i7-4930k still good CPU for gaming?

Dave3000

Golden Member
Jan 10, 2011
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I currently own an i7-4930k in my gaming rig and now that the i7-7700k is now out in the market I wonder if it's time for me to upgrade to an i7-7700k, new motherboard, and DDR4. Based on the reviews I see online, the i7-7700k is nearly at the same level as my i7-4930k in the Cinebench 11.5 CPU multithreaded test and much better in the single threaded CPU test than my 4930k. I maybe won't lose any performance on a game that is very well multithreaded but will gain good performance on a game that does not make use of more than 4 cores but is CPU intensive. Also does anyone here know the stock turbo boost frequency table for the i7-7700k for the number of active cores as I could not find that info on Intel's website?
 

scannall

Golden Member
Jan 1, 2012
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If what you have does everything you need, then save the money. Or spend some on a top of the line video card. The 'Want Something NEW' bug bites us all. But, it really can be resisted.
 

moonbogg

Lifer
Jan 8, 2011
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Dave3000, what's your chip clocked at? Anyway, I would stay away from the 7700k. Zen is coming and it will be a real heavy weight.
 
Aug 11, 2008
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I would stay with what you have. 7700k would be faster in some games, but not by a lot, and might not be as future proof. Zen or HEDT skylake might be faster, but probably not worth the cost to upgrade.
 

dahorns

Senior member
Sep 13, 2013
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I would stay with what you have. 7700k would be faster in some games, but not by a lot, and might not be as future proof. Zen or HEDT skylake might be faster, but probably not worth the cost to upgrade.

With known clock speeds, I don't see how Zen could be superior to the 7700k in gaming. Great chip (allegedly), but if you're specifically looking at gaming I don't think the initial Zen release is going to be the best performer. (For reference, compare 6900k to 6700k in gaming)
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
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Have you max OCed the 4930K? What's it cooled with? A better cooler will also have a bracket for LGA1151 and might be a good investment.
 

gipper53

Member
Apr 4, 2013
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If you haven't overclocked it yet, get a good cooler and ramp that baby up over 4.0 Ghz. You'll close most of that single threaded gap and still have killer multi core performance. Unless you want the mobo features of the newer platform, what you have is still highly capable.
 

2is

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2012
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Zero reason to upgrade unless you want to upgrade for the sake of upgrading.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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I'm still using a 2500 non-K at stock and Fallout 4 plays perfectly at 1900x1200 on my GTX 980 ti. Sure I'm losing some FPS compared to a modern CPU but the FPS is still "good enough."

I'll probably upgrade to a 7700K or Ryzen this year, but partly for the modern motherboard and to go from 8 GB up to 16 or 32 GB RAM (32 would be for development not gaming).

Which is a roundabout way of saying that I would not do it yet unless you already have plenty of SSD storage, a GTX 980 ti or 1080, and a nice monitor.

Desktop CPU speed has gone up very slowly compared to GPUs -- the 7700K is only going to be maybe 30% faster than my old CPU for gaming.
 

Dave3000

Golden Member
Jan 10, 2011
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Would upgrading from a i7-4930k to a i7-7700k be like upgrading from a 486DX-33 to a 486DX2-50?
 

krumme

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2009
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Is the 4930 going 3.3GHz and the 7700k 5.0GHz? ;) because thats more or less it.
Btw when 486 dx50 was selling having a faster cpu really meant something for plain office use. Hell even word was a much better experience.
So its not even comparable that way either.
So no. Its not remotely the same difference. Its a pipedream unfortunately :)
Besides the extra cores in 4930k might come in handy in eg bf1 or future games and when oc make it faster than the 7700k.
Its a sidegrade even for gaming imo.
 
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2is

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2012
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Is the 4930 going 3.3GHz and the 7700k 5.0GHz? ;) because thats more or less it.
Btw when 486 dx50 was selling having a faster cpu really meant something for plain office use. Hell even word was a much better experience.
So its not even comparable that way either.
So no. Its not remotely the same difference. Its a pipedream unfortunately :)
Besides the extra cores in 4930k might come in handy in eg bf1 or future games and when oc make it faster than the 7700k.
Its a sidegrade even for gaming imo.

It's not even that. He's got 50% more cores.
 

cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
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Am I blind? Or did he say gaming rig and we are all discussing cpu upgrades on a 4930k? What kind of GPU is this dude running? How much ram and speed, SSDs ?
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,523
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Not everyone is talking about a CPU upgrade, but the OP has not really volunteered much info about his current system.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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Am I blind? Or did he say gaming rig and we are all discussing cpu upgrades on a 4930k? What kind of GPU is this dude running? How much ram and speed, SSDs ?

Yes :)

... Which is a roundabout way of saying that I would not do it yet unless you already have plenty of SSD storage, a GTX 980 ti or 1080, and a nice monitor.

Desktop CPU speed has gone up very slowly compared to GPUs -- the 7700K is only going to be maybe 30% faster than my old CPU for gaming.

Also, read the thread title :)
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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I'm not sure the turbo vs. cores numbers matter too much since it's only a 7% difference.
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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What is your OC at? What is your cooler? You have not answered these quetions...