I3 6100 vs i7 2600k

WhereHere1 · 3 Apr 2018 at 15:44

ok so my main computer is the i7, but I’m looking to upgrade it on the 9th gen of intel.

Would the i3 6100 be at the level of the much over i7 2600k?

I don’t know whether to just sell my i7 now and put up with the i3. Or will the i7 still be way more powerful even though it is only 2011?

Minibiker · 3 Apr 2018 at 15:48

I don't think that's really an upgrade, Obviously the 6100 is DDR4 RAM etc but performance wise I'm sure many people use the 2600k still, Its more than capable, What's the rest of your current specs?

WhereHere1 · 3 Apr 2018 at 15:54

Well the 2600k is my main computer and I’ll go for another i7 next year when intel release gen 9.

But my current built is i7, 16gb ram Gtx 1080.
I can feel my GTX is deffo bottlenecked so that’s why I want to upgrade.
But my second computer is i3 with just 8gb RAM. I was wondering if I put the 1080 in that whether it would be as capable as the older i7? Or would it just be terrible haha

DragonQ · 3 Apr 2018 at 15:54

Not worth it, especially since you'll have to buy new RAM.

Why would you want to get a 6th generation Core i3 now whilst waiting for a 9th generation Core i7? A motherboard that is compatible with one will not be compatible with the other.

GMac11 · 3 Apr 2018 at 15:59

WhereHere1 said:
Well the 2600k is my main computer and I’ll go for another i7 next year when intel release gen 9.

But my current built is i7, 16gb ram Gtx 1080.
I can feel my GTX is deffo bottlenecked so that’s why I want to upgrade.
But my second computer is i3 with just 8gb RAM. I was wondering if I put the 1080 in that whether it would be as capable as the older i7? Or would it just be terrible haha

You "feel" your GTX is bottlenecked, could you elaborate? I don't mean this in a snarly manner I'm genuinely interested as I'm currently on a 2600k myself and am pretty much sitting my finger on the trigger of an i5 8600k upgrade, mobo has already been purchased (but I can still return it) and RAM/CPU is in progress - FYI I got 16gb DDR4 for £112 on a deal which is why I decided to upgrade as it's the cheapest I have seen memory lately.
Have you done any tests to check if the CPU is actually bottlenecking your GPU? I have used task manager which pegs my 1080 at 100%; CPU at around 25-30% overall but with a couple of individual cores maxed out - so does this mean the CPU is bottlenecking?

WhereHere1 · 3 Apr 2018 at 16:04

Thinking about it, I have a b150a-x1 motherboard. Reading the manual this motherboard takes 6th gen and 7th gen CPU’s, maybe it would be better for me to buy a i7 7th gen. Is the i7 7700 the 7th gen?

WhereHere1 · 3 Apr 2018 at 16:07

GMac11 said:
You "feel" your GTX is bottlenecked, could you elaborate? I don't mean this in a snarly manner I'm genuinely interested as I'm currently on a 2600k myself and am pretty much sitting my finger on the trigger of an i5 8600k upgrade, mobo has already been purchased (but I can still return it) and RAM/CPU is in progress - FYI I got 16gb DDR4 for £112 on a deal which is why I decided to upgrade as it's the cheapest I have seen memory lately.
Have you done any tests to check if the CPU is actually bottlenecking your GPU? I have used task manager which pegs my 1080 at 100%; CPU at around 25-30% overall but with a couple of individual cores maxed out - so does this mean the CPU is bottlenecking?

Well I’m guessing it’s bottlenecked I haven’t actually tested it I was just going to upgrade and see haha. I use a lot of cad and after upgrading from a 560 the other year I never really saw any difference, it was still laggy.

When I play certain games on VR I can’t have them on max settings or my computer struggles. I was putting this down to my CPU holding back my GPU. I could be wrong though

DragonQ · 3 Apr 2018 at 16:14

WhereHere1 said:
Thinking about it, I have a b150a-x1 motherboard. Reading the manual this motherboard takes 6th gen and 7th gen CPU’s, maybe it would be better for me to buy a i7 7th gen. Is the i7 7700 the 7th gen?

i7-7700K is the best you can get for that platform so if you are keeping that motherboard then that's probably your best bet. It has 4 cores, 8 threads, and runs at 4.4-4.5 GHz (depending on how many cores are being stressed). You can't overclock on that motherboard. To put that in perspective, the new i5-8600K is 6 cores, 6 threads and is much cheaper, faster in multithreaded applications, and slightly slower in single threaded applications since it runs at 4.1-4.3 GHz.

If you went AMD, the AMD R5 1600 is 6 cores, 12 threads and will also be much faster in multithreaded applications but slower in single threaded applications. It will likely clock to 3.8-3.9 GHz if overclocking, otherwise it'd be better to go for the R5 1600X which is clocked at 3.7-4.1 GHz by default. Both of these are being replaced with higher clocked versions (R5 2600 & R5 2600X) in a couple of weeks.

jigger · 3 Apr 2018 at 16:52

Depends a little on the use, but an overclocked 2600K will murder the i3 in most tasks and be virtually identical in others. 2600k to a 7700 has a little more headroom, but it's not much of an upgrade.

GMac11 · 3 Apr 2018 at 17:28

jigger said:
Depends a little on the use, but an overclocked 2600K will murder the i3 in most tasks and be virtually identical in others. 2600k to a 7700 has a little more headroom, but it's not much of an upgrade.

What about 2600k to 8600K

jigger · 3 Apr 2018 at 17:33

GMac11 said:
What about 2600k to 8600K

You get an extra pair of real cores, but you drop two threads. Would depend on the use I suppose.

GMac11 · 3 Apr 2018 at 18:07

jigger said:
You get an extra pair of real cores, but you drop two threads. Would depend on the use I suppose.

A mixture of gaming (1440p) and lightroom editing. From what I have read/watched I don't think I would see a significant bump in FPS on my usual games particularly at my resolution, lightroom performance figures seem to be harder to come by. Also worth noting I have my 2600k running very happily at 4.6ghz and CAN get it to 4.8ghz but for all the gains I recorded it wasn't worth the hike in temps.

james_2k · 3 Apr 2018 at 18:12

it will be a significant jump in non gaming stuff, and a reasonable jump in gaming especially minimums. people say ryzen is limiting a 1080ti, well a 2600k wont be doing a 1080 any favours either.

Kirby Wurm · 3 Apr 2018 at 18:26

At 1440p most titles will be GPU bound however a newer CPU will help boost minimum FPS. In late 2014 I upgraded from a 2500K to a 4690K and the difference in average FPS was small at 1080p but the minimum FPS had a more reasonable bump, very noticeable in games like War Thunder when running a 144hz monitor.

mistersprinkles · 3 Apr 2018 at 23:36

WhereHere1 said:
ok so my main computer is the i7, but I’m looking to upgrade it on the 9th gen of intel.

Would the i3 6100 be at the level of the much over i7 2600k?

I don’t know whether to just sell my i7 now and put up with the i3. Or will the i7 still be way more powerful even though it is only 2011?

6100 is 6th gen not 9th gen. That would be a downgrade. You don't want to do that.

You could go to an 8th gen i3 K CPU which is basically the same as a 2nd to 7th generation i7 (4c/8t 8MB L3). The IPC would be higher and it would be an upgrade.

If you want a REAL upgrade get the 8th gen 6c/12t i7 or look at a 6c/12t or 8c/16t RYZEN or RYZEN 2 CPU. Waiting for Ice lake is also an option (intel 9th gen)

ExoMale · 3 Apr 2018 at 23:57

if you own a skylake/kabylake system as well as the older 1155 system, then do as you suggested and put money in to an 1151 i7 or since you seemed to have 2 computers for a reason, why dont you put an i5k in the 1151 system along with your 1080 and have that setup for gaming and add some good, but lower performing gpu in your 1155 system and use that for cad and whatever? that i7 would be ideal for cad and other related work with its hyperthreading and an i5 will still be good enough for gaming.

mistersprinkles · 4 Apr 2018 at 00:24

ExoMale said:
if you own a skylake/kabylake system as well as the older 1155 system, then do as you suggested and put money in to an 1151 i7 or since you seemed to have 2 computers for a reason, why dont you put an i5k in the 1151 system along with your 1080 and have that setup for gaming and add some good, but lower performing gpu in your 1155 system and use that for cad and whatever? that i7 would be ideal for cad and other related work with its hyperthreading and an i5 will still be good enough for gaming.

4c4t i5 is dead as far as gaming goes. Most modern games suffer significantly if they don't have 6-8+ threads.

ExoMale · 4 Apr 2018 at 00:35

mistersprinkles said:
4c4t i5 is dead as far as gaming goes. Most modern games suffer significantly if they don't have 6-8+ threads.

depends on the games, not everyone plays all the latest and greatest, people still play the older games from the last 2-3yrs that dont exactly require more than 4 cores.

akarypid · 4 Apr 2018 at 00:57

DragonQ said:
If you went AMD, the AMD R5 1600 is 6 cores, 12 threads and will also be much faster in multithreaded applications but slower in single threaded applications. It will likely clock to 3.8-3.9 GHz if overclocking, otherwise it'd be better to go for the R5 1600X which is clocked at 3.7-4.1 GHz by default. Both of these are being replaced with higher clocked versions (R5 2600 & R5 2600X) in a couple of weeks.

Ryzen 2000 coming out on 19th April and is looking like very solid with an X470 motherboard. The 2600 would come in cheaper and the 2700 slightly more. Given that the X470 will also support the Ryzen 3000 it's a mighty good proposition. Just need to see how close the single-threaded gap is...