***Intel i7 4790K Owners thread***

[NeilF]

Question for you guys all running the 4790K:

How much of a performance increase would I see moving from an i7-920? Currently running a single 970, probably moving to a single 980, looking to possibly SLI it later this year (depending on what happens GPU wise). I've had the i7 for almost 6 years now, I feel I'm due an upgrade.

Can't really help I'm afraid. All I can comment on, moving from a Q6600 @ 3.4ghz, is the I7 at standard speed isn't even taxed by any game I play. Its 8 threads are rarely worked hard and generally it's sitting there underclocking itself at <40 degrees! Love it!

But surely your processor isn't a bottleneck? If so why not wait a years or so for the new platforms to arrive?

 

[madindehead]

Can't really help I'm afraid. All I can comment on, moving from a Q6600 @ 3.4ghz, is the I7 at standard speed isn't even taxed by any game I play. Its 8 threads are rarely worked hard and generally it's sitting there underclocking itself at <40 degrees! Love it!

But surely your processor isn't a bottleneck? If so why not wait a years or so for the new platforms to arrive?

I'm feeling like it is. Even with 12GB of RAM, and the 970, I can't run games as smoothly as I want to. Maybe I'm just desperate for a change! If I'm going to go to Skylake, it would be Skylake K. Even then, how much of a boost is Skylake really going to be over Haswell? DDR4 is probably the only big draw there, and X99 has support for that, as well as Broadwell-E coming there.

 

[kimandsally]

Question for you guys all running the 4790K:

How much of a performance increase would I see moving from an i7-920? Currently running a single 970, probably moving to a single 980, looking to possibly SLI it later this year (depending on what happens GPU wise). I've had the i7 for almost 6 years now, I feel I'm due an upgrade.

I did the same jump it's HUGE but do get an SSD to give you what it's capable of or your hard drive will be the weak link.

Just an OS drive would be OK and if budgets are tight you can get them cheap in the members market.

 

[madindehead]

I did the same jump it's HUGE but do get an SSD to give you what it's capable of or your hard drive will be the weak link.

Just an OS drive would be OK and if budgets are tight you can get them cheap in the members market.

I already have two SSDs, one for OS, and a smaller one for some games. Looking to upgrade that too in time.

But back on track, how much of an improvement did you see in games, and general multi-tasking operation?

 

[NeilF]

I'm feeling like it is. Even with 12GB of RAM, and the 970, I can't run games as smoothly as I want to. Maybe I'm just desperate for a change! If I'm going to go to Skylake, it would be Skylake K. Even then, how much of a boost is Skylake really going to be over Haswell? DDR4 is probably the only big draw there, and X99 has support for that, as well as Broadwell-E coming there.

Are you running it at stock?

Anyway, I'll let others who know more about the old I7s comment... As I said, I came from a Q6600 (@ 3.4ghz).

 

[DragonQ]

I'm feeling like it is. Even with 12GB of RAM, and the 970, I can't run games as smoothly as I want to. Maybe I'm just desperate for a change! If I'm going to go to Skylake, it would be Skylake K. Even then, how much of a boost is Skylake really going to be over Haswell? DDR4 is probably the only big draw there, and X99 has support for that, as well as Broadwell-E coming there.

Surely you can tell where the bottleneck is by looking at your CPU and GPU usage when you feel/see games are slowing down? It could be the X58 platform rather than the CPU itself but there's no point in doing a core upgrade because you "feel" as if the CPU is holding you back.

As NeilFawcett said, if you're running it at stock speeds that could be a bottleneck. These chips have ~50% overclocking headroom with very little difficulty, it's worth doing that.

 

[setter]

Got both setups here, (930 in other machine). And tbh, in games im playing with a single card id be hard pressed to tell the difference. In sli the 4790k i suspect would be faster. It's something id like to try with my sli 780's, but the motherboard in the 930 setup has the spacing too close so id end up cooking the top card.

 

[madindehead]

Surely you can tell where the bottleneck is by looking at your CPU and GPU usage when you feel/see games are slowing down? It could be the X58 platform rather than the CPU itself but there's no point in doing a core upgrade because you "feel" as if the CPU is holding you back.

As NeilFawcett said, if you're running it at stock speeds that could be a bottleneck. These chips have ~50% overclocking headroom with very little difficulty, it's worth doing that.

Nah, the thing is overclocked to 4GHz. CPU load is fine in the games I've looked at (WoW at ultra in a 20 man raid, Witcher 2 around medium-high settings). It could just be the X58 platform indeed. I upgrade my GPU from 670 to 970, and I haven't seen the performance upgrade I was honestly expecting, especially from WoW. Other games are better, but still not as much oompf as I was expecting.

Sorry to hijack your owners tread, just feels like a good place to ask.

 

[GiraffePencils]

Question for you guys all running the 4790K:

How much of a performance increase would I see moving from an i7-920? Currently running a single 970, probably moving to a single 980, looking to possibly SLI it later this year (depending on what happens GPU wise). I've had the i7 for almost 6 years now, I feel I'm due an upgrade.

this weekend I should be turning on my new build
I'm going 920-4790k
Any bench you'd like me to run and I can give you a 'before and after'

 

[DragonQ]

Nah, the thing is overclocked to 4GHz. CPU load is fine in the games I've looked at (WoW at ultra in a 20 man raid, Witcher 2 around medium-high settings). It could just be the X58 platform indeed. I upgrade my GPU from 670 to 970, and I haven't seen the performance upgrade I was honestly expecting, especially from WoW. Other games are better, but still not as much oompf as I was expecting.

Sorry to hijack your owners tread, just feels like a good place to ask.

I've never played it but from what I remember, WoW is CPU-bound, so it's not surprising that you didn't see a huge improvement when upgrading your GPU. You need to be careful when checking CPU usage because obviously most games won't use 8+ cores - ensure you're looking at each core load individually in Task Manager to see what's really going on.

 

[madindehead]

this weekend I should be turning on my new build
I'm going 920-4790k
Any bench you'd like me to run and I can give you a 'before and after'

I can't think of any off the top of my head Now that you've put me on the spot. Maybe pick 2-3 you find useful (I don't want to burden you with providing too much info).

I've never played it but from what I remember, WoW is CPU-bound, so it's not surprising that you didn't see a huge improvement when upgrading your GPU. You need to be careful when checking CPU usage because obviously most games won't use 8+ cores - ensure you're looking at each core load individually in Task Manager to see what's really going on.

Ah true. I forgot to check each core individually! I think I just checked overall CPU usage, which tends to sit at like 25% no matter what I do!

 

[NeilF]

Ah true. I forgot to check each core individually! I think I just checked overall CPU usage, which tends to sit at like 25% no matter what I do!

I have an LCD display programmed showing me all 8 cores and the workload and temps etc. It's amazing to see them all hardly even trying with most (modern) games

It's the reason I'm not even interested in overclocking the thing (at the moment)... It's runs so cool too my system is very quiet

 

[Spikey]

W H A T . . . . . . ?
dont touch your RiG!

no matter what you hear or read and even see with your own eyes, JUST DONT BELIVE IT!

what you have now is very much FiNE!!!

anyone itching for upgrade, just wait for the common Combo of 4K + DDR4 + Skylake + Pascal (or HBM by red).

those 4K will be very afordable soon
DDR4 will be better after all leassons learned and chipsets improved
Skylake _ (if it need a word then... utilize stacked mem)
pascal _ Stacked ram, shrinked arc', _ (called HBM at AMD)

i moved from 2600K + 16GB 1600mhz and boy that was a waste of money!
i do get faster speeds on media chopshops but... i could have waited.

Thanks..I assume if I wanted to SLI 2 x 980 in future I would be best looking at an i7? I assume my i5 would bottleneck the system?

 

[dimonakid]

Thanks..I assume if I wanted to SLI 2 x 980 in future I would be best looking at an i7? I assume my i5 would bottleneck the system?

(tx)
Here You Go My Friend... (speaking of the Devil...)
Intel Will Release Their High-End SkyLake Cpus 6 months from NOW _ (not the extreme, but the equivelent of 4790K)

so you see... only a 100 grams of patience is required.

 

[madindehead]

Delete post.

 

[markk33nan]

Cant wait to get my new i7 4790k 4.00ghz

it will be a huge step up from my Core 2 duo E8400 3.00ghz

Also planing to OC the cpu.

whats recommended 4.4 or 4.5 or higher ?

 

[NeilF]

Cant wait to get my new i7 4790k 4.00ghz

it will be a huge step up from my Core 2 duo E8400 3.00ghz

Also planing to OC the cpu.

whats recommended 4.4 or 4.5 or higher ?

Can I suggest, you see if you need to overclock it first? I can't (with games) make the thing even work over 50%!

 

[dimonakid]

Cant wait to get my new i7 4790k 4.00ghz

it will be a huge step up from my Core 2 duo E8400 3.00ghz

Also planing to OC the cpu.

whats recommended 4.4 or 4.5 or higher ?

1st of all dont forget to get at least 8GB of 1600mhz RAM!! (if you can go for higher mhz then you will only get happier!)

if you will get 4790K then your boost will be 4.4ghz by default (in my opinion, no need to OC) but if you do, (what will yield only 200-400mhz max on air) make sure you get an adequate heatsink.

 

[markk33nan]

1st of all dont forget to get at least 8GB of 1600mhz RAM!! (if you can go for higher mhz then you will only get happier!)

if you will get 4790K then your boost will be 4.4ghz by default (in my opinion, no need to OC) but if you do, (what will yield only 200-400mhz max on air) make sure you get an adequate heatsink.

Picking up some 16gb 2400mhz
and a Hydro 110 cooler

 

[passey89]

my 4790k all installed now