Difference between lowest tier i5 (i5-6400) and other i5s?

[Mycelus]

So I consider myself quite knowledgeable in terms of hardware. Yet what I can't seem to understand is the discrepancy between Intel's offerings when it comes to i5's.

The currently Skylake i5's include the 6400, 6500, 6600 and the 6600K.

The only difference from what I understand is their clock speed. The exception being the 6600K can overclock.

6400 - 2.7 GHz ($180)
6500 - 3.2 GHz ($205)
6600 - 3.3 GHz ($230)
6600K - 3.5 GHz ($270)

Now correct me if I'm wrong. Overclocking the CPU (at least in terms of the i5) gives no real benefit in terms of gaming performance. Can someone prove otherwise?

If that is the case, why would anyone spend a whopping $90 more for literally NO performance benefit? The extra .7 GHz does not contribute to more FPS in games, nor does an overclock.

I'm just not understanding why you would buy say an i5-6600 over the i5-6400 for gaming purposes. You're literally throwing away $25-80 for no additional FPS, correct?

I feel like Intel's been jacking up the price of it's processors. I believe the 2500K was $230 retail and now we're seeing $270 retail for the unlocked i5. With that being the case, I'd rather save $90 and just buy a 6400 without even taking a performance hit.

 

[VirtualLarry]

So I consider myself quite knowledgeable in terms of hardware. Yet what I can't seem to understand is the discrepancy between Intel's offerings when it comes to i5's.

The currently Skylake i5's include the 6400, 6500, 6600 and the 6600K.

The only difference from what I understand is their clock speed. The exception being the 6600K can overclock.

6400 - 2.7 GHz ($180)
6500 - 3.2 GHz ($205)
6600 - 3.3 GHz ($230)
6600K - 3.5 GHz ($270)

Now correct me if I'm wrong. Overclocking the CPU (at least in terms of the i5) gives no real benefit in terms of gaming performance. Can someone prove otherwise?

If that is the case, why would anyone spend a whopping $90 more for literally NO performance benefit? The extra .7 GHz does not contribute to more FPS in games, nor does an overclock.

I'm just not understanding why you would buy say an i5-6600 over the i5-6400 for gaming purposes. You're literally throwing away $25-90 for no additional FPS, correct?

I feel like Intel's been jacking up the price of it's processors. I believe the 2500K was $230 retail and now we're seeing $270 retail for the unlocked i5. With that being the case, I'd rather save $90 and just buy a 6400 without even taking a performance hit.

It all depends if you are GPU-limited or not. A new generation of GPUs is soon to come out, that will have greater performance, and push CPUs harder. So the extra CPU Ghz may well translate to higher FPS.

 

[Mycelus]

Okay but let's say you have one of the best graphics cards available, GTX 980 Ti / R9 390X.

Even with either one, I can't imagine the 2.7 GHz i5-6400 would limit you what so ever. I dont recall the i5's being a bottleneck even with high end video cards...

 

[Burpo]

Only generic comparo I could find..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTk-5Y1HRFc

The difference in single thread speed. Still almost 1800 tho.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-6400+@+2.70GHz

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-6600+@+3.30GHz

 

[Techhog]

6500 is the best value IMO.

 

[frozentundra123456]

OP can you seriously believe cpu speed makes no difference in framerate? Of course some games are gpu limited, but others arent. Try looking up some benchmarks before making absurd statements like this.

 

[SPBHM]

the difference is actually a little bit higher once you consider turbo, it will probably never be running at those 3.2GHz and 3.3GHz anyway.

 

[Yuriman]

So I consider myself quite knowledgeable in terms of hardware. Yet what I can't seem to understand is the discrepancy between Intel's offerings when it comes to i5's.

The currently Skylake i5's include the 6400, 6500, 6600 and the 6600K.

The only difference from what I understand is their clock speed. The exception being the 6600K can overclock.

6400 - 2.7 GHz ($180)
6500 - 3.2 GHz ($205)
6600 - 3.3 GHz ($230)
6600K - 3.5 GHz ($270)

Now correct me if I'm wrong. Overclocking the CPU (at least in terms of the i5) gives no real benefit in terms of gaming performance. Can someone prove otherwise?

If that is the case, why would anyone spend a whopping $90 more for literally NO performance benefit? The extra .7 GHz does not contribute to more FPS in games, nor does an overclock.

I'm just not understanding why you would buy say an i5-6600 over the i5-6400 for gaming purposes. You're literally throwing away $25-80 for no additional FPS, correct?

I feel like Intel's been jacking up the price of it's processors. I believe the 2500K was $230 retail and now we're seeing $270 retail for the unlocked i5. With that being the case, I'd rather save $90 and just buy a 6400 without even taking a performance hit.

Having a faster CPU allows for higher framerates in games where the CPU is the limiting factor. What the framerate is will vary from game to game. In some games, the difference may be between 30 and 40fps in particularly bad areas, while in others, the difference may be between 300 and 400fps.

In the case of a 300fps+ potential framerate from your CPU, you're almost certainly going to increase graphical settings until your GPU is well below that. On the other hand, if you're CPU limtied to 30fps, there's often very little you can do except increase the details for no performance hit (since the GPU is the bottleneck here) and just live with the poor performance (or buy a faster CPU/overclock).

With Skylake, having faster RAM also allows for higher framerates.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/08/05/intel_skylake_core_i76700k_ipc_overclocking_review/6

If you find you're not seeing a difference between a stock and an overclocked Skylake CPU, then congrats! You have a CPU that is fast enough that it's not the bottleneck in what you're doing.

 

[myocardia]

If you find you're not seeing a difference between a stock and an overclocked Skylake CPU, then congrats! You have a CPU that is fast enough that it's not the bottleneck in what you're doing.

Or you just need to buy yourself a video card/faster video card.