4770k vs 4790k For Gaming?

[severus]

A new 4790k is $289 at Microcenter if you have acecss to one.

 

[Brigita]

Why not to stick with i7 6700k? its for gaming super, price almost same
https://www.varle.lt/procesoriai/procesor-intel-core-i7-i7-6700k-4000mhz-1151-box--1356521.html
or you want to buy on ebay? used with no warranty? pff

 

[crashtech]

Why not to stick with i7 6700k? its for gaming super, price almost same
https://www.varle.lt/procesoriai/procesor-intel-core-i7-i7-6700k-4000mhz-1151-box--1356521.html
or you want to buy on ebay? used with no warranty? pff

I've bought literally dozens of used CPUs with no issue at all. Online transactions done properly give you recourse for DOA, and if it works when you receive it, it will work as long as you need it to. Having an aversion to used things is a great way to spend extra money though, which is great for the economy. So actually, everyone should follow your advice, then sell their unwanted CPUs to me.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I've bought literally dozens of used CPUs with no issue at all. Online transactions done properly give you recourse for DOA, and if it works when you receive it, it will work as long as you need it to. Having an aversion to used things is a great way to spend extra money though, which is great for the economy. So actually, everyone should follow your advice, then sell their unwanted CPUs to me.

^ This. How the hell difficult is it to stick a chip in, reset CPU settings to default, and run Prime95 / IBT / *favorite stability test* for a few hours?
Now a laptop CPU is more of a PITA if it turns out to be defective, but same thing. When you score a used i7-4810MQ for CL for $50, you don't complain

 

[DrMrLordX]

Why not to stick with i7 6700k?

A 6700k will not work in his existing Z97 motherboard, that's why.

 

[ehume]

The i7 4790k is still for sale, new? Wow.

Well, I have an i7 4770k. It's not bad, but it needs volts and when it hits its heat limit, the core temps skyrocket up, no matter what the cooling. I have an i7 4790k, replacing one that I killed. Both chips run faster on fewer volts than the i7 4770k. Also, their cores run cooler than the i7 4770k. From my experiences I concluded that the changes Intel announced are real, that they make a slight improvement. Is it worth a $60 surcharge? Your decision. Overall I am happy with my 4790k, but I use my 4770k too. Both work <shrug>.

 

[gammaray]

Is there a game out there that an i7-4770k can not run properly given the recommended (or above) video card ?

 

[IllogicalGlory]

Is there a game out there that an i7-4770k can not run properly given the recommended (or above) video card ?

No. Pretty much anything above a dual core without SMT will run any game properly. Anything i3 or above, and possibly including Core 2 Quads and such. Dual cores, including Pentium G3258 sometimes can't run games without huge drops in framerate or constant stuttering. Some games don't even allow you to play the game with a dual core, though this is an artificial limitation.

 

[crashtech]

It seems like there are some game/GPU/quality combos that appear to have good frames rates with a dual core, but have issues with poor minimums or more precisely, too many instances of slower than average frame rendering times which can appear as stuttering. This effect seems to be a very individualistic thing, one person won't bothered by it, but the next will get very irritated by it. Gamers who want to play newish games and know they are sensitive to stuttering should spend the extra money for a fast quad at the least.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Is there a game out there that an i7-4770k can not run properly given the recommended (or above) video card ?

Heck no. Some of the comments I've seen make something as recent as Haswell sound like a frickin' Zilog Z80 in comparison to Skylake...
Even a moderately high OCed SandyBridge is still fine, since it is about equivalent to a stock-clocked 6600K/6700K.

 

[poofyhairguy]

It seems like there are some game/GPU/quality combos that appear to have good frames rates with a dual core, but have issues with poor minimums or more precisely, too many instances of slower than average frame rendering times which can appear as stuttering. This effect seems to be a very individualistic thing, one person won't bothered by it, but the next will get very irritated by it. Gamers who want to play newish games and know they are sensitive to stuttering should spend the extra money for a fast quad at the least.

That has been my problem. Even weak modern games like Rocket League stutter on my OCed G3258. I really only planned to use this rig for light gaming and the G3258 simply isn't good enough for that.

Honestly the pretty large gap in prices between the second hand 4770ks and 4790ks surprised me, and that is why I made the thread. I was able to pick up a 4770k for a little bit more than I got a 2600k late last year (a little over $200), while a 4790k is close to a Fry's sale price on a 6700k. To me it seemed like the 4770k was dropping off in price simply due to being one too many "generations" back, while the 4970k is still has to play the spoiler for the 6700k. Throughout my computer career I have always liked to take advantage of arbitrage value in situations like that, and doubly so when CPUs improve so little from year to year.

 

[crashtech]

That has been my problem. Even weak modern games like Rocket League stutter on my OCed G3258. I really only planned to use this rig for light gaming and the G3258 simply isn't good enough for that.

Honestly the pretty large gap in prices between the second hand 4770ks and 4790ks surprised me, and that is why I made the thread. I was able to pick up a 4770k for a little bit more than I got a 2600k late last year (a little over $200), while a 4790k is close to a Fry's sale price on a 6700k. To me it seemed like the 4770k was dropping off in price simply due to being one too many "generations" back, while the 4970k is still has to play the spoiler for the 6700k. Throughout my computer career I have always liked to take advantage of arbitrage value in situations like that, and doubly so when CPUs improve so little from year to year.

Do you have your 4770K yet?

 

[gammaray]

I do

 

[poofyhairguy]

Do you have your 4770K yet?

Yup!

I haven't put it in that 480 rig yet to test its max clocks because my wife uses that machine daily for watching media so I have to do it while she is napping on the weekends. But the 4770K is making me some of its cost back mining zcash in a thrown together rig (thanks to a $40 Frys mobo) while that currency is still worth anything!

I have a Scythe Ninja cooler sitting around that always did better than my water cooler anyway (it's just too big for Mini ITX), so if I get some time today or tomorrow I will throw that on to find out the max OCing I can do and report back.

 

[crashtech]

I'll be looking forward to seeing what you think of it. It's easy to tell from many of the responses here that the 4790K is held in much higher regard, that's reflected in market prices. Of course this is also common in other platforms, the fastest CPUs for outdated platforms always carry a price premium. I think getting a 4770K for somewhere around $225-250 represents a pretty solid value if you already have a Haswell platform.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Just FYI some Z97's mobos automatically "overclock" 4790's to 4.4 turbo on all four cores (usually it's 4.2 out the box). Would be interesting to know if they do the same for the 4770k (not to 4.4 though obviously)

 

[loafbred]

Just FYI some Z97's mobos automatically "overclock" 4790's to 4.4 turbo on all four cores (usually it's 4.2 out the box). Would be interesting to know if they do the same for the 4770k (not to 4.4 though obviously)

That was my experience with my Gigabyte board with 4790k (4.4 GHz turbo on all four), with vcore defaulting, when set to "auto", at 1.25v. It makes some serious heat under full load, so be prepared. I'm using Noctua's biggest cooler, and everything is cool and quiet with no throttling.

 

[crashtech]

On a 4770K that same all-core turbo setting would produce 3.9GHz, so not nearly as much to be concerned with, imo. I'd set the 4770K to 4.2GHz and 1.25-1.29V to begin and see how it goes. My 4770K really started making heat above 1.29V. H60 seems to be close to a big air cooler in capacity, if I remember right.

 

[Byte]

There was a lot of controversy whether delidding worked in teh begging, but I did it to a dozen chips and it lowers temps by at least 10C. I use liquid ultra also and it doesn't get better than that. It doesn't help o/cs that much though, but will help those that are already great operate at lower temps. I glue the IHS back with some JB quick 2 part epoxy. Most other glues don't work at all. Just make some lines to realign the IHS. Once you do one, the rest are super easy.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'll be looking forward to seeing what you think of it. It's easy to tell from many of the responses here that the 4790K is held in much higher regard, that's reflected in market prices. Of course this is also common in other platforms, the fastest CPUs for outdated platforms always carry a price premium. I think getting a 4770K for somewhere around $225-250 represents a pretty solid value if you already have a Haswell platform.

So I now have it installed in my Mini ITX rig and the 4770k's max OC in such a small space is 4.3Ghz. Not rockstar (or even the minimum of a 4970k) but better than my 2600k.

Honestly even without OC the stock speeds blow away everything compared to the G3258. Gaming lag is gone, emulation is better, its just all around better. This GPU is a good pair for a 480 and 1080p. I think the 8GB of RAM will hold it back more in the future compared to the CPU.

Thanks everyone!

 

[VirtualLarry]

ompared to the G3258. Gaming lag is gone, emulation is better,

I've been a big fan of high-clocked duals for a long time, but I just recently got an i5-6400 for one of my machines too, and am BLCK OCing it to 4.455Ghz. Kinda high voltage though, requires 1.410V or so. Not sure if that's safe, for long-term 24/7 usage. (Had a (late) friend with an E5200 that we OCed to 3.75Ghz, at 1.42V (BIOS) / 1.40V (CPU-Z under load), and it degraded over the span of 6-12 months, so much that we had to dial back the OC to 3.5Ghz or so. If 1.4V+ is bad for 45nm, I can only imagine that perhaps it's not good for 14nm as well.)

Edit: Wasn't meant to be a brag post, more of a confirmation of your choice to upgrade from a high-clocked dual, because I ended up doing the same thing. Only you sprung for the i7, which is probably way faster than my i5, even being a generation older.

 

[vissarix]

.

 

[sirmo]

I would stay away from the 4770k unless you want to have to deal with deliding and potentially damaging the part. Mine has the heat transfer issue, my whole motherboard was getting scorching hot because it couldn't transfer the heat to the cooler. I finally managed to make it work by undervolting, because I don't want to risk the deliding until Ryzen is out.

 

[crashtech]

So I now have it installed in my Mini ITX rig and the 4770k's max OC in such a small space is 4.3Ghz. Not rockstar (or even the minimum of a 4970k) but better than my 2600k.

Honestly even without OC the stock speeds blow away everything compared to the G3258. Gaming lag is gone, emulation is better, its just all around better. This GPU is a good pair for a 480 and 1080p. I think the 8GB of RAM will hold it back more in the future compared to the CPU.

Thanks everyone!

If the 4.3GHz is with all cores, that is slightly better than the stock 4790K all-core turbo.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/processors/000005523.html

 

[poofyhairguy]

If the 4.3GHz is with all cores, that is slightly better than the stock 4790K all-core turbo.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/processors/000005523.html

Yeah it's 4.3 all cores. I could probably do more in a bigger case but the heat in Mini ITX doesn't make it worth it. Hell I am just happy this was such a boost from my G3258 (and hell even my old 2500k), I hated feeling like I wasted money on that rig. Now the G3258 is in my Unraid server so I didn't waste a thing!

I will probably use the money saved on the CPU not being a 4970k to upgrade my RAM to 16gb as I have read 8GB is not enough for some games nowadays. I figure with that and the 480 8GB this thing is a decent 1080p gaming machine for a while. In fact I really can't feel a difference between it and my main rig with a 2600k and a 390x so far.