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Which CPU should I go for?

Vidar

Vidar

Vidar

Soldato
Joined
18 Dec 2008
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Liverpool
I was going to upgrade my existing system based on the solid 3930K, but the missus needs a new computer and I've decided to donate this one to her pretty much as is. I'm looking to build a new system around August.

I mostly game, watch films and browse the web and while I would happily go broadwell-e and drop a 6900k or 6950x into the mix, I'm hearing this would be serious overkill for what I do.

So what CPU and chipset should I go for? Bearing in mind I want to add two 1080's in SLI and have another solid system that's going to last me another 4 years?
 
Personally, having made this decision myself recently, I decided on the 6700K as it's best CPU for gaming right now. Of course, four years down the line things might be different, and a hexa core might age better, but then we may (indeed almost certainly will) have hexa cores on the mainstream platform by then, with better IPC and more modest power consumption. There's also the fact that X99 is done now, with Skylake-E set to use a new platform next year, whereas Z170 potentially has two more upgrade paths coming in Kaby Lake and Cannonlake, both of which will use LGA1151.

If you did decide on X99, personally I'd be looking at the 5820K. The 6800K really offers nothing over it whatsoever except a £60 price premium. Indeed, it might actually perform worse if you're planning on overclocking, as Broadwell-E seems to struggle to hit the same sort of clocks as recent Haswell-E batches do and offers nothing in terms of an IPC bump. Anything above those would be major overkill, since the next step up is really only useful for 3 or 4-way SLI setups (which are no longer a thing with Pascal), and the top end chips aren't worth considering for your usage scenario.

 
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What does your other half do on her computer? Does she really need 3930k? If all she does is browse the internet or play facebook games I wouldn't be getting rid of that 3930k system so quickly as it's still very capable. You could build her a new pc for a fraction of the cost of a new gaming pc for yourself.
 
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Seeing as you're going SLI then go for X99 5930k to achieve full bandwidth on both cards. Research the mobo available and make sure SLI doesn't degrade M.2 speeds on that board. I would also look at mobos that give you x16/x16 on slots 1 and 3, especially if you are going to SLI on air.
 
String said:
Seeing as you're going SLI then go for X99 5930k to achieve full bandwidth on both cards.
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It's irrelevant really. You might get an extra 1 or 2 frames per second, but certainly not enough to justify the extra cost of a 5930K for a two-way setup.

 
Aretak said:
It's irrelevant really. You might get an extra 1 or 2 frames per second, but certainly not enough to justify the extra cost of a 5930K for a two-way setup.

Click to expand...

exactly this. A lot of people got really concerned about not running at full bandwidth, but most of them don't quite understand that 8x is just more than enough. No point paying over 100 quids for such gimmick.
 
String said:
Really?

[youtub]8KOTiee5RqA[/youtub]
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There's a lot more evidence from more reputable sources that contradicts that video. I'm not Linus' biggest fan by any means, but I'd take his results over some random Youtuber's any day. I guess the OP can make up his own mind on whether spending an extra £200 for something that may or may not make a 5-10% difference is worth it. ;)
 
its this simple.

x99 six cores vs i6700k

raw core speed the 6700k is level with the 5820k in games. some it wins by a couple of fps. some it loses.

as we get vr other new features those extra cores will gain the fps and be a smoother experience.

its a no brainer.

everything else is quicker on the x99 platform.
 
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