24 replies to this topic

[Throat Punch]

Getting a new computer as my old one died and trying to decide which processor is going to be better for the long term. I'm a newb when it comes to computer stuff so i figured id ask and see if someone could help here. My choices are intel i5 6600k, an intel i7 6700k or an AMD FX 8320. I had a intel i7 960 in my previous computer so any of those 3 is going to be a huge jump for me. I just am not sure how to tell the difference in performance between the 3 and which one is going to last me the longest before i will need to upgrade again. Thanks!!

[Peter2k]

if money isn't an issue

the i7 might, might, give you an advantage under DX12 in the future over the i5
at the moment HT doesn't seem to give much in early tests so far, but we only have like 1 Beta game to bench, the new Fable will be the next
though more than 6 cores (even real ones) seems to not bring advantages any more for gamers even under new DX12

for now the i5 will give you the same fps than the i7, might even want to disable HT on the i7 sometimes

MWO favors strong cores and doesn't scale so well over 4 cores to be honest
the AMD would be fine in other games as well, might even be in MWO, but Intel still better for MWO (and with an OC to boot)


sigh
to be honest I'm looking (and waiting still) for myself
at the moment I would go for an i7, on an Z170 Asus something board (personally I like the Sabertooth the most still)
some RAM with major frequency (at least 2666 since Skylake seems to be starting to get better the faster the RAM gets, compared to the generation before which had better timings for RAM's)

on an Samsung M2 950 pro



if you don't want to get new DDR4 RAM as well , then I would try to get my hands on an i7 with a lot of eDRAM from the generation before Skylake

[Kali Rinpoche]

Depends on what else you want your PC to do besides play games. If you do processor heavy things like run Virtual Machines, compress video, etc., you will want to go with the i7. If you want lots of PCI lanes for SLI x16, PCIe SSD or lots of drives in a raid controller, I would go with the i7 5930 and the Z99 chipset. If you don't do those things, I would just go with the new i7 6700k and at least 16 gigs of ram.

Edited by Kali Rinpoche, 30 October 2015 - 08:00 AM.

[Summon3r]

if you are mainly using the PC for gaming then most definitely stick with an Intel cpu, if money is no issue then of course go with the I7, but if budget is of any concern and you could get a better grfx card if you went with the I5-6600k then by all means that is a no brainer!!

[xWiredx]

OP, you're telling us you have a choice between the best gaming processor available, two other CPUs, and you can't decide? Get the 6700K, turn off hyperthreading (apparently), OC it to anything 4.4GhZ or above, and enjoy MWO.

[cSand]

Don't go with the AMD

Is too old now, 2011 technology.

Get the i7 if that's affordable for you.

Don't bother turning off hyperthreading... no offense to WiredX but that is a snake oil type of thing. If you're going to neuter the i7 by turning off hyperthreading, save the extra cash and buy an i5 since that's the major difference.

[Lordred]

Get the Intel.

[darqsyde]

Intel, as per moneyz available.

[Flapdrol]

I'm not a fan of the 6700K, price of cpu+board is too close to 5820K, which is faster if you'd overclock both.

The 5820K's massive 15MB cache will help with per core performance too.

[Goose]

That you'd gone LGA1366 before suggests you want LGA2011-3 now, but maybe you should talk about picking that i7-960, some?

[Throat Punch]

xWiredx, on 30 October 2015 - 08:43 AM, said:

OP, you're telling us you have a choice between the best gaming processor available, two other CPUs, and you can't decide? Get the 6700K, turn off hyperthreading (apparently), OC it to anything 4.4GhZ or above, and enjoy MWO.

See, thats the rub. I'm looking at buying (building?) a computer via Digital Storm. I know very little about computers and less about constructing them. I just looked at 3 of the computers that they had that were in the price range i had set (about $1500 because i plan on keeping it for a while. My last PC lasted 7 years) and said, hmm that looks good but... My old pc had a intel i7 960 which i thought was the best at the time because it was the "most expensive" at the time i bought the PC only to betold later that i should have gotten an i5. That's why I'm asking. I have no clue how these rate against each other. I just saw what was close to the range i was willing to spend. I have a better idea when it come to graphics cards, which is nearly the extent of my knowledge.

That said i have no idea what hyperthreading is or how i would turn it off.

[xWiredx]

cSand, on 30 October 2015 - 09:37 AM, said:

Don't go with the AMD

Is too old now, 2011 technology.

Get the i7 if that's affordable for you.

Don't bother turning off hyperthreading... no offense to WiredX but that is a snake oil type of thing. If you're going to neuter the i7 by turning off hyperthreading, save the extra cash and buy an i5 since that's the major difference.

Actually, there is some reliable data showing that it does slightly boost per-core performance (which makes perfect logical sense when you understand how the functionality is achieved). There was some other thread floating around about it. I'm a firm believer that when you start cranking MWOs CPU-intensive settings it becomes less noticeable to the point of being negligible, but when you're testing in some CPU-bound situations (read that: single core performance) it does seem to show enough that it's measurable.

Flapdrol, on 30 October 2015 - 10:03 AM, said:

I'm not a fan of the 6700K, price of cpu+board is too close to 5820K, which is faster if you'd overclock both.

The 5820K's massive 15MB cache will help with per core performance too.

I believe everything since SB has had the same amount of cache available per core, actually. For gaming, I'd go with the 6700K. The near 10% IPC boost from Skylake and official support for faster DDR4 makes it more attractive to the high-end mainstream IMO. It also seems like Skylake is the better overclocker. 4.5GhZ at 1.3v, or 4.6GhZ at 1.3v with an added 10% IPC boost for $20 less? Kinda seems like a no-brainer.

[xWiredx]

Mors Draco, on 30 October 2015 - 10:52 AM, said:

See, thats the rub. I'm looking at buying (building?) a computer via Digital Storm. I know very little about computers and less about constructing them. I just looked at 3 of the computers that they had that were in the price range i had set (about $1500 because i plan on keeping it for a while. My last PC lasted 7 years) and said, hmm that looks good but... My old pc had a intel i7 960 which i thought was the best at the time because it was the "most expensive" at the time i bought the PC only to betold later that i should have gotten an i5. That's why I'm asking. I have no clue how these rate against each other. I just saw what was close to the range i was willing to spend. I have a better idea when it come to graphics cards, which is nearly the extent of my knowledge.

That said i have no idea what hyperthreading is or how i would turn it off.

No worries. Let me ask you this: Does the system with the i5 6600K have a better GPU in it? If so, you can definitely go that route if you're hard set on not building your system (which a lot of people have started out saying that but around the hardware subforum we've converted a lot of people into building their own). The 6600K and 6700K will give you almost the same exact experience for MWO, so if you can get the extra graphics performance by sacrificing and getting the i5 instead of the i5, do it.

Hyperthreading is basically a method Intel developed to take advantage of CPU idle time while working on multiple things at once so that if one thread is waiting for something another thread can be worked on in tandem. It can be turned off in the BIOS pretty simply. It just has an on/off or enabled/disabled option.

This leads me to another question, though: is this system going to be overclocked directly from the builder? Or are you going to do any overclocking yourself?

[Throat Punch]

Hmmm. I don't think its overclocked at all. Here are the two im debating since AMD is off the table from the advice here.

Specs:
- Intel Core i5 6600K CPU
- NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB
- 8GB DDR4 2666MHz Memory
- 250GB Samsung EVO SSD
- 1TB 7200RPM HDD
- Upgraded CPU Air Cooling
- Z170 Motherboard
- 750W Power Supply
- DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
- LED Internal Lighting
- Microsoft Windows 10


Specs:
- Intel Core i7 6700K CPU
- NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB
- 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Memory
- 250GB Samsung EVO SSD
- 1TB 7200RPM HDD
- Upgraded CPU Air Cooling
- Z170 Motherboard
- 750W Power Supply
- DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
- LED Internal Lighting
- Microsoft Windows 10

(Fixed formatting)

Edited by Mors Draco, 30 October 2015 - 11:10 AM.

[Goose]

Mors Draco, on 30 October 2015 - 10:52 AM, said:

My old pc had a intel i7 960 which i thought was the best at the time because it was the "most expensive" at the time i bought the PC only to betold later that i should have gotten an i5.

That sounds like the "bang-for-buck" argument, but "later" could mean Sandy Bridge had come out? Maybe you should ask this guy how many systems he's had between then and now. ;-)

Building a system is not very hard, if you know how to avoid the pit-falls: If you dump all that money into CPU, mobo, PSU and RAM, while recycling at lest the video card (for a year or two,) and the case, you might be able to pull off another seven years …

[Throat Punch]

So, im guessing it basically comes down to price in this case. If the i5 is a decent processor, then i'd rather save the money and get that then spending more for a minor gain?

[xWiredx]

Essentially, yes. The 6700K won't offer you a significantly different gaming experience compared to the 6600K. With the extra savings, maybe you could bump up the RAM, GPU or cooling, though?

[Summon3r]

BUILD YOUR OWN, if you can build lego you can build a pc!! and get far far better components/performance

[Brokenstone]

I'm guessing you are looking at the Digital Storm Vanquish comps. Been looking at them for my wife's new comp.

I would go for the i7 one and it has more ram as well. Since you can't change them. Well you can after you get it but that wouldn't make sense. With the sale it should be a $225 diffence in price. It does show both comps bench mark. i7 shows better marks but not by much. That not much adds up after a few years though.

Edited by Brokenstone, 30 October 2015 - 12:53 PM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

pre built is never the answer. You'll get more for your money building your own.

It's not hard it's like playing with lego