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i5 or i7 for gaming?

Tony Montana

Tony Montana

Tony Montana

Associate
Joined
21 Jun 2013
Posts
9
Hey guys,

I'm a little confused as to which cpu to go for. I'm looking at building a new system which will be pretty much 100% gaming.

I know the only real difference is hyper threading, a lot of folks say the i7 doesnt give you any extra in games over the i5, Others say it depends on your budget.

I just dont know why you would pay more for an i7 (even with the budget) if it doesnt give you any advantage in gaming.

I'm happy to pay extra for something that will improve my experience orlp future proof my system but dont want to waste money.

Any help would be great.:)
 
Many gamers using i7 say that when they play games that relay on the CPU do benefit from HT. But if you are on a budget or like you said "100% gaming" then go for 3570k or 4670k as i7 would be waste of money just for gaming. Some people buy i7 as they also stream or record and then edit their videos so that's when HT is very helpful. If you aren't doing any of the things I pointed out then go for i5.
IMO i5 3570k, haswell get's a bit hot...
 
I play mostly games on mine. I went from an i7 920 to a i5 4670 (non k) Paying extra for the i7 on Haswell was a waste of money with little benefit.
 
This review was run in 2010 on a 920

Goal 1 Conclusion: It seems there isn't any real pattern between hyperthreading and non-hyperthreading. They trade blows and all results are very close, but if one had to choose a winner, turning HT off seems to yield slightly better framerates. But for simplicity's sake, the verdict is: Hyperthreading neither helps nor hurts when gaming.

Goal 2 Conclusion: Excluding the Vantage results, an extra 200mhz over hyperthreading is always the better choice. Not surprising, as HT in goal 1 showed no real advantage or disadvantage. If you couldn't guess it, the verdict is: Always choose a higher clockspeed over hyperthreading for gaming
Click to expand...

There was a second review I 'think' it was a IB with hyperthreading and without = no difference and good performance in games. on an 860 however with lower performance the HT really improved the minimum frame rates. I can't find the review anymore though :/.

I'm not convinced HT is helpful for games.
 
Some games (but very few at the moment) can take advantage of the extra threads an HT CPU allows you to run, but they're few and far between at the moment. The only example that comes to mind that benefits from an i7 over an i5 is BF3, but even that's marginal.
 
yes but is worth the price premium over the i5 in games?
Personally for me no. Save the money for a better graphics card which would have a noticeable impact on games.
 
jms198 said:
This review was run in 2010 on a 920



There was a second review I 'think' it was a IB with hyperthreading and without = no difference and good performance in games. on an 860 however with lower performance the HT really improved the minimum frame rates. I can't find the review anymore though :/.

I'm not convinced HT is helpful for games.
Click to expand...

Not sure about your conclusions there - see the article I posted above. There were basically 2 sets of conclusions, one at 1200 and one at 1600/1440.

What they say in the article is that at a higher resolution, it appears to be that HT helps for higher resolutions by keeping the minimum framerate high, especially for Frostbite 2/BF3.
 
Ht works very well with multi gpu in a few games, bf3 being a good example. With a 3570k at 4.5ghz and a single gtx 670 wf the game ran great for me. However when i added a second card, the cpu became the bottleneck despite it's high clock speed. Maximum of 80% usage per card. Upgrading to an i7 3770k even at stock seen an increase in card use to a max of 91% and a much smoother experience.
 
Random Guy said:
Not sure about your conclusions there - see the article I posted above. There were basically 2 sets of conclusions, one at 1200 and one at 1600/1440.

What they say in the article is that at a higher resolution, it appears to be that HT helps for higher resolutions by keeping the minimum framerate high, especially for Frostbite 2/BF3.
Click to expand...

I don't see that conclusion for 1200p

Moreover, HT does nothing to prevent minimum frame rates and the 3770k produced the same minimum frame rates at high stress spots with and without HT enabled in these tests. It is clear from these tests that Battlefield can take advantage of HT on low clocked quad cores, but the resulting average frame rate increase is somewhat of an illusion – higher average frame rates are of no use to the competitive gamer if they only come into play when staring at a wall or running down a hallway solo.
Click to expand...

For 1600p

The 3770k with HT enabled fail to win out at low CPU clocks at 2560×1600, unlike 1920×1200. This could be the result of inconsistent multiplayer testing, or that 2560×1600 rendering is consistently more stressful (and not effectively handed off to HT cores). HT did not produce any strong wins at any processor speed during the 2560×1600 tests, but neither did disable it. Tested results at stock speed are almost identical for the 3770k and the emulated 3570k in this example (when adjusted for the 100 MHz clock speed difference).
Click to expand...

They then seem to think they're getting GPU limited hence the lower increase compared to 1200p.

But then I've probably missed something. Interestingly again the same the same conclusion from the review in 2010 regarding older i7s (at lower res);
HT also makes a strong showing in Windows 8. Although HT may not raise minimum frame rates, and may not provide as dependable performance as true processor cores, it does help to improve performance and raise average frame rates when paired with the right video cards. This is great news for legacy i7 owners who are playing Battlefield 3 64 man.
Click to expand...
 
Go for i7 if you got the dosh, makes sense, no worry about that brand new game that takes advantage of HT, or regrets if you ever decide to go SLI, crossfire. splash the cash and put that i7 case badge on your case, you'll feel a lot better.
 
I use an I7 for gaming and it never struggles, I can be watching tv on one monitor and playing High demand games on the other. I Don't think I would have gone for an I7 but is all mobo will take. Hope this helps
 
I had the same choice, and could have gone with an i7, but chose to save the extra cash and put it towards a 7970 GE rather than a 7950.
 
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