANY downside other than the threads, which are semi not necessary.

[Vengeance_K1ng]

1 minute ago, mikat said:

bragging rights AND faster rendering times AND more threads that are handy for virtualisation

He says he is willing to overclock. There wont be that much of a difference. but there will be some.

[mikat]

2 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

Seriously though, the i5 doesn't give you ANY downside other than the threads, which are semi not necessary.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skylake-intel-core-i7-6700k-core-i5-6600k,4252-7.html

aaaaaaaaaand no.

[mikat]

2 minutes ago, Vengeance_K1ng said:

He says he is willing to overclock. There wont be that much of a difference. but there will be some.

yes, for OP the i7 is only really necessary if OP is planning to upgrade their gpu to the new gpus in a few years or get a second GPU

 

[JefferyD90]

2 minutes ago, mikat said:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skylake-intel-core-i7-6700k-core-i5-6600k,4252-7.html

aaaaaaaaaand no.

I don't acknowledge synthetic benchmarks.

 

The extra threads don't offer any real work benefits.

[Mr.Twabfish]

To add another factor to this, how long ( In approximation) would the i5 "last" until? vs the i7? 

[mikat]

4 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

I don't acknowledge synthetic benchmarks.

 

The extra threads don't offer any real work benefits.

Adobe media encoder is not a synthetic benchmark, it's a real world use case scenario

render times are significantly reduced by the i7

 

[Mr.Twabfish]

11 minutes ago, mikat said:

Adobe media encoder is not a synthetic benchmark, it's a real world use case scenario

and here are some game benchmarks:

 

Thanks! this is very helpful

[Mr.Twabfish]

okay: here is where I stand: First of all, thanks a BUNCH for all the helpful insight you guys have given. I have settled on the i5 for now (Heck, maybe I will buy a i7 sticker off Ebay so that my less informed friends respect my PC a bit more :) But just to keep me confident, do you guys think this will avoid being a bottleneck for at least two years?

[MageTank]

24 minutes ago, mikat said:

Adobe media encoder is not a synthetic benchmark, it's a real world use case scenario

render times are significantly reduced by the i7

 

I have to seriously question the gaming results in this video. I had a Core i5 6600T overclocked to 4ghz (and even had it overclocked to 4.5ghz most of the time), and my Core i7 6700k that is stock (4ghz, 4.2ghz base) and the difference between the two in gaming was NEVER that big of a difference. Maybe 10% at most, in favor of the i7. 

 

 

 

As you can see, my results were very close to what Digital Foundry had. I can't say stock vs stock, as the 6600T at stock, is 2.7ghz, 3.5ghz boost (with all 4 cores boosting to 3.3ghz) which is quite a difference in clock speeds. Once both CPU's are clocked exactly the same, the difference is nearly unnoticeable. That being said, the 6700k is smoother in terms of minimum framerate dips. However, It is questionable as whether or not this smoothness is worth the extra $80-$100 price premium.

 

I would say if gaming is your only intention, save the $100 you get from going with the i5, and throw it at a better GPU or monitor. Something that will have a bigger impact on ones gaming experience. If you intend to do more than just gaming (multi-tasking, streaming, encoding, etc) then an i7 would be justified in that scenario.