860 to ?

[Andy7]

The point with the 5820k was that it's just as fast, but with with extra physical cores compared to Skylake = why wouldn't you go for that instead? The chip will be good for five years too.

It's only if you need the features brought by the Skylake chipset that you'd really want to go that route, but don't do it for performance reasons as there aren't any.

There's also a short term upgrade path for X99 as the 6/8 core Broadwell-E chips are coming out early next year.

This is the answer I would have given

 

[C64]

by the time there are games that benefit from more than 4 cores there will be 6 core+ cpus that trounce the 5820k.

 

[Joe!]

Either get an i5-6600k, an i7-4790k or an i7-5820k. The 6700k is a silly choice at the moment.

6600k if you want the 'features of Skylake' but are using it for gaming, 4790k if you want the hyperthreading and decent clocks at a lower price, and the 5820k if you want longevity. Can't really think of anything that Z170 can do that X99 cannot do as well.

I can't really find any comparisons of 5820k vs 6700k at 4.4GHz vs 4.8GHz, which would be considered average for both chips.

 

[Caracus2k]

by the time there are games that benefit from more than 4 cores there will be 6 core+ cpus that trounce the 5820k.

There's already games that benefit from more than four cores. As noted above if you think four cores is sufficient why bother with the i7 skylake when the i5 has four cores and is far cheaper. Hyper threading is not going to help much with gaming and the money would be better spent on a current or future gpu upgrade. The i7 6700k is just too expensive to recommend against the alternatives. There will also be cpu's out in the future that trounce a 6700k but with x99 you'll be able to slot in a eight core 14nm chip...
you'll be stuck with four cores with the z170 chipset. X99, on past Enthusiast line performance will likely have more longevity for this reason and because it supports far more pci-e lanes

 

[C64]

There's already games that benefit from more than four cores. As noted above if you think four cores is sufficient why bother with the i7 skylake when the i5 has four cores and is far cheaper. Hyper threading is not going to help much with gaming and the money would be better spent on a current or future gpu upgrade. The i7 6700k is just too expensive to recommend against the alternatives. There will also be cpu's out in the future that trounce a 6700k but with x99 you'll be able to slot in a eight core 14nm chip...
you'll be stuck with four cores with the z170 chipset. X99, on past Enthusiast line performance will likely have more longevity for this reason and because it supports far more pci-e lanes

which games benefit from more than 4 cores ? and by how much ?
I read that the next total war game might but that was then changed to works just as well on 4/4 4/8 cpu's ? like the backtracking on dx12.

 

[Caracus2k]

which games benefit from more than 4 cores ? and by how much ?
I read that the next total war game might but that was then changed to works just as well on 4/4 4/8 cpu's ? like the backtracking on dx12.

Well how about BF4, GRID2 and Metro LL for starters

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-core-i7-5960x-haswell-e-cpu,review-33029-6.html

(I am aware that particularly in BF4's case it has been shown to be mostly GPU limited performance wise, especially at lower resolutions, but then I already advised buying an I5 and spending the saving on a better gpu - you will notice Toms's at least tested at a more high end 2560 X 1440 res as opposed to some benchmarks at 1080P that people use to claim no benefit to 4+ cores)

that's with the 5820k at stock 3.3ghz and the 4790k at stock 4ghz with both overclocked the typical difference will be even less than 700mhz - more like 300 - 400mhz so any gains from higher core speed on the quad core will likely be diminished when overclocked

The 5820k comes out as a good balance of core speed vs number of cores being at the top of every chart. Obviously cores cant counter a faster clocked processor in a lightly threaded app or game but if you clocked same generation processors at the same speed you would see a clear improvement from two to four cores in practically every game and from four to six in some games available now.

Do you think games will get more or less heavily threaded in the future or stay the same?

 

[njj1046]

My current rig has an ancient Q6600 clocked at 3.4GHz. This is married with a very humble GTX 660.

I've spent the last couple of months wondering whether I should go Z170 (or even Z97 for that matter) or X99.

After much deliberation, I decided that X99 and a 5820K wasn't for me. On the desktop, all I do is browse and play music on Spotify. I don't run any programs at all that could possibly take advantage of 6 or more cores.

My main interest is gaming. Because of my current setup, I didn't buy GTA 5 or Battlefield 4 because I knew what a bottleneck my current system would be.

I really am getting tired of a large number of people on these forums saying X99 is the only way forward, and that Skylake 6700K is a waste of money.

I will never SLI graphics cards; I will always pick one card that is powerful enough for my gaming needs.

Do you lot still think I need a 5820K for my upgrade?

 

[Joe!]

GTA is one that springs to mind, not entirely sure how much it benefits going from 4 cores, to 8 threads, to 12 threads, but going from 4 cores to 12 threads meant I no longer get stutters when shooting in close combat.

I really am getting tired of a large number of people on these forums saying X99 is the only way forward, and that Skylake 6700K is a waste of money.

I will never SLI graphics cards; I will always pick one card that is powerful enough for my gaming needs.

Do you lot still think I need a 5820K for my upgrade?

I don't say X99 is the only way forward, but if it was 6700k vs 5820k, the 5820k makes the most sense in my opinion.

As I said earlier, 6600k is perfect valid, so is the 4790k, but I don't really see the point in the 6700k.

You can clock a 5820k to similar-ish speeds of the 6700k, obviously less, but if you don't plan on upgrading for years to come, why not take the small hit to your clock speed and get 2 more cores/4 more threads? Everything else is going to cost roughly the same price. Maybe £30-50 more for the board since X99 motherboards are still pretty expensive, but OcUK do a £50 off bundle so it probably works out less than than a £50 difference.

If games don't take advantage of 6 cores, you still have X amount of cores running at 4.4GHz, if they do take advantage of 6 cores, you have them there for the game to use... I'm not too sure why you wouldn't choose it.

 

[bfar]

One should consider that an overclocked 5820k will draw around 300 watts. That's a lot of juice!

 

[Caracus2k]

As above no ones saying you must buy an x99 rig. Its just that 6700k/z170 combo stacks up poorly against the competition with very little gain over an i5 skylake for 50% cost for the cpu

I really am getting tired of a large number of people on these forums saying X99 is the only way forward

Strawman - no one said X99 was the only way forward

and that Skylake 6700K is a waste of money.

The 6700K at £300+ is a waste of money... or even £299.99 on TO but getting fairly tempting with the software bundle inc!

I will never SLI graphics cards; I will always pick one card that is powerful enough for my gaming needs.

Do you lot still think I need a 5820K for my upgrade?

No I would advise you buy an I5 Skylake/Z170 combo if you want/need the extra features on the motherboard or buy a Z97 board and matching CPU instead

 

[David Bisset]

ipc gains
single core performance
Higher clock OTB
Oc potential

Reviews suggest no IPC gain, no single-core gain, same max clocks as 5820k so only out of the box speed really...

Skylake for i5 sure, but the 6700k isn't (wasn't? Not checked prices in about a week) worth it vs x99.

 

[zaxx]

So i see like everywhere, it is heavily debated which would be better

Maybe i am being silly but when i had my current set up it was already old
i ripped the cpu out of an off the shelf shop build - that i paid over the odds for

I want whats current now not last years kit

Have read on several forums that Dx12 Might benefit cores
and that its very much complicated for devs to even code for multicore/threads
Some think that Dx12 will lessen the need for a beefy CPU
in the first place...

z170 Boards pull ahead in more/new tech even if its by a small margin

The only reasons i may end up with a 5820k is multi clienting games
but even then im not a chinese gold farmer so wont see much difference

for a decent mobo and ram its a lot more expensive
ok my budget is on the larger size, but i am watercooling and
going 1440p thats a good wedge right there - building a desk to

Honestly no closer as everywhere i read its 50/50

thanks

 

[horrorwood]

This made my decision... plus who doesn't like new stuff?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sx1kLGVAF0

 

[Caracus2k]

I want whats current now not last years kit

Comparing x99 to z170 is not a newer equals better scenario as its a bit of a apples vs oranges comparison. Z170 offers nothing significant over x99 (except generally cheaper boards) For some people x99 does however offer significant gains over z170 principally access to current and future cpu's with far more cores/threads, far more pci-e lanes (cpu depending for exact number), and more memory bandwidth and upper capacity with quad over dual channel memory configuration.

Imo z170 will likely remain with cpu's that are both a maximum of quad core and based on a 14nm process (current Skylake and 14nm 'refresh' Kabylake in a similar fashion to devils canyon for last gen). From what I have read it appears that the next die shrink 'cannonlake' will require a new motherboard for the mainstream socket as Intel are changing which bits are located on the CPU and m/b again. It looks certain that x99 will now get a 14nm compatible product with broadwell-e and so will not lag behind in this respect for long against z170.

I strongly suspect that you would be best served with an i5 skylake cpu/z170 m/b given your usage. The i5 is on today only at a good price with a software package and is over 50% cheaper than the 6700k. You could always buy the kabylake i7 down the line for hyperthreading if gaming does become far more multi threaded in the near to intermediate future.

 

[bfar]

I figure Skylake is currently priced to clear haswell and haswell-e stocks. I suspect prices will fall!