I7 overkill for wow?

[jimmy valmer]

I want to get an i7 4790k CPU for gaming in general and wow but they say it's not needed i5 is just fine.

There must be something that i7 has advantage for gaming other than higher clock speed right? I heard better multi tasking while gaming thanks to hyper threading or something.

Also heard i7s will stay strong for a long time is probably a good reason to get it.

[Deleted]

Well it's the same as a graphics card

Yeah a titan would run it better but a 760 would still get you to max settings a lot cheaper, if you're on a budget an i5 is great if money isn't in issue or you're power mad get an i7

[Acelius]

Isn't an i7 wasted power when it comes to gaming? It's better for graphical work etc. If i'm not mistaking.

[draykorinee]

If you have the money buy it, if its a stretch get an i5, it will pretty much see you through wow at ultra.

[Necrox]

Honestly no, there's no point.
What i7 is good at is not something that generally gives performance in most games. In some games it will actually even lower your performance (very very slightly).
Will it be better in the future - maybe? Is it likely to be better in the future, BEFORE you'll need a new CPU for gaming anyway? Not really.

Spend the extra money on a slightly better graphics card or buy your mom some flowers instead.

[badaku]

What Acelius said. There's almost no difference between i5 and i7 in games.

[Deleted]

There is an advantage to the i7 (It wouldn't exist otherwise right?) which is multitasking to a point, although you'd be hard pressed to do enough to justify an i7 over an i5 for this reason, and CPU intensive programs that also happen to use multiple cores (Things like encoding video, including streaming on Twitch.tv etc, and things like compiling code are good examples of ways to properly use an i7)

If you aren't planning on doing any of that stuff then you're probably wasting your money going for the i7 over the i5. Personally I use an i5-3570k and it's more than enough for WoW and streaming (Most games are fine, some are bottlenecked by my GPU) so I would say go for that unless you fulfill the needs in my first paragraph.

[Buu]

Honestly no, there's no point.
What i7 is good at is not something that generally gives performance in most games. In some games it will actually even lower your performance (very very slightly).
Will it be better in the future - maybe? Is it likely to be better in the future, BEFORE you'll need a new CPU for gaming anyway? Not really.

Spend the extra money on a slightly better graphics card or buy your mom some flowers instead.

Even with the LUA-based WoW???
And really, i7 being bad for the amount of OVERLAY launchers we have today (Steam, Origin, Uplay, Raptr...) doesn't even make sense.
I think you forgot a bunch of variables in this evaluation.

[Afrospinach]

Also heard i7s will stay strong for a long time is probably a good reason to get it.

Unless you are actually going to leverage the i7's hyperthreading capability it will really not hold up any better than an i5. The overclock capabilities are pretty similar and most games are still bound by a single thread. 4 cores is still more cores than most games are able to utilise effectively. My opinion is save your ~100$, get the i5 and buy a better graphics card or replace your i5 sooner.

[Necrox]

Even with the LUA-based WoW???
And really, i7 being bad for the amount of OVERLAY launchers we have today (Steam, Origin, Uplay, Raptr...) doesn't even make sense.
I think you forgot a bunch of variables in this evaluation.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k,3181-22.html
Note the performance on high resolution with AA.
This is a few years old, but the tests of i7 in WoW I've seen all say the same: i7 is pretty much pointless for WoW.
Another one: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/62
You're getting around 3 FPS for $100.

*shrugs* As I said, I'd go with a better graphics card rather than spending extra on an i7 for a theoretical boost you wont see in most games. Or flowers for mom.

[Otimus]

I'm still rocking an i5 2500K from 2011 for all of my gaming. Honestly, save for like some extremely rare examples right now, almost everything is overkill for gaming, as there hasn't been much of a CPU "revolution" since Sandy Bridge.

[jimmy valmer]

I don't think I will be upgrading my video card for a while though. I have a 7870 and I play my games on low settings anyway on a 1440p monitor.

[Deleted]

I want to get an i7 4790k CPU for gaming in general and wow but they say it's not needed i5 is just fine.

There must be something that i7 has advantage for gaming other than higher clock speed right? I heard better multi tasking while gaming thanks to hyper threading or something.

Also heard i7s will stay strong for a long time is probably a good reason to get it.

For WoW, I'm using intel core 2 duo 2.0ghz - that 6 year old chip has enough horse power for this game

[reemi]

Use an i7 if you have the money...

You are not only playing WoW, you are running Windows... and Windows is running LOT of process/services/programs while you play WoW.

I use my computer for many things, gaming is just one of them... If you just play WoW... Don't know... But when you play game you want to upgrade your videocard usually, unless you CPU is really slow.

I'm playing "ULTRA setting" any games with my OLD 2008 i7 920...

It's easy,
if someone have an i5, he will recommand an i5.
if someone have an i7, he will recommand an i7.

[ciggy]

I'm still rocking an i5 2500K from 2011 for all of my gaming. Honestly, save for like some extremely rare examples right now, almost everything is overkill for gaming, as there hasn't been much of a CPU "revolution" since Sandy Bridge.

You are dead on otis, I couldn't agree more, I have an i5 3570.. and yeah, i won't have to replace for a long long time. quad core is so fucking insane when you get down and think about what you have.

small tangent, why the fuck do you need a quad core in a phone. seriously?

[Notorious]

The i7 has hyperthreading, this is the only difference from the i5. WoW does not utilze hyperthreading, hence the performance will be equal (and in some games actually decrease fps). If you only plan to game then get the i5 and save the cash/use it for cooling?

[MrKnubbles]

i5 is more than enough to do what you want to do. Save your money and stick with an i5. It'll last quite a while.

[Necrox]

It's easy,
if someone have an i5, he will recommand an i5.
if someone have an i7, he will recommand an i7.

Not entirely correct, since I'm advocating an i5 even though I have an i7 I regret spending the extra money on it though, and when I build a new PC this winter I wont be making the same mistake again That's why I'm advocating spending the extra money on something worthwhile rather than a +2 on the name of the chip.

[Flame6]

An i7 is better, but only if you can actually manage to push the PC to use it through using some hardcore software.

[ciggy]

Not entirely correct. Since I'm advocating an i5 even though I have an i7 :P I regret spending the extra money on it though, and when I build a new PC this winter I wont be making the same mistake again That's why I'm advocating spending the extra money on something worthwhile rather than a +2 on the name of the chip.

exactly, go with a beefy i5.. and invest in some VERY good cooling (i love closed loop water cooling) and a nice mobo.. you can spend an extra 20-40 bucks on a mobo and get SO much more helpful shit if you know what to look for. Thank the maker for my buddy helping me, an extra sata 3.0.. that can possibly save me having to replace a mobo due to a bad one.