disscussion Settle an argument for me; I5 & 1080 or i7 & 1070?

[jninja119]

So last night while browsing on the PCMR subreddit I posted a comment to a person who was building a PC. He had an i7 7700 (non-k) and a GTX 1070 and stated the machine was gaming and nothing else. I thought it would be a good opportunity to recommend he go for an i5 and a GTX 1080 since that was only a few dollars more and would give him a far superior graphics power.

This being the internet and full of people who have no idea what they are talking about, the response I got was from a stranger who wrote:

 

"The i5 will bottleneck the 1080, also considering i5's aren't good at multitasking you shouldn't really be getting an i5 anymore, either go with Ryzen or get an i7"   *gag*

 

I retorted by politely telling him that i5s do not bottleneck GTX 1080s and that i5s are just as good for gaming since most games don't take advantage of those extra threads or clock speeds and the ones that do are few and far between. 

Well of course he retorted and started shooting back irrelevant benchmarks and maintaining his claim and I just kinda told him I wasn't going to respond anymore since internet flame wars lead to nothing positive and only serve to waste everyone's time. But I feel like I am not wrong about this and desire a second opinion, not because I want to pwn people in the comment section, but because I have heard this argument go a lot of different ways and ultimately feel like a discussion is warranted. 

 

Have intel i5 become less relevant in modern games due to the lack of hyper-threading?

Will an i5 bottleneck a GTX 1080 or GTX 1070?

For people who are solely interested in gaming, does the performance difference between an i7 and an i5 justify the extra cost? 

Which will yield better performance, the GTX 1070 + i7 combo, or the GTX 1080 + i5 combo?

 

I'd love to hear this discussion in an informed and polite environment so I can recommend properly to system builders in the future.

  

[The Sloth]

i7 and a 1070, an i5 will bottleneck anything above a gtx 1060/ rx580.  

[Guest]

You are wrong sadly

[PCGuy_5960]

You should get a Ryzen 5 1600 with a 1080  And just avoid the i5

[McHox]

i7 all the way

[PCGuy_5960]

6 minutes ago, jninja119 said:

Have intel i5 become less relevant in modern games due to the lack of hyper-threading?

Yes

6 minutes ago, jninja119 said:

Will an i5 bottleneck a GTX 1080 or GTX 1070?

Yes

6 minutes ago, jninja119 said:

For people who are solely interested in gaming, does the performance difference between an i7 and an i5 justify the extra cost? 

YEP

6 minutes ago, jninja119 said:

Which will yield better performance, the GTX 1070 + i7 combo, or the GTX 1080 + i5 combo?

Neither. A Ryzen 5 1600 and 1080 combo will offer the best performance 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

3 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

You are wrong sadly

I don't know what you are talking about: according to those graphs, i5+1080 is a great combo.

And you don't have i7+1070 there.

[PCGuy_5960]

Just now, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I don't know what you are talking about: according to those graphs, i5+1080 is a great combo.

And you don't have i7+1070 there.

Dude, it does show that the i5 is bottlenecking the 1070....

[jninja119]

Well this certainly is an enlightening experience. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Just now, PCGuy_5960 said:

Dude, it does show that the i5 is bottlenecking the 1070....

No, there is no 1070. It's a 1080.

 

And that doesn't matter at all: as long as i5+1080 is better than i5+1070 it could be worth it. Who cares if you don't get every single FPS out of the 1080: with i7+1070, you wouldn't have the 1080 at all anyways.

 

And on top of all of that, it's "bottlenecking" way beyond 100FPS. At 1080p, a retarded resolution to buy a 1080, to be honest.

[PCGuy_5960]

10 minutes ago, jninja119 said:

I retorted by politely telling him that i5s do not bottleneck GTX 1080s and that i5s are just as good for gaming since most games don't take advantage of those extra threads or clock speeds and the ones that do are few and far between. 

You couldn't be more wrong:

The 3GHz 5960X has better FPS than the 3.5GHz 6600K, and it also has way better minimums, which means that gameplay is smoother....

[PCGuy_5960]

1 minute ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

At 1080p, a retarded resolution to buy a 1080, to be honest.

No, it's not  I have a 1080 and I can tell you, I cannot max out every single setting in GTA V and still get more than 60FPS all the time. Plus, if you want to play Watch_dogs 2 or Ghost Recon Wildlands at 1080p you need a 1080

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Just now, PCGuy_5960 said:

No, it's not  I have a 1080 and I can tell you, I cannot max out every single setting in GTA V and still get more than 60FPS all the time. Plus, if you want to play Watch_dogs 2 or Ghost Recon Wildlands at 1080p you need a 1080

I strongly disagree, but it's your money, bro.

[jninja119]

Few Quick after thoughts, I recommended going from an i7 7700 (non-K) down to a 7600k, so the ability to overclock might be a changing factor, although likely not.

 

And also I'm still interested in seeing if there's any comparative benchmarks out there for the exact scenario (a 7700 +1070 (K is fine since most benchmarks don't overclock) and a 7600k and GTX 1080.  

 

That being said it seems I am far more incorrect than I have anticipated. 

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I strongly disagree, but it's your money, bro.

show us some concrete proof then you can go on with your argument

[Guest]

1 minute ago, jninja119 said:

Few Quick after thoughts, I recommended going from an i7 7700 (non-K) down to a 7600k, so the ability to overclock might be a changing factor, although likely not.

 

And also I'm still interested in seeing if there's any comparative benchmarks out there for the exact scenario (a 7700 +1070 (K is fine since most benchmarks don't overclock) and a 7600k and GTX 1080.  

 

That being said it seems I am far more incorrect than I have anticipated. 

Extra threads pay of but not much

[PCGuy_5960]

10 minutes ago, jninja119 said:

Few Quick after thoughts, I recommended going from an i7 7700 (non-K) down to a 7600k, so the ability to overclock might be a changing factor, although likely not.

5GHz won't magically add 4 threads to the CPU

10 minutes ago, jninja119 said:

And also I'm still interested in seeing if there's any comparative benchmarks out there for the exact scenario (a 7700 +1070 (K is fine since most benchmarks don't overclock) and a 7600k and GTX 1080.  

The 7600K+1080 combo will have higher averages but it will be way more stuttery compared to a 7700+1070 combo. But either way, Ryzen 5 1600+1080 would be better than both

BTW, take a look at this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($294.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($62.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $357.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-20 14:18 EDT-0400

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($34.89 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - Z270 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($103.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $368.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-20 14:19 EDT-0400

An i7 7700 is cheaper than a 7600K if you take into account the cost of the platform

[PCGuy_5960]

1 minute ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Extra threads pay of but not much

1% and 0.1% lows will tell a completely different story

[jninja119]

Just now, PCGuy_5960 said:

5GHz won't magically add 4 threads to the CPU

The 7600K+1080 combo will have higher averages but it will be way more stuttery compared to a 7700+1070 combo. But either way, a Ryzen 5 1600+1080 would be better than both

BTW, take a look at this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($294.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($62.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $357.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-20 14:18 EDT-0400

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($34.89 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - Z270 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($103.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $368.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-20 14:19 EDT-0400

An i7 7700 is cheaper than a 7600K if you take into account the cost of a platform

Oh I have no doubt about Ryzen being superior as a bang for your buck CPU, however this is more of an argument that comes up frequently.

  

[PCGuy_5960]

Just now, jninja119 said:

Oh I have no doubt about Ryzen being superior as a bang for your buck CPU, however this is more of an argument that comes up frequently.

  

Yeah, but all I am saying is: You can get an i7 7700 with a GTX 1080 for less than a 7600K with a GTX 1080

[SpaceGhostC2C]

11 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

show us some concrete proof then you can go on with your argument

Concrete proof of what? Of me not considering it a reasonable purchase? How the fuck do you "prove" an opinion?

[PCGuy_5960]

Just now, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Concrete proof of what? Of me not considering it a reasonable purchase? How the fuck do you "prove" an opinion?

BENCHMARKKKKS. This is Unigine Superposition at 1080p (take a look at the FPS )

[jninja119]

1 minute ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

Yeah, but all I am saying is: You can get an i7 7700 with a GTX 1080 for less than a 7600K with a GTX 1080

This guy had a Z207 Motherboard This is his build breakdown.  

[PCGuy_5960]

Just now, jninja119 said:

This guy had a Z207 Motherboard This is his build breakdown.  

Makes no sense  Why would you get a Z270 motherboard with a non K CPU?

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Just now, PCGuy_5960 said:

BENCHMARKKKKS. This is Unigine Superposition at 1080p (take a look at the FPS )

What the hell are you talking about? What the fuck is a benchmark for opinions?

 

I said buying a GTX 1080 to play at 1080p is a bad purchase. What is there to benchmark?

There's no need for any benchmark to know that a GTX 1080 will perform better than a 1070. No benchmark will tell you how much to pay for the extra performance.

So, again, what are you talking about?