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2500k vs 2600k v 4760k for gaming in 2016.

Dangerous_Dave

Dangerous_Dave

Dangerous_Dave

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21 Sep 2010
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455
Hi all,

From reading around old threads, I get the impression that, with overclocking taken into consideration, there hasn't been much to choose between a 2500k, a 2600k and a 4670k. But these threads are usually a year or two old, and with the consoles now running 6 or more CPU threads for gaming, I was wondering if the 2600k might have more to say in 2016 even in the PC gaming market. So my question is which would you run of these three options (with 2nd hand prices):

Option 1) 2500k + Z77 motherboard (total cost ~£170)
Option 2) 2600k + Z77 motherboard (total cost ~£220)
Option 3) 4670k + Z97 motherboard (total cost ~£210)
 
Given my OC'd 2700k handles everything I throw at it, I'd be inclined to lean towards the 2600k. They OC well, have more cache, and HT is being used more in newer releases.

I'll be sad to see my 2700k, and I'm sure the 6700HQ replacement won't be as good, but portability is now higher priority than raw power for me :(
 
Any of those are still fine for gaming but, given the small difference in price, I'd take option 3 so you've got the option of dropping a 4790k in at a later date if you need a bit of extra power at any point.
 
Assuming you're running a single GPU at normal resolutions (1080 or 1440 at 60Hz) then there will be pretty much no appreciable difference in games between any of the options you've listed as you'll either be maxing out each game at 60FPS+ or be GPU limited in any game.

If you're running multiple GPUs then you'll probably still not notice any difference, but there's a chance some high end GPUs and demanding games could have issues/stutter on the Z77 options you've listed as the CPU will limit you to PCI-E2, where the Z97 option would give you PCI-E3. That said, if you were looking at 3 or more high end GPUs, you probably wouldn't be looking at saving money by going older or second hand on the CPU & motherboard!

For the £40 difference in price, I personally would be looking at the Z97 option because of the extras it will give you that may be of benefit with future upgrades - PCI-E3, M2/SATA Express slots, extra SATA3 ports, extra USB3 ports, etc. There would be nothing worse than finding yourself restricted in a few months to a year's time from an upgrade because you saved a few quid now. Plus, you're looking at a CPU and motherboard that's got 2-4 years less usage already on it (ignore that if the Z77's previous owner was a vicar who only used their PC after Sunday service to send a few emails, where the Z97's previous owner was competing against 8Pack in competitions!)
 
I'd get the newest CPU, simply because the older ones will likely have been overclocked for longer and thus have a lower life expectancy.
 
Confused Stu said:
Assuming you're running a single GPU at normal resolutions (1080 or 1440 at 60Hz) then there will be pretty much no appreciable difference in games between any of the options....
For the £40 difference in price, I personally would be looking at the Z97 option because of the extras it will give you that may be of benefit with future upgrades....
Click to expand...
I would agree with Confused Stu
 
FoxEye said:
Win 10 doesn't like my Z77 mobo, so that would be a consideration too.
Click to expand...

Strange because W10 loves my Z77 board. Never had a single issue. Infact things have been spot on since going to W10.

But on to the original question. If it was me i'd go the latest Tech within my budget.
 
Digit said:
Strange because W10 loves my Z77 board. Never had a single issue. Infact things have been spot on since going to W10.
Click to expand...

I've been meaning to reinstall W10 with just the MS drivers, leaving all Intel chipset drivers alone, and see how that gets on. Because atm with the proper drivers installed I get all sorts of bugs/freezes/issues that never happened with Win7.

Stuff like explorer getting "stuck", failing to restart or shutdown, random service "timeout" errors, apps refusing to launch, that kind of thing. No errors are being generated, the system just fails to respond now and then. And when it does, you can only hard reset, because Windows seems to get so knotted up that it can't even restart. Launched apps carry on working normally, so it's not a hard crash/freeze, just what I'd call "weirdness".

If I had to guess I'd say it's IO related, hence why I will eventually reinstall without the RapidStorage drivers.

:p
 
Option 3 is best imo, although there's hardly anything between them gaming wise. If you're going multi-GPU then the 2600k might be a bit better for games that utilise hyperthreading well.
 
I would go with option 3 as said above. its a newer platform so has more options for sata3 , usb3, M2 and pcie3 to me it would make more sense.

Ive got the 4690k at the moment with a z97 board and im happy. plan at some point is to drop is a 4790k
 
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