High end i5 v low end i7 for gaming setup (on a budget)

[Capnplantee]

So which would be better if i'm on a fairly tight budget but still want to get best possible value for money/performance etc...
Thanks in advance for anyone who can help out <3

[Skelly]

i5 2500k without a doubt. Check sig for more info.

[BicycleMafioso]

Low-end i7 meaning the i7-2600 (as it is by design) or the i7-900-series (which they are by present-day performance)?

Regardless, the i5-2x00-series are better for the price, and there's no need to shelve out the extra dough for the i7-2600-series or the 900-series. Especially on a budget.

[Atreies]

i5-2500k if overclocking, reg 2500 if not. No need to spend the extra $100 on 2600 if budget is an issue. The $100 will be better spent on better video card, SSD, or whereever your bottleneck is . i5 is plenty of CPU power to not bottleneck any graphics setup in your price range. Always builld with slowest compenent in mind. $800 in videos cards is useless when paired with $100 CPU,etc.

P.S. This is a generalization since you didn't specify your budget or other components you have in mind.

[Asera]

Considering the little benefit an i7 main feature (HT) nets you... why would you consider it on a budget? :s

Most people here don't even recommend anything higher than a 2500K for most mid to high end gaming systems.

So, i5 2500K all the way!

[Skelly]

Most people here don't even recommend anything higher than a 2500K for most mid to high end gaming systems.

So, i5 2500K all the way!

At this point I don't think I would recommend anything but a 2500k. I'm pretty sure it matches up with a 990X core for core (although it has two fewer). Not to mention it has more OC headroom

[BicycleMafioso]

At this point I don't think I would recommend anything but a 2500k. I'm pretty sure it matches up with a 990X core for core (although it has two fewer). Not to mention it has more OC headroom

I'd say the 990x overclocks further.

[Saithes]

I'd say the 990x overclocks further.

Nope, the 2500K goes further. The lack of Hyperthreading and 2 less cores. The upside though is that the 990X doesn't have a coldbug, which means on exotic cooling such as Liquid Nitrogen it goes higher. On air though, the 2500K goes higher hands down.

[strafefaster]

The difference between an i5 and an i7 is that i7's are hyperthreaded. This means that each core in an i7 simulates 2 cores. For video editing and such this is great because the programs are optimized for more cores. Games on the other hand actually run slower with hyperthreading. Because of that you would be better going with an i5 2500k. If you want to spend the money though you can go with an i7 2600k and turning off the HT which will get you more if you overclock it, but not much more.

[BicycleMafioso]

Nope, the 2500K goes further. The lack of Hyperthreading and 2 less cores. The upside though is that the 990X doesn't have a coldbug, which means on exotic cooling such as Liquid Nitrogen it goes higher. On air though, the 2500K goes higher hands down.

Sure. Once you provide a stable validation higher than ayakos or Engimurr, fine. :P 5.21 with HT on or 5.49 with HT off respectively.

[Saithes]

Sure. Once you provide a stable validation higher than ayakos or Engimurr, fine. :P 5.21 with HT on or 5.49 with HT off respectively.

Ok. This was on liquid :P As stated.. Less Cores and Hyperthreading improves overclocking capability. Proof is in how disabling hyperthreading lowers voltage significantly. It's also why the 2500K overclocks better than the 2600K.



Mod Edit: Pro tip! Imgur changes to a thumbnail when you change <filename>.jpg to <filename>l.jpg (l from large, but still not as large as yours was without the l!)

[BicycleMafioso]

Liquid, yes. Also >800px!
I'm also aware what Hyperthreading does.

[Saithes]

Liquid, yes. Also >800px!
I'm also aware what Hyperthreading does.

Then go to a real tech forum and you'll see :P

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1128419

1.4v for 4.4GHz.. Most any 2500K can do 4.4 with 1.25-1.3v. The 990X overclocks no different than a 980X too :P

http://www.overclock.net/attachments...x_88gflops.jpg

990X with 4.5 with 1.4v... a 2500K can do 4.6-4.8 on 1.4v or LESS usually. A normal overclock on a 2500K @ 4.5 would take 1.32v average. This is proved using https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?...kE&w=110&h=650

[Cyanotical]

990X with 4.5 with 1.4v... a 2500K can do 4.6-4.8 on 1.4v or LESS usually. A normal overclock on a 2500K @ 4.5 would take 1.32v average. This is proved using https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?...kE&w=110&h=650

if you drop the bus to 100 and up the multiplier to 45, the 990 will run at 4.5 on less then 1.4v, mine ran at 1.33 iirc, but this is a bad OC as it slows down everything else

i also have no doubt that a high bin 990 can break 6ghz on water if only running on 4 cores, would be something to try with gigabyte's OC X58 board

[Deleted]

The i5-2500K is the perfect CPU for almost all situations.

It's affordable and only slightly more expensive than lower-clocked models.

It reaches 98% of the performance the higher range CPUs (i7) achieve while costing much less.


There is no reason not to get an i5-2500k

[BicycleMafioso]

It reaches 98% of the performance the higher range CPUs (i7) achieve while costing much less.

I'd say, that the i7-2600 is the same range. The i7-900-series are higher range (but worse performance).

And I'd argue that the 98% is overexaggerated. In games, the gap is probably a bit more. Overclocked, there'd be no gap. In any work-related CPU-stressing, ie, multi-threaded, the i7-2600 is obviously much better yet.

Regardless, I'd still get the i5-2 for anyone on a budget and not doing said mediawork.

[Saithes]

Just curious but how much voltage difference are we talking between HT on and HT off on a 2600K?

Say I'm at 4.8GHz w/ 1.4v, if I disabled HT my voltage drops to around 1.36 or so. At the same voltages & clock speed without HT, my temperatures drop 4-6C roughly.

[DarkBlade6]

if you drop the bus to 100 and up the multiplier to 45, the 990 will run at 4.5 on less then 1.4v, mine ran at 1.33 iirc, but this is a bad OC as it slows down everything else

i also have no doubt that a high bin 990 can break 6ghz on water if only running on 4 cores, would be something to try with gigabyte's OC X58 board

Ok but wuts the point ... a core i5 2500k @ 5.5ghz would still be better than a 990x with 4 cores enabled @ 6ghz ... well it depends if that 990x has HT turnned off or not and which apps... in general SandyBridge is just a much better architecture.

[BicycleMafioso]

Just curious but how much voltage difference are we talking between HT on and HT off on a 2600K?

I can't say for sure, because I haven't been that immersed in the SB-i7s, but the Bloomfields (and not Gulftown or Lynnfield) i7s, the difference could be as big as 10°C, and .2 vCore. Or was it .02? The latter seems more plausible, but I'm sure it was something stupid and ridiculous.
Of course, Bloomfield, while incredible at the time in other areas, really shows as relatively poor engineering for its time as time progress.

EDIT - and Saithes, stop answering so fast. Makes my point uninteresting.