Are legendary gems part of the item budget?

[Tangra]

Hi, all. I'm comparing different weapons in order to figure out what to upgrade, and I was trying to figure out if the Sha-touched socket is figured into the item budget of weapons like Shin'ka. From simple eye-balling of the stats it seems to me that the socket is actually completely free and not part of the weapon's stat budget, but I'm not quite sure. So, does anyone know if Shin'ka is inferior for a weapon of its ilvl before the legendary gem, or is the gem completely a bonus?

[Slonato]

No, this round the "legendary" is simply 500 more of your primary stat, and requires you to use one of the sha touched weapons.

Until you have the sha gem, any weapon of equal ilevel will be more or less equivalent. Once you have the sha gem, it will be better.

[anaxie]

Weapon item level still wins

Shirk Normal will just be VERY close to starshatterH after the 5.1 prismatic socket is obtained.

[Tangra]

So, once the legendary gem is in the weapon becomes about 6-7 ilvl better than it actually is?