i7 4790 vs i5 7600 gaming rig

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I hope this is a simple question so here goes.

I won't be overclocking. It's mainly a gaming rig, and I hope not to upgrade for at least 4 years. I won't be gaming on more than 1440p displays, probably 1080p most of the time with standard framerates of 60hz. As a midrange build, it'll have a GPU that's in the GTX 1060 class (possibly a generation older), and in 4 years or so I'll replace it with a GTX 1070 that I can take from another build I currently have.

I have 2 options. I'll only mention the differences between the two build and leave out things that'll be the same, like the GPU and PSU and SSD.

I7 4790 for $230
H81 mobo for $42
16gb ddr3 1600 corsair vengeance pro ram for $110

OR

I5 7600 for $200
B250 mobo for $60
16gb ddr4 2666 corsair vengeance lpx ram (but it will run at 2133) for $118.

The total price is the same for both. Is the i7 still worth it even though it's several years old already? The i5 is current, but it has only 4 threads vs the 8 in the i7. Much thanks in advance.
 
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I say go with the newer CPU platform.

However, spend a few more bucks and get a more main-stream mobo that's capable
of overclocking even if you don't intend to right now. It will have better engineering and
BIOS updates than the bargain basement mobo. It won't even cost that much more.

And I'd go with 3200 RAM, but that's me. It looks like there's a tight budget here.
Just don't get a cheap-o mobo.

Here's a MSI Z270 mobo for $90 AR.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...97&cm_re=msi_1151_z270-_-13-130-997-_-Product


.
 
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I say go with the 4790. They operate within 100mhz of each other which is a rather negligable difference. And the 4790 will come with 4 extra threads which will help you multitask while playing games.

Yes the platform will be older, but it doean't sound like you are looking for things like NVME ssds or high speed ram that doesn't give you any major improvement. (For the money)

Doesn't sound like you wish to get into the bios either so you should just keep things simple. Make sure you have enough sata ports. More than 4 would be nice. The 4790 will come with Sata 3 hard drive and solid state drive support so you will be set.

Do yourself a favor and make sure to get an ssd for your boot drive. An ssd doesnt make a real difference in gaming, but in terms of everyday responsiveness and feel, the difference can be quite pronounced. Most any ssd will be better than a traditional hard drive. Wouldn't personally get one smaller than 256gb just so you have room to grow.

The difference between the generations of the 4790 and the 7600 is minimal. Maybe 5-10% in certain situations, however that would likely be even smaller during limited workloads such as gaming.

You didn't mention if you were looking to game at a frame rates above 60hz. I assume you will probably keep it at 60hz as going higher than that can get expensive. Point being, a really high end gaming cpu mainly helps when you are trying to push frames over 100fps..144fps.. And higher. At 60fps you should be able to have that locked with the help of which ever gpu you choose.

So all in all, the extra threads justify using an old platform to me given that you are keeping thing simple enough.
 
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Also as it fits within your budget, you might want to look at AMD ryzen cpus.

They will be slightly inferior in gaming than your two options. They will however offer you a newer motherboard feature set, hyperthreading, and even more cores.

For instance:
AMD Ryzen 5 1600: 6 core, 12 thread processor for $210 USD
Overclockabke B350 motherboard: around $60

It would require a little more work on your end to make this option more viable for you. It would in my opinion give you more to chew on these next 4 years as your system ages. Food for thought I suppose.
 
In addition to what's been stated above, you failed to mention which GPU (if any) you are planning to put in to that build. If you are going with a GTX 1080 or better in that i7-4790 build, be advised that the H81 chipset motherboard only runs its primary PCI-e x16 slot at Generation 2 bandwidth (aka PCI-e 2.0) instead of the PCI-e 3.0 that other Haswell chipsets support. And only now are we beginning to see such higher-end GPUs that get noticeably bottlenecked by PCI-e 2.0 (or in other words, require the full PCI-e 3.0 x16 bandwidth for optimal performance). Granted, it's not very significant, but the bottleneck is there.

On the other hand, what I stated above is largely irrelevant if you're going to put in a lower-end GPU or an older-generation GPU. After all, I wouldn't advise a GTX 1080 for only 1440p gaming as it's overkill at such a resolution in most cases.
 
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Neapolitan6th said:
I say go with the 4790. They operate within 100mhz of each other which is a rather negligable difference. And the 4790 will come with 4 extra threads which will help you multitask while playing games.

Yes the platform will be older, but it doean't sound like you are looking for things like NVME ssds or high speed ram that doesn't give you any major improvement. (For the money)

Doesn't sound like you wish to get into the bios either so you should just keep things simple. Make sure you have enough sata ports. More than 4 would be nice. The 4790 will come with Sata 3 hard drive and solid state drive support so you will be set.

Do yourself a favor and make sure to get an ssd for your boot drive. An ssd doesnt make a real difference in gaming, but in terms of everyday responsiveness and feel, the difference can be quite pronounced. Most any ssd will be better than a traditional hard drive. Wouldn't personally get one smaller than 256gb just so you have room to grow.

The difference between the generations of the 4790 and the 7600 is minimal. Maybe 5-10% in certain situations, however that would likely be even smaller during limited workloads such as gaming.

You didn't mention if you were looking to game at a frame rates above 60hz. I assume you will probably keep it at 60hz as going higher than that can get expensive. Point being, a really high end gaming cpu mainly helps when you are trying to push frames over 100fps..144fps.. And higher. At 60fps you should be able to have that locked with the help of which ever gpu you choose.

So all in all, the extra threads justify using an old platform to me given that you are keeping thing simple enough.
Click to expand...

Yes, you picked up on it right, I'm trying to keep this build simple. I'm not using nvme or anything like that, no bios tweaking, no streaming or recording as I'm playing, etc. Just purely gaming on this sucker. I was sure I was going to build the i5 specifications until I recently found the i7 build for the same price, so that took me back to square one in the decision process.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I am putting an SSD in this, so I updated my original post accordingly. Thanks for the recommendation though. I also updated that I'll be using a GPU that's in the GTX 1060 class for now and in 4 or 5 years replace it with a GTX 1070 that I can take from another build I have.
 
E4g1e said:
In addition to what's been stated above, you failed to mention which GPU (if any) you are planning to put in to that build. If you are going with a GTX 1080 or better in that i7-4790 build, be advised that the H81 chipset motherboard only runs its primary PCI-e x16 slot at Generation 2 bandwidth (aka PCI-e 2.0) instead of the PCI-e 3.0 that other Haswell chipsets support. And only now are we beginning to see such higher-end GPUs that get noticeably bottlenecked by PCI-e 2.0 (or in other words, require the full PCI-e 3.0 x16 bandwidth for optimal performance). Granted, it's not very significant, but the bottleneck is there.

On the other hand, what I stated above is largely irrelevant if you're going to put in a lower-end GPU or an older-generation GPU. After all, I wouldn't advise a GTX 1080 for only 1440p gaming as it's overkill at such a resolution in most cases.
Click to expand...

Sorry about leaving that out. I updated my original post with GPU info, but to reiterate it here, I'll be using a GTX 1060 level card, possibly a generation older for now. In 4 or 5 years, I plan on replacing that with a GTX 1070 that I can take from another build I have right now. Is that H81 still OK in this case?
 
Spartacus said:
I say go with the newer CPU platform.

However, spend a few more bucks and get a more main-stream mobo that's capable
of overclocking even if you don't intend to right now. It will have better engineering and
BIOS updates than the bargain basement mobo. It won't even cost that much more.

And I'd go with 3200 RAM, but that's me. It looks like there's a tight budget here.
Just don't get a cheap-o mobo.

Here's a MSI Z270 mobo for $90 AR.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...97&cm_re=msi_1151_z270-_-13-130-997-_-Product


.
Click to expand...

Thanks, if I go with the i5 build, I'll go with the Z270 mobo. Would the 3200 RAM make a difference if I can't overclock it since the i5 is a locked cpu?

I was sure about building the i5 specs until last night when I found that I could build the i7 specs for the same price, so I was thrown back to square one. I'm just puzzled by how I should weigh an older but better threaded cpu against a newer but less threaded cpu.

FYI, I did update my original post with a few more details based on the helpful answers you and others have given here, so I was wondering if any of that would affect your initial suggestion. I basically just added that this is a simple, midrange gaming rig, and I'll be using a GTX 1060 class gpu, possibly a generation older, and that in 4 or 5 years replace that with a GTX 1070 that I can take from an existing build I have right now.
 
With the price of ddr4 ram being inflated as it is, getting faster ram is an option, but its not a very good value. On the intel platform, ram speed doesn't affect gaming very much. Investing that money in something like your gpu would give you better performance. 2133mhz and 2400mhz ddr4 will do you just fine for the i5. For the 4790, 1600mhz and above ddr3 will do you just fine.

When you're on a specific budget, things like ram speed upgrades give you the slimest performance gains. You can either save that extra money, or put it towards a better gpu which will pretty much always show a more dramatic increase in performance.

If you are looking into faster memory, sometimes it requires bios tweaking and can run you into compatibility concerns. So if you do, just make sure your motherboard supports the speed of the ram you choose. If you want to keep things simple, just stick to ddr3 1600, or ddr4 2133 or 2400. Those speeds should work out of the box.
 
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For gaming, both are going to perform so similarly that you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference using either, outside of a few % difference in FPS (where your FPS is going to be so far off the charts anyway as to not make a difference in real-world gameplay). Your gaming performance is going to be all about your GPU anyway.

Kaby Lake is a newer platform, there is that, but the benefits it gives aren't all that relevant to gaming either. But it's not like Haswell is obsolete, although motherboard selection will be a bit more limited just because of the age of the platform.

Honestly, if it were me, if the Kaby i5 build presented a substantial enough savings that it allowed you to get better GPU, that would sway the deal, but I suspect that won't be the case. In any other case, I'd go with the Haswell i7 - it will game more or less the same, but you'll be able to use Hyperthreading for things other-than-gaming to some benefit, and maybe if/when DX12 becomes relevant those extra threads may help out a bit too.
 
I agree on some of the points made here that the Haswell CPU platform has plenty of speed right now.
Heck, I have two nice Haswell systems now that I like very much, 4690K & 4790K.

However, buying Haswell now, you are buying into an older DDR3 platform.
You will be forced to buy new RAM again when you do your next upgrade, you can't re-use the DDR3.

I still say to do the i5 7600 with the faster DDR4 3200 memory. Fast memory also plays a part in having
a nice smooth system for gaming. There's more to overall gaming performance than just FPS.

If I was building a new gaming system today, it would not be a Haswell or a Ryzen based system.
Buying a Z270 mobo now with the fast memory also gives the option to drop in a much faster CPU later.

.
 
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