Processor discussion - i5 vs i7 Skylake

[TP_Silk]

Hi folks,

 

I'm currently considering building a new gaming rig and have been looking into what processor to base it on. From what I'm reading the Skylake socket 1151 processors seem to be the most regularly recommended just now with the choice usually coming down to either the i5-6600k or the i7-6700k.

 

Most impartial sites seem to suggest that the i5 is, in most situations, the sweet spot between price and power and that unless one is going to actually use the extra cores the diminishing returns for upgrading to the i7 are generally not worth the extra cash.

 

That said I wondered if anyone here has also been looking into processors recently and whether they have come to a similar conclusion.

 

I am, of course, primarily interested in performance for BoS/Bom.

Edited July 11, 2016 by Silk

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

I have been looking around as well.  This may be of help.

 

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

[GrendelsDad]

I have an i7-6700k overclocked to 4.6-4.8 depending on what cooler I have  installed.  It runs the game very well.  I run at 6270x2160 resolution at 45-55 on the ground 60+ right after takeoff.(this is on a busy server too)If I back down to 3840x2160 I stay at 60fps all day.   Even on the ground with 70+players on WOL.  My point is I can say it runs very well for all my games  not just this sim.  I know the 6600k's are awesome chips too.  I suspect you will be pleased either way if your main concern is BOS/BOM.  Make sure to pair it with some fast ram.  I always use corsair but that's just me.(3200ddr)

[TP_Silk]

I'm thinking of running it on a Z170 chipset board with probably 16GB of DDR4 RAM and most likely a GTX970 graphics card now that the price on those has just about halved. I've also found that I can get a 27" monitor for around £130 Sterling to give my old eyes a boost.

 

I guess what I'm really wondering is whether the £75 or so difference in price between the i5 and the i7 is justified for me in terms of performance.

 

BTW - I also want to host co-op missions for my online squadron if that makes any difference in the recommendations

[GrendelsDad]

Early on the 6700s were overclocking a bit better.  I am not sure you will need any thing the 6700 offers ie Hyper-threading.  With a 970 I do not think you will see any difference so I would save the $.  Now the kicker would be if the HT would help you host missions as I have no experience with this at all.  BTW what is the resolution of the monitor 1920x1080?  I also have the Z170 chipset and can report it has been very solid.  Onboard  audio is really nice too.(Asus)

Edited July 11, 2016 by 6./ZG1_GrendelsDad

[TP_Silk]

Yes, the monitor I'm looking at is 1920x1080. I also agree with your point about the Hyper Threading and its relevance to hosting. If the i7 would handle hosting significantly better than the i5 then that would probably be my decision made for me and vice versa.

 

I'm also looking at an ASUS board btw 

[GrendelsDad]

At that resolution and setup I think you could run maxed out with no problems.  I would wait for a response for someone who has hosting experience before pulling the trigger just to be sure.  Good luck and congrats on the new build.  Just fyi I tested HT on and off in the game and noticed no difference only more heat for the chip.  Some games may use it but I do not play any that benefit from the HT as far as I know.

Edited July 11, 2016 by 6./ZG1_GrendelsDad

[TP_Silk]

Thanks GD.

[GrendelsDad]

No Problem...Sticks list makes me wonder how one of those Xeons would handle this game...anyone got a couple thousand for an upgrade?

[TP_Silk]

There's another option for me then - an i5/i7 rig for playing the game and a Xeon based server for hosting 

[dburne]

Main difference between I5 and I7

 

Hyperthreading - as previously mentioned. Not really useful for games, hyperthreading is good for some intense mulithreaded cpu core action, like video processing, etc. I actually disabled HT on my I7, as it gave me no real benefit and my cpu runs a little cooler. I5 does not offer HyperThreading.

HT creates " virtual cores", ie a 4 core I7 processor with HT enabled will show 4 cores and 4 virtual cores.

 

L2 cache - I7 has a slightly larger L2 cache than an I5. Again real world, for gaming, probably not notice the difference.

If budget minded, go for the I5. If not, go ahead and go with I7 ( more is always better regardless).

Pretty sure you would be happy either way.

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

You may have already seen this.

 

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/576/Intel_Core_i5_i5-6600K_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-6700K.html

 

If you click on the headings under i5-6600K vs i7-6700K performance comparison you will see detail testing in video editing, etc.

Edited July 11, 2016 by 12.OIAE_Stick-95

[TP_Silk]

Nice info there Stick. Now I just need to find out whether the hyper threading will help when it comes to hosting multiplayer co-op server

 

Thanks too to Dburne.

[Dakpilot]

In standard form the i7 is rated at 4.0 Ghz and the i5 at 3.5 Ghz

 

If you are not going to overclock this makes a big difference

 

With the larger L3 cache and slightly better memory handling and faster clockspeed, when coupled with some fast memory modules the i7 will always outperform the i5.

 

If both are overclocked by the same margin the i7 will still win

 

However it is possible to overclock the i5 higher to similar speeds that an i7 will go ..4.5+ GHZ 

 

If both are overclocked to 4.5 Ghz the i7 will still have slightly better performance...whether that extra performance is worth the increase in cost is up to you

 

At standard clocks 

 

3Dmark (DX9)  i5 achieves 86.5% of i7 performance

 

Blender 2.76 (64bit)  i5 achieves 63% of i7 performance

 

In pure single core comparison i5 will achieve +- 91% of i7 

 

With DX12 the increased multithreaded performance if i7 may be a big advantage in futureproofing...but speculation/guessing

 

As always with computers higher performance comes with diminishing returns of value for money 

 

Cheers Dakpilot

 

**edit** when the market settles down a bit you may also find GTX980/GTX980Ti at decent prices as well as GTX970

Edited July 12, 2016 by Dakpilot

[mAIOR]

In standard form the i7 is rated at 4.0 Ghz and the i5 at 3.5 Ghz

 

If you are not going to overclock this makes a big difference

 

With the larger L3 cache and slightly better memory handling and faster clockspeed, when coupled with some fast memory modules the i7 will always outperform the i5.

 

If both are overclocked by the same margin the i7 will still win

 

However it is possible to overclock the i5 higher to similar speeds that an i7 will go ..4.5+ GHZ

 

If both are overclocked to 4.5 Ghz the i7 will still have slightly better performance...whether that extra performance is worth the increase in cost is up to you

 

At standard clocks

 

3Dmark (DX9) i5 achieves 86.5% of i7 performance

 

Blender 2.76 (64bit) i5 achieves 63% of i7 performance

 

In pure single core comparison i5 will achieve +- 91% of i7

 

With DX12 the increased multithreaded performance if i7 may be a big advantage in futureproofing...but speculation/guessing

 

As always with computers higher performance comes with diminishing returns of value for money

 

Cheers Dakpilot

 

**edit** when the market settles down a bit you may also find GTX980/GTX980Ti at decent prices as well as GTX970

Indeed. The i7 is always slightly better than the i5 but ram speed accounts to a lot. In CPU intensive games going from 2133 to 3000 Mhz ram can net you 5 to 10 fps (in whitcher 3, on busy cities you could even get 15!!!).

 

So you might want to go for the i5 and get faster ram. Or get a beefier gpu. As Dakpilot said, old top dogs are really cheap right now. A 980ti can be had for about 400€ and a 980 for 300. If the 1060 reaches 980 performance, 980s will go bellow 300... That is a lot of power for cheap. And it will matter more for gaming than the i7.

 

Full disclosure, I use a stock 6700k. I was going to overclock it but it just runs everything so well already... These skylakes are good...

[Dakpilot]

i7 will be able to make better use of fast Memory Modules than i5, not that i5 will not see a benefit

 

But if you are going to use fast (and more expensive) 3000+mhz RAM it would make best sense to fully utilize it with an expensive i7 

 

diminishing returns again...

 

maybe an interesting read for some

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-what-is-the-fastest-gaming-cpu

 

especially relating to (real) benefits of SLi

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[TP_Silk]

Thanks again for the input folks 

[1Sascha]

My general principle when building a new rig has always been to avoid the top of the line components and go for lower high end/upper middle class stuff.

 

When I built the rig I'm currently using (roughly 2.5 years ago) I went with an i5 4670k instead of an i7. Set me back "only" €280 or so, whereas the more powerful i7s would've been around €350 - 500.

 

Same goes for video cards: I usually go for the €200 to 250 price range and avoid the crazy top-of-the-line stuff that can go as high as €1000.

 

I currently have a GTX 660 and 8 GB of DDR3 in this rig and the PC runs BoS great on maximum settings.

 

Unless you're doing a lot of video-editing/rendering, I see no point in spending more than €700 - €1000 on a brand new system.

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

Don't want to go OT but, when you're all set on the cpu choice, if you don't mind, maybe you could share some of your other specs.

[TP_Silk]

It's all a bit up in the air at the moment as I still haven't sorted out my finances and that will have a direct impact on what I actually end up with. Having said that, what I'm aiming for is a reasonably future-proof PC that gives a workable compromise between price and performance.

 

If I can afford the parts I want then the list is:

 

Processor - Intel Core i5-6600k or Core i7-6700k

Board - ASUS Z170 Pro

Cooling - to be decided - probably 240mm dual fan radiator

Graphics - ASUS Strix GT970

Memory - 16GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance 3000MHz

PSU - Corsair CX850M

Storage - SSD for OS and HDD for storage

Monitor - whichever 27" screen looks like good value at the time

 

I considered looking at the new 10-series Nvidia cards and at the GTX980's, but decided that the 970 is more than good enough for now and anyway, graphics cards are the easiest option to upgrade at a future point if needed.

 

To be honest the only reasons I'm considering the i7 are that the potential for VR later on should I ever be able to afford to get into that and the fact that I would like to host some of my squadron's Co-op nights without hardware being too much of a limiting factor. Not sure that it would be anyway, but just in case. If it weren't for these factors the choice would be easy as the i5 offers more than enough performance for the game itself and is still reasonably future-proof.

[mAIOR]

 

It's all a bit up in the air at the moment as I still haven't sorted out my finances and that will have a direct impact on what I actually end up with. Having said that, what I'm aiming for is a reasonably future-proof PC that gives a workable compromise between price and performance.

 

If I can afford the parts I want then the list is:

 

Processor - Intel Core i5-6600k or Core i7-6700k

Board - ASUS Z170 Pro

Cooling - to be decided - probably 240mm dual fan radiator

Graphics - ASUS Strix GT970

Memory - 16GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance 3000MHz

PSU - Corsair CX850M

Storage - SSD for OS and HDD for storage

Monitor - whichever 27" screen looks like good value at the time

 

I considered looking at the new 10-series Nvidia cards and at the GTX980's, but decided that the 970 is more than good enough for now and anyway, graphics cards are the easiest option to upgrade at a future point if needed.

 

To be honest the only reasons I'm considering the i7 are that the potential for VR later on should I ever be able to afford to get into that and the fact that I would like to host some of my squadron's Co-op nights without hardware being too much of a limiting factor. Not sure that it would be anyway, but just in case. If it weren't for these factors the choice would be easy as the i5 offers more than enough performance for the game itself and is still reasonably future-proof.

First of all, I would be weary of using the term future proofing. There is no such thing tomorrow a game might come out that makes anything below a 1080 completely useless. That said, you seem to have the right attitude to buying hardware in that you considered what your needs are and will go for that and not the biggest and best of everything.

 

Now is a good period to buy a computer since games havent kept up with hardware and the 970 is a good card. Just bear in mind that the lifespan of a CPU is higher than the GPU and Both an i5 or i7 will last you a while whereas the 970 may not.

 

Gpu wise, I would wait for the 1060 series to come out and see what they are like. Rumour has it performing at 980 level and will cost around $300 (their msrp is 249 but their founders is 299 and if the other 10x0 cards are anything to go by, custom boards will be more expensive because they are just better). Worst case scenario, you may get a cheaper 970. You can alsp go to the new 480 right now too for 970 performance with newer tech and more support.

 

You are spoiled for choice

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

Not sure if you have seen this but I found this very helpful for laying out a build.  Not only will save your configuration but price it through various vendors, warn you of incompatibility of parts, and even tell you the watts it will consume based on components.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/

Edited July 13, 2016 by 12.OIAE_Stick-95

[TP_Silk]

Yes, I know that site, but thanks anyway.

 

mAIOR - the tricky think for us in the UK right now is that Sterling took a nose-dive after the Brexit vote making some prices fluctuate - particularly processors. It mostly depends on what currency suppliers purchase their parts in of course. I'm not expecting anything new tech to be cheap right now.

[mAIOR]

Yes, I know that site, but thanks anyway.

 

mAIOR - the tricky think for us in the UK right now is that Sterling took a nose-dive after the Brexit vote making some prices fluctuate - particularly processors. It mostly depends on what currency suppliers purchase their parts in of course. I'm not expecting anything new tech to be cheap right now.

I know. I am in the UK... Best place to buy from in tge UK is Germany. The shop mindfactory has prices that have not been beaten in the uk. Even with the stirling so low (when I lived in the netherlands and was being paid in pounds it was really cheap to buy from that shop).