i7 4790k or 7700k??

[BH1983]

Hi guys,

I bought my PC about 2 years ago with an i5 4690 and 8gb ram. I've since upgraded to 16gb ram, put a platinum 850w PSU in and upgraded the GPU to a EVGA 1070 SC, but I'm now thinking about upgrading to an overclocked processor.

My question is, which option should I go for?

• Upgrade to a 4790k @ £340 (incl. cooler)
• Upgrade to 7700k @ £600 (incl. motherboard, ram, and cooler)
• Stay with what I've got for another 12-18 months

I use my PC for general use, some handbrake video encoding and gaming and have just upgraded the monitor to a Acer XR342CK.

Would appreciate peoples opinions.

 

[Glanza]

Have you looked into Ryzen? You could do the upgrade to that for cheaper if not around the same price as the 7700k upgrade.

 

[BH1983]

Have you looked into Ryzen? You could do the upgrade to that for cheaper if not around the same price as the 7700k upgrade.

I have, but from what I've read Ryzen falls short to an i7 in gaming as most games can't take advantage of all of the Ryzen cores??

 

[AllBodies]

Either go for the i7 4790k and clock to 4.5 GHz minimum to make it worth it.

Or go for the Ryzen R7 1700 and overclock to 3.9 GHz for longevity/future proofing, and opening up being able to use your PC for professional work.

The 7700k is not fast enough over the 4790k to justify the cost. And if most industry people's indications are correct (that game engines will actually start using many-threading), the Ryzen will destroy the 7700k in the medium/long term.

 

[rene.agac]

Depends.

Going for 4790k means you can avoid reinstalling windows and everything else. Its plug & play if you stay on the same chipset.

I ve gone for 7700k mainly for latest nvme m.2 (4x) support and look of new boards otherwise i wouldnt bother.

Performance wise there would be almost no difference

 

[BH1983]

And if most industry people's indications are correct (that game engines will actually start using many-threading), the Ryzen will destroy the 7700k in the medium/long term.

So would it be worth waiting for a while to see what happens? Or just go for the 4790k now keep that for another 18-24 months?

 

[pastymuncher]

You do have a Z87/Z97 motherboard I take it? You will need one of those to overclock a 4790k. If you do then the 4790k seems a good choice to tide you over another couple of years.

 

[BH1983]

You do have a Z87/Z97 motherboard I take it? You will need one of those to overclock a 4790k. If you do then the 4790k seems a good choice to tide you over another couple of years.

I don't know off hand, I'll have to check when I get home. If it's not I think I'll wait to see if games start coming out that are more optimised for Ryzen.

 

[Cooper]

I don't know off hand, I'll have to check when I get home. If it's not I think I'll wait to see if games start coming out that are more optimised for Ryzen.

I'd would at least wait for AMD to launch the Ryzen R5 line of CPU's.

They will be the real competitor for the 7600K & 7700K in gaming and will be at least $100 cheaper which may well force Intel into price cuts which will feed down to the 4790K, which is still, somewhat ridiculously, costing over £300.

It's what I'm doing, no real rush as my 4690K can still handle anything thrown at it, but a 4790K will be a better match for my planned upgrade to a 1080 or if i'm drunk when placing the order a 1080Ti, and will be more than good enough for another 2-3yrs in gaming.

 

[Firestar_3x]

Just gone from a 4.5Ghz 4690k to a 7700k, seen some difference in games, CPU is no longer fully tapped out whilst playing Wildlands for example and VR performance has increased slightly, the difference will come if i upgraded from a 1080 to 1080ti, i don't think the 4690k would have the power to keep up in some games.

If you are going to buy anything i'd buy whatever fits your needs NOW, whilst games may use more cores in the future and Ryzen may see an increase in performance, you will be running a 2 year old processor at that point and will have suffered 2 years of worse performance plus the itch to upgrade to something better.

 

[=XDC=FluphyBunny]

As above if you aren't in a desperate hurry I would wait for R5. You can then decide between 4970K/R7/R5.

This will also give AMD time to sort out all the issues with Ryzen.

 

[fs123]

As above if you aren't in a desperate hurry I would wait for R5. You can then decide between 4970K/R7/R5.

This will also give AMD time to sort out all the issues with Ryzen.

+1

Ryzen is new so game code is not optimized for it at all. Expecting to see some of the big devs add support for Ryzen in their engines soon.

 

[BH1983]

Thanks guys, I'll wait to see what Ryzen brigs to the table then. My 4690 isn't giving me any major problems, I reckon I can live with it for another 6-12 months.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks guys, I'll wait to see what Ryzen brigs to the table then. My 4690 isn't giving me any major problems, I reckon I can live with it for another 6-12 months.

If I were you I would wait until the new releases,and these should probably help secondhand prices go down - you can then sell your Core i7 4670 and get a Core i7 4790K.

 

[mmj_uk]

At current prices you should go with Ryzen, sure Intel has a bit more IPC for games but Ryzen is vastly more powerful and much better value.

I expect Intel to drop prices before too long they must be hemorrhaging sales.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

At current prices you should go with Ryzen, sure Intel has a bit more IPC for games but Ryzen is vastly more powerful and much better value.

I expect Intel to drop prices before too long they must be hemorrhaging sales.

It makes more sense to just plonk in a Core i7 4790K TBH - the OP not only gets HT but another 600MHZ in maximum boost clock frequency.

Prices will drop once Intel starts responding to Ryzen.

You need to consider,the OP would need to not only get a Ryzen CPU,but a new motherboard and DDR4 RAM.

Also,the OP is at 4K,so most of the money is really better spent on a faster card down the line and especially an AMD one as their monitor has FreeSync.

 

[ozzyo99]

Good luck getting an AM4 motherboard of any worth - I sold my 4770k rig and I've had a collection of boxes ever since, currently waiting for an X370 board to be shipped from Germany as there is literally no stock of high-end boards in the UK.

Wait until the beginning of April before doing anything.

 

[BH1983]

Just seen Ryzen 5 has been announced, I like the look of the 1600X, with a bit of overclocking that could be a steal!

At the very least, this is going to force Intel to lower their prices.

 

[geordiejc]

If it's a 75hz pannel @ 1440p then your system is still high end. Rendering a game @ 98 fps vs 75 fps is negligible, because you can only display 75fps, right?

For encoding; more cores and threads will help - if you are a heavy content creator ? if not its a matter of how much your time is worth, i.e. if you handbrake a video 1 or 2 times a week is the extra time taken worth the cost of the upgrade? only YOU can decide how much your time is worth.

My advice is wait for Ryzen 5 to be released to empower you with a plethora of resources, which will compare Haswell/Devils Canyon - Kaby i5 generations vs Ryzen R5. In 6 games tested, there is only 11fps difference between a 4790k vs 7700k. furthermore only 5 FPS is due to CPU IPC and 6 FPS due to the memory system (DDR3 vs DRR4) https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/4790k-vs-7770k-11-fps.18772892/

A £340 upgrade to an i7 4790k Devils Canyon (Haswell) will net you negligible fps in games which are not CPU bound. In games such as GTA5 an i7 will net you more FPS - just watch some youtube videos. but it will bring you m.2 usb 3.1 etc.. (who cares!?)
A £600 upgrade to an 7700k is the fastest gaming processor today, and you will see a boost to FPS due to clock frequency and IPC gains over haswell, plus the additional 8 threads will net you ~25% in games which can utilise this effectively, BUT why have 'threads' when you can have 'cores' - look to Ryzen... (once it's ironed out) for +4 cores for the same price a a 7700k or the sweet spot which may be the R5 1600 (6 cores 12 threads for ~£220 + mobo + ram) or 1700 (8cores 16 threads for £330 + mobo + ram)

edit : just realised you hav a 75hz monitor

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

OP can get a refurbished Haswell Core i7 for less.