i7-5960X or i7-6900k ?

[Savo.]

Hello,

I am doing a new build, and I can't decide between the i7-5960X or i7-6900k.

I will be mostly gaming on the new build. Do I go for the 5960X which has been out for a while now, or go for the newer 6900?

I will appreciate any help and advice.

 

[Dicehunter]

Get whichever 1 is cheapest, Both are pretty much the same.

 

[Sem]

I will be mostly gaming on the new build.

gaming then get a 6700k or if you really must have x99 5820K or 6800/6850k

 

[joeyjojo]

Don't get either for gaming, unless you've got masses of cash to burn.

What GPU(s) are you planning on? And what monitor?

A £200 CPU is not twice as fast as a £100 CPU, a £400 CPU is nowhere near twice as fast as a £200 CPU, a £1000 CPU is just

 

[Panos]

Hello,

I am doing a new build, and I can't decide between the i7-5960X or i7-6900k.

I will be mostly gaming on the new build. Do I go for the 5960X which has been out for a while now, or go for the newer 6900?

I will appreciate any help and advice.

You plan to overclock with watercooling?

You have to OC the 5960x to 4.8+ to beat the 6900 at 4.4
however the 6900k can only do that, while the 5960x can do 5ghz if sample is good.

However if is for gaming get a 6700k and save the money.

 

[Savo.]

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

So the 5960X and 6900 are a bit of overkill then for gaming

 

[Andrei23]

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

So the 5960X and 6900 are a bit of overkill then for gaming

You've heard it here first.

 

[FrozenShivers]

As above, grab a 6700k.

 

[jigger]

You plan to overclock with watercooling?

You have to OC the 5960x to 4.8+ to beat the 6900 at 4.4
however the 6900k can only do that, while the 5960x can do 5ghz if sample is good.

However if is for gaming get a 6700k and save the money.

4.5Ghz on a 5960 is very rare. With Broardwell 8 cores you would be doing well to make the low 4ghz range. Even the best Skylake chips will struggle to make 4.8Ghz stable.

Maybe the chips could hit those kinds of speeds with sub zero cooling.

 

[richthomuk]

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

So the 5960X and 6900 are a bit of overkill then for gaming

Yea it will be rare to see any performance gains by going over 4core with HT, if anything more cores than that more often hinder ingame performance than improve it or just flat out make no difference at all.

 

[Panos]

Wasn't a video recently pitting a 6700K @ 4.8 against a 6950X @ 4.4 and the only game that the 6950X beat the 6700K was Crysis 3?

All others they were in par or the 6700K tad faster.

 

[BaDBoY_uK]

Go big or go home tbh...

But seriously, grab the 6700 and a single 1080

 

[abui1806]

4.5Ghz on a 5960 is very rare. With Broardwell 8 cores you would be doing well to make the low 4ghz range. Even the best Skylake chips will struggle to make 4.8Ghz stable.

Maybe the chips could hit those kinds of speeds with sub zero cooling.

I don't think 4.5Ghz on 5960x is very rare.

 

[dark-knight]

I don't think 4.5Ghz on 5960x is very rare.

Agreed I can overclock mine a lot more than I run it at but I like it at 4.2 Ghz, its a happy medium with heat/sound etc.

 

[Caracus2k]

I don't think 4.5Ghz on 5960x is very rare.

Depends quite a lot on stepping what the 'average' max OC is before you hit the voltage wall under air/water.

 

[Combat Fighter]

I don't think 4.5Ghz on 5960x is very rare.

It's not!

 

[TwsT]

Get whichever 1 is cheapest, Both are pretty much the same.

for certain tasks clock for clock would seem the haswell - E is the superior chip, combine that with the fact there are many more 4.5+ 5960X's than 6900k's

For gaming though 6700k + 1080 heck with the money saved on the cpu you could buy 2 1080's

 

[reef]

The later 5960x's are exceptional overclockers. Mine's a 2016 week 4 J batch and does 4.5GHz 24/7 at 1.20v and runs DDR4-3200 14-14-13-30 solid with very little VCSSA voltage.

It'll do 4.7GHz stable with 1.37v but things start getting toasty then.

 

[killswitch73]

4.5Ghz on a 5960 is very rare. With Broardwell 8 cores you would be doing well to make the low 4ghz range. Even the best Skylake chips will struggle to make 4.8Ghz stable.

Maybe the chips could hit those kinds of speeds with sub zero cooling.

nah lol im getting 4.5ghz with not even breaking a sweat and only at 1.19v and i can get 5ghz on 1.31v stable .temps dont go over 65c under load with full custom water cooling . but my sweet spot is 4.75ghz day to day at 1.25v with a 125hz strap and 32GB 3ghz ram speed and never goes above 50c with 3 x 980ti ,i do tend to have

it is a J batch though not even tried pushing it past 5ghz and im sure it will go further but want it to last a while longer until 7 series chips are out as i always skip a gen like i do with GPUs .so for me next will be 7900 series and volta 1180Ti or equivalent

 

[jigger]

nah lol im getting 4.5ghz with not even breaking a sweat and only at 1.19v and i can get 5ghz on 1.31v stable .temps dont go over 65c under load with full custom water cooling . but my sweet spot is 4.75ghz day to day at 1.25v with a 125hz strap and 32GB 3ghz ram speed and never goes above 50c with 3 x 980ti ,i do tend to have

it is a J batch though not even tried pushing it past 5ghz and im sure it will go further but want it to last a while longer until 7 series chips are out as i always skip a gen like i do with GPUs .so for me next will be 7900 series and volta 1180Ti or equivalent

Yeah lol. The J stepping chip seems very new so it also pretty rare and not all J chips seem to hit the speed you've got. People shouldn't expect too much from the X5960 as the vast majority aren't great for overclocking.