I7-6950K vs. I7-7700K

[TiskTisk512]

OK so I'm sure this is probably a topic that gets brought up a lot, but I'm new here so bear with me. I'm choosing between the 2 here for gaming mostly (with a bit of mining on the side). Think performance performance performance, with a little bit of workstation, mining, encryption.

I've read countless articles about the differences in the specs between the 2, but I wanted to know what the board thinks?

[Guest]

Just now, TiskTisk512 said:

OK so I'm sure this is probably a topic that gets brought up a lot, but I'm new here so bear with me. I'm choosing between the 2 here for gaming mostly (with a bit of mining on the side). Think performance performance performance, with a little bit of workstation, mining, encryption.

I've read countless articles about the differences in the specs between the 2, but I wanted to know what the board thinks?

For gaming mostly then an i7 7700k no doubt

[TiskTisk512]

Just now, deXxterlab97 said:

For gaming mostly then an i7 7700k no doubt

Why? Even for mining and work on the side? Even if I OC the sunvagun?

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, TiskTisk512 said:

Why? Even for mining and work on the side? Even if I OC the sunvagun?

 

Don't mine with cpu, its a horrible idea. A gt 610 is faster. Your just wasting power.

 

What workstation tasks?

 

How about a ryzen r7 1700?

 

the 6950x is a horrible value.

[DoctorZeus]

7 minutes ago, TiskTisk512 said:

Why? Even for mining and work on the side? Even if I OC the sunvagun?

 

do you mean 6850k or 6950x?

[TiskTisk512]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Don't mine with cpu, its a horrible idea. A gt 610 is faster. Your just wasting power.

 

What workstation tasks?

 

How about a ryzen r7 1700?

 

the 6950x is a horrible value.

Why is it a horrible value? I was going to do a whole Intel/Nvidia setup is why it makes sense (I think?). Titan X, 2-way SLI, etc.

[2FA]

7700K, you should only bother mining altcoins with a GPU, especially AMD GPUs.

[DocSwag]

2 minutes ago, TiskTisk512 said:

Why is it a horrible value? I was going to do a whole Intel/Nvidia setup is why it makes sense (I think?). Titan X, 2-way SLI, etc.

You're paying five times more than a 1700 and getting maybe 25-30% better performance. That's definitely not value.

[Princess Luna]

Hehehe make a 1800x if you have the money for 6950x or wait for x299 and make an i7 7950x now that would be pretty epic to have.

[TiskTisk512]

4 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Hehehe make a 1800x if you have the money for 6950x or wait for x299 and make an i7 7950x now that would be pretty epic to have.

It'll be 2018 before they come out with the 7950X, they'll only have 7950Ks this year and they'll only have 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes, so I'm definitely not about to run my Titan X's on that 8x lane.

[koolerone]

5 minutes ago, TiskTisk512 said:

 they'll only have 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes, so I'm definitely not about to run my Titan X's on that 8x lane.

only one of them will run on 8x...and even then that's plenty of bandwidth for a gfx card...and if you're just gonna game you might as well save about a grand and just get sli 1080ti's....or just one 1080ti.  and honestly i'd go with a 7700k as gpu's are way more effective in terms of mining bitcoin etc... just my  twocentz

[DrMikeNZ]

The 6950X is the most stupid processor in the world. If you are seriously looking at that budget, you are much better off with Xeons. Or, if you want to play games, then for the cost of a 6950X system, you could build an R7 1700 system, and an i7 7700K system, so you can game while running your workload on a dedicated box.

[TiskTisk512]

3 minutes ago, koolerone said:

only one of them will run on 8x...and even then that's plenty of bandwidth for a gfx card...and if you're just gonna game you might as well save about a grand and just get sli 1080ti's....or just one 1080ti.  and honestly i'd go with a 7700k as gpu's are way more effective in terms of mining bitcoin etc... just my  twocentz

Building an uber build so that's why I'm looking into it. 

[typographie]

29 minutes ago, TiskTisk512 said:

Why? Even for mining and work on the side? Even if I OC the sunvagun?

Exactly what kind of work, and how often? High core counts can be nice for video work, for instance, but I wouldn't really recommend more than maybe an i7-7700K unless you're doing it professionally. If you can calculate an equivalence between how long renders take and how much profit you make, then it starts to make sense to buy a really expensive CPU. You could do hobbyist work on the side well enough with an i5, let alone any i7. You don't need a $1700 i7-6950X for that.

[TiskTisk512]

Just now, DrMikeNZ said:

The 6950X is the most stupid processor in the world. If you are seriously looking at that budget, you are much better off with Xeons. Or, if you want to play games, then for the cost of a 6950X system, you could build an R7 1700 system, and an i7 7700K system, so you can game while running your workload on a dedicated box.

Hmmmmmmm....... I don't think the Xeons are anywhere close to the speed necessary for gaming yeah?

 

Regarding the 2 builds: That's a damn good idea... Can't believe I hadn't thought of that... 

So which one would you recommend running the workload?

[TiskTisk512]

Just now, typographie said:

Exactly what kind of work, and how often? High core counts can be nice for video work, for instance, but I wouldn't really recommend more than maybe an i7-7700K unless you're doing it professionally. If you can calculate an equivalence between how long renders take and how much profit you make, then it starts to make sense to buy a really expensive CPU. You could do hobbyist work on the side well enough with an i5, let alone any i7. You don't need a $1700 i7-6950X for that.

Well mostly multiple very heavy office documentation. Not like a simple spreadsheet: Think 5GB office files with macros, VSDs and really taxing links/other dependencies and DB integrations. It KILLS my i5 current setup and hence why I'm here.

[koolerone]

Just now, TiskTisk512 said:

Building an uber build so that's why I'm looking into it. 

from what I can tell...there isn't much difference in terms of fps difference in games between the 1080ti and the new Titan Xp...so unless you just want the #baller status i'd go with a 1080ti as there isn't much difference in gaming .  And you can get custom coolers on the 1080ti unless you're going to water cool the system.

[typographie]

1 minute ago, TiskTisk512 said:

Well mostly multiple very heavy office documentation. Not like a simple spreadsheet: Think 5GB office files with macros, VSDs and really taxing links/other dependencies and DB integrations. It KILLS my i5 current setup and hence why I'm here.

I'm honestly a little unfamiliar with that sort of workload, so I'll take your word for it. Still, I'm fairly sure the 6950X is well past the point of reason. I'd stop at the i7-6900K if you want to go really crazy with this, and I think the 7700K, 6850K, or Ryzen 7 are more reasonable and cost-effective solutions that don't make such a heavy frequency sacrifice.

[TiskTisk512]

Just now, typographie said:

I'm honestly a little unfamiliar with that sort of workload, so I'll take your word for it. Still, I'm fairly sure the 6950X is well past the point of reason. I'd stop at the i7-6900K if you want to go really crazy with this, and I think the 7700K, 6850K, or Ryzen 7 are more reasonable and cost-effective solutions that don't make such a heavy frequency sacrifice.

For gaming alone though my understanding is that the 6950X is not as good as the 7700K. Is that your opinion?

[TiskTisk512]

38 minutes ago, DoctorZeus said:

do you mean 6850k or 6950x?

Sorry 6950X!

 

[TiskTisk512]

Another thing to think about is the quad-channel memory capability here. That makes a huge difference for workload based tasks.

[typographie]

Just now, TiskTisk512 said:

For gaming alone though my understanding is that the 6950X is not as good as the 7700K. Is that your opinion?

It'll vary somewhat based on the game, but yes, my opinion is that the 7700K is at least as good or often better most of the time.

 

It's probably not a massive difference, it's not like you can't play games well enough with a 6950X. And plus, most games care a lot more about your GPU(s) than your CPU. But for the costs involved, you get virtually nothing out of a 6950X in games that a 7700K doesn't already provide for a fifth of the cost.

 

1 minute ago, TiskTisk512 said:

Another thing to think about is the quad-channel memory capability here. That makes a huge difference for workload based tasks.

The 6800K is such an obvious choice, in my opinion. It's only like $50 more than the 7700K (and maybe a bit more for the X99 motherboard), gives you two more physical cores and quad-channel memory support if that matters to your work, and isn't much worse than the quad-core i7's in games.

 

The 6950X is basically a Xeon. It makes a lot more sense in a server than in a desktop PC that will be used mostly for gaming.