Primarily Gaming Purposes - 4790K or 5820K ?

[sidrockrulz]

I'm looking at a primarily gaming build - 4790k @ 4 GHz, vs the 5820k at 3.5 GHz ?

Does the lower clock speed of the 5820k reduce game performance ?

Most of today's games prefer a higher clocked single core, but with some games coming out with requirements for multiple cores, is this a worthy buy ?

I'm also planning to keep it for about 4 years ! So, is the Hexacore a worthy investment ?

 

[cbn]

I'm sure the i7 4790K will be viable for gaming well beyond four years, but if you are already spending that kind of money the 5820K seems hard to resist IMO.

P.S. One advantage the 5820K has is the ability to run three video cards at PCIe 3.0 x 8. (Z97 can't do that without having a special chip on the mobo).

 

[poohbear]

I was in same situation but the ddr4 needed for 5xxx hexacore turned me away. Too expensive & not justified for gaming.

 

[cbn]

Does the lower clock speed of the 5820k reduce game performance ?

Most of today's games prefer a higher clocked single core, but with some games coming out with requirements for multiple cores, is this a worthy buy ?

They should overclock very close to each other.

 

[escrow4]

X99 isn't mature, DDR4 latencies are horrible, three GPUs is laughable; stick with one to limit issues (how many games can scale properly with 2 cards, nevermind 3?), and the price for gaming doesn't make much sense.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

They should overclock very close to each other.

Actually, I'd think the 5820K has an edge in sheer MHz. Some reviews put the limit at 4.7, and 4.5 might be fairly easy. Plus -- the six cores, the DDR4 . . . yada yada.

Truth is, I'm still struggling over this. If I chose to build the i7-4790K, I'd be facing these prospects:

-- Guaranteed you should be able to get all four cores to 4.4GHz with little trouble. It's "minor overclocking."
-- Getting to 4.6 or 4.7 seems to be more trouble
-- I personally would feel inclined to de-lid the 4790K. Even under "guaranteed," the temperature profile is on the high side

-- No need to de-lid the 5820K -- and if you did -- high-risk for damaging the processor.
-- Better overclocking than the 4790K -- and --
-- You get six cores instead of four.
-- But -- no integrated graphics.

Six cores may be more than most of us need.

For upgrade? Well, you might be able to put the Broadwell-E into the Skt-2011 v.3 board. And I think the Broadwell (non-E) chips will fit in socket 1150.

With the 5820K, you can ask yourself whether you need one, two, or more SLI/X-fire graphics. That would be the decision-factor for choosing 5930K versus 5820K. But -- with graphics these days? GTX 970 or 980?

Hmmm . . .

 

[Cerb]

4790K, unless going with 3-4 GPUs, IMO. The minor benefits from the extra cores and RAM bandwidth with 1-2 cards seems outweighed by the price, right now, unless you have some tasks that can use all the CPU power, or an unlimited budget and willingness to spend hours and hours tweaking your OC.

Got $2500 to burn? Fine, go for it.
Got $1500? You can probably do better on LGA1150, with a better video card, bigger SSD, etc., or X79.

 

[sidrockrulz]

I'm sure the i7 4790K will be viable for gaming well beyond four years, but if you are already spending that kind of money the 5820K seems hard to resist IMO.

P.S. One advantage the 5820K has is the ability to run three video cards at PCIe 3.0 x 8. (Z97 can't do that without having a special chip on the mobo).

I'm going the 2way SLI for sure.. Maybe the 3way in a few years,,, But the boost of only a 20% on the third GPU has me thinking...

And also that 5820 doesnt have a significant increase atx16x16 even if i were to get a board that does that....

What will be a big advantage of the 5820 over the 4790 ?

 

[sidrockrulz]

X99 isn't mature, DDR4 latencies are horrible, three GPUs is laughable; stick with one to limit issues (how many games can scale properly with 2 cards, nevermind 3?), and the price for gaming doesn't make much sense.

I would definitely think there is a significant increase in game performance at a 2way SLI, 3 way... I understand...

 

[sidrockrulz]

Actually, I'd think the 5820K has an edge in sheer MHz. Some reviews put the limit at 4.7, and 4.5 might be fairly easy. Plus -- the six cores, the DDR4 . . . yada yada.

Truth is, I'm still struggling over this. If I chose to build the i7-4790K, I'd be facing these prospects:

-- Guaranteed you should be able to get all four cores to 4.4GHz with little trouble. It's "minor overclocking."
-- Getting to 4.6 or 4.7 seems to be more trouble
-- I personally would feel inclined to de-lid the 4790K. Even under "guaranteed," the temperature profile is on the high side

-- No need to de-lid the 5820K -- and if you did -- high-risk for damaging the processor.
-- Better overclocking than the 4790K -- and --
-- You get six cores instead of four.
-- But -- no integrated graphics.

Six cores may be more than most of us need.

For upgrade? Well, you might be able to put the Broadwell-E into the Skt-2011 v.3 board. And I think the Broadwell (non-E) chips will fit in socket 1150.

With the 5820K, you can ask yourself whether you need one, two, or more SLI/X-fire graphics. That would be the decision-factor for choosing 5930K versus 5820K. But -- with graphics these days? GTX 970 or 980?

Hmmm . . .

So,, you're saying the 5820k is where you'd put your money on ?

I do not care about integrated graphics.. I'm getting a GTX980 2way SLI setup, maybe 3way in the future... I know it may not be a significant boost though..

The Broadwell-E may fit in there, but at the rate Intel's making new boards and designs, I highly doubt it,, esp when its going to be a 14nm scale.

And Broadwell fits in a 1150 socket ?? I highly doubt.,,. Do you have a source of that info ?


Im not too worries about heat, I'll be watercooling.. And is there a significant advantage of a 6 core for gaming purposes ?

 

[sidrockrulz]

4790K, unless going with 3-4 GPUs, IMO. The minor benefits from the extra cores and RAM bandwidth with 1-2 cards seems outweighed by the price, right now, unless you have some tasks that can use all the CPU power, or an unlimited budget and willingness to spend hours and hours tweaking your OC.

Got $2500 to burn? Fine, go for it.
Got $1500? You can probably do better on LGA1150, with a better video card, bigger SSD, etc., or X79.

Im going for a 2way GTX980 watercooled loop. So, I'm pretty sure I'm hitting the 2k Mark ! A x99 setup will cost me another 350/400$.. Is this price justified ???

 

[sidrockrulz]

Anyone think there's a point waiting for Skylake ?

 

[crashtech]

And Broadwell fits in a 1150 socket ?? I highly doubt.,,. Do you have a source of that info ?

Broadwell-K will be LGA1150.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/intels-9-series-will-support-broadwell/53203.html

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2014/05/11/the-intel-9-series-chipsets-examined/1

 

[cbn]

I would definitely think there is a significant increase in game performance at a 2way SLI, 3 way... I understand...

Depends on the resolution and graphics demands of games in the future.

For triple monitor at high refresh rates having three cards (each with display port) makes total sense no matter how you look at it. EDIT: I noticed the 980 GTXs all come with three display ports.

P.S. We have to imagine that within four years 4K will be very affordable. (Actually there are already some affordable 4K monitors today, but the refresh is only 30Hz on the one I am thinking about)

 

[cbn]

A x99 setup will cost me another 350/400$.. Is this price justified ???

Budget x99 boards exist @ $ 209 ---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157542

And the price premium of 2 x 4GB DDR4 vs. 2 x 4GB DDR3 is only ~$40.

P.S. I would also shop around for price on the i7-5820K, just last week it was $329 free shipping at Fry's --> http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2404395

 

[sidrockrulz]

Broadwell-K will be LGA1150.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/intels-9-series-will-support-broadwell/53203.html

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2014/05/11/the-intel-9-series-chipsets-examined/1

That sir, is absolutely sexy news ! Did not know.. Or read enough :|

Thank you.. So there is a good reason to buy a 1150 socket board then...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

So,, you're saying the 5820k is where you'd put your money on ?

I do not care about integrated graphics.. I'm getting a GTX980 2way SLI setup, maybe 3way in the future... I know it may not be a significant boost though..

The Broadwell-E may fit in there, but at the rate Intel's making new boards and designs, I highly doubt it,, esp when its going to be a 14nm scale.

And Broadwell fits in a 1150 socket ?? I highly doubt.,,. Do you have a source of that info ?


Im not too worries about heat, I'll be watercooling.. And is there a significant advantage of a 6 core for gaming purposes ?

I'm leaning that way. I probably won't even have a two-card SLI -- just one, good GTX 970/980. I've got plenty of time to weigh more options.

I'm almost thinking that an E processor would be "more than I need." But I have a bias: I like to overclock. OC'ing is hardly worth doing with a 4790K, except for 4.4Ghz "by all cores."

So I'm eager for the project because I want to overclock. The bragging rights? Not a major concern. I'm less eager because there's no pressing need, given my current system.

 

[crashtech]

That sir, is absolutely sexy news ! Did not know.. Or read enough :|

Thank you.. So there is a good reason to buy a 1150 socket board then...

Yeah, looks like at least another 18 months before 9-series gets superseded by something new, for K-series CPUs anyway. I'm gonna try and take good care of my Z97 board, it's gonna be with me for a while...

 

[sidrockrulz]

Budget x99 boards exist @ $ 209 ---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157542

Oh absolutely, I was looking at the EVGA x99 FTW

And the price premium of 2 x 4GB DDR4 vs. 2 x 4GB DDR3 is only ~$40.

I wanted 16GB RAM.. Which is $169 DDR3 at Lower latency vs $269 DDR4 at higher latency.. this would be a totally different category of discussion i believe..

P.S. I would also shop around for price on the i7-5820K, just last week it was $329 free shipping at Fry's --> http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2404395

Sure, Ive been watching prices, but when i choose the 5820k, cost of other components goes up too.. MB, RAM...

 

[sidrockrulz]

I'm leaning that way. I probably won't even have a two-card SLI -- just one, good GTX 970/980. I've got plenty of time to weigh more options.

I'm almost thinking that an E processor would be "more than I need." But I have a bias: I like to overclock. OC'ing is hardly worth doing with a 4790K, except for 4.4Ghz "by all cores."

So I'm eager for the project because I want to overclock. The bragging rights? Not a major concern. I'm less eager because there's no pressing need, given my current system.

Sure... but how much of an advantage is this going to be for gaming ?

 

[cbn]

I wanted 16GB RAM.. Which is $169 DDR3 at Lower latency vs $269 DDR4 at higher latency.. this would be a totally different category of discussion i believe..

Well for gaming even 8GB RAM should be more than enough....and I don't see this changing any time soon.

 

[Cerb]

Sure... but how much of an advantage is this going to be for gaming ?

Small, but there, and repeatably measurable. Usually, you'll find it empirically documented in memory reviews.

Transfers of data from video card to/from system RAM take time on the CPU's memory controller. As video cards are added, and used, this load increases. Once there isn't enough time to spare per memory channel for the CPU, or one or more GPUs, performance will be lower than if there were more channels/bandwidth to spare, due to the hardware waiting on the memory.

The bridges on the cards don't have enough bandwidth to handle this sort of thing, and are used mainly for command/control duties. Multi-GPU users have always been a small enough part of the market to not make it worthwhile to R&D high quality all-hardware GPU SMP support.

The added L3 cache and CPU cores allows the drivers/OS a bit of breathing room, in terms of CPU time, which by itself can increase performance a little, compared to 4 cores and 6MB or 8MB (the driver is doing rendering setup for 2+ GPUs, after all, not just 1). But then, the added RAM channels/bandwidth also help alleviate some of the waiting the CPU and GPUs may be forced to do, as more time is spent shuffling data about different memories (CPU 1, video card 1, video card 2, video card 3...), compared to at most 2 (CPU 1, video card 1). It varies, anywhere from negligible to maybe 15% (I don't recall seeing 15% in a review, but have seen over 10%, so it's probable, IMO, with the right game, GPU, and monitor config). Not worth it at all for $1200-1500 typical builds where the person is trying to go crazy on a budget, since better LGA1150 OC gear, or a better video card model, will surely make up that difference, and possibly more. But, if you have the money, and the intent to spend it, it can be a potential performance gain...

 

[supaxi]

I just recently had this debate myself. Overall, I found that today, you will see better gaming performance from the 4790k so I built that system with 32 GB ram and 2 980s in SLI so I could do 4k gaming. Overall, I have been very happy with easy overclocking to 4.8 GHz without having to push the voltage much.

If you are doing a lot of encoding/other tasks that will use the other cores, I would go for the 5820k but I don't see why you would really go that route unless you are doing 3/4 SLI at this time.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Sure... but how much of an advantage is this going to be for gaming ?

Truth is? I'm guessing "not much." If you're not compessive-obsulsive about OC'ing like me, I'd think the 4790K is more than adequate. As I said -- if it's spec'd with base-clock of 4.0 and turbo of 4.4 for a subset of the cores, the OC should be easy to have all cores operating at 4.4. OR -- you could just "leave it alone."

Also -- truth is -- I don't like the fabrication process for non-E cores since Ivy Bridge. I want a processor with Indium solder between IHS and the die. The de-lidding trick is extra trouble. And lowering the temps on the 4790K probably won't net much in clock-speed.

[I'm not really dyslexic: I just like to joke with words.]

 

[cbn]

I would go for the 5820k but I don't see why you would really go that route unless you are doing 3/4 SLI at this time.

X99 also supports M.2 ultra (PCIe 3.0 x4), whereas Z97 only supports M.2 (PCIe 2.0 x2)....so that is something to think about beyond 2 vs. 3 video cards.