Should I upgrade from a I5 7600K to an I7 7700K?

stolikat

stolikat

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Sep 26, 2010
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I just upgraded last year and am regretting that I did not buy once and cry once. I want to future proof my box for at least the next couple of years. I currently have a GTX 970 but I game @1440p so I am already thinking about upgrading the card. Clearly for me buying a new mobo is out so I am stuck with the x270 (I should have known that intel was going to screw us). I will resell the 7600K so I think I can get back maybe $150 on that.

What do you lot think?
 
Yes?

I made the mistake of picking up a 2500k years (and years) ago. Ran it at 4.5GHz until it (or the board) died.

Main issue? Those extra threads are useful. They smooth out game performance on systems that are actually used, not just for benchmarks. Four threads fill up very fast in modern games.
 
Hyperthreading isnt going to get you any benefit in gaming. Makes way more sense for you to put the extra money towards a video card.
 
H2R2P2 said:
Hyperthreading isnt going to get you any benefit in gaming. Makes way more sense for you to put the extra money towards a video card.
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you have no freaking Idea of what are you talking about hyperthreading.. saving the money and going with a stronger GPU yes, that's always the best choice when a low budget exist.

stolikat said:
So the concensus is yes?
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if you are at 1440P with a GTX 970 upgrade GPU first then later CPU, the 7700K will offer a nice bump in some games, but the biggest quality of life performance upgrade will be offered by the GPU.
 
H2R2P2 said:
Hyperthreading isnt going to get you any benefit in gaming. Makes way more sense for you to put the extra money towards a video card.
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Used to believed this when i bought my 6600k 2 years ago. Yes majority of games i5 is enough but heavy multiplayer online games such as battlefield 1 made my 6600k bottleneck my 1080. I regret not paying extra for i7. My Next upgrade will definitely be i7.
 
I would get a new video card first and then upgrade the CPU later. If you're going to keep the computer for a couple years, then you're going to want the extra threads of the 7700k in more modern titles. That being said, the larger upgrade in the short term is a video card at 1440p.
 
EvoFreak said:
Used to believed this when i bought my 6600k 2 years ago. Yes majority of games i5 is enough but heavy multiplayer online games such as battlefield 1 made my 6600k bottleneck my 1080. I regret not paying extra for i7. My Next upgrade will definitely be i7.
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What you are saying makes sense. I took some assumptions in my original reply when making the recommendation for GPU upgrade over CPU. If he said he does heavy online multiplayer gaming, then I still would have recommended to do the GPU but I would have not made the comment about hyperthreading.

I understand I made a blanket statement on the hyperthreading (which in retrospect, I shoudnt have).
 
its a worthwhile upgrade, 4C/4T is not cutting it anymore in some games, add in multitasking while gaming and well it gets worse.
 
So I just wish there were some better deals on a video card. The I7 7700K is a great deal at $299 right now and I can resell my I5 7600K for like $150. Not sure I can get that for my GTX 970 though.
 
Ya so the quandary is do I want to spend $400 for a 1070 or $300 for a 7700K. Man, I wish there were some better deals on GPU's this year.
 
You can probably find a 7700k for $250 if you look for a deal also. If not a 6700k is the same chip essentially. Just OC the 6700k to 7700k speed. I've seen 6700ks for $225 or so used in FS/FT.
 
Yeah, 7700k is currently $250 at Microcenter.

Cheapest I've seen online is $289 at Amazon.

I'd jump on the HT bus. it's a whole lot more essential than it was a few years ago, with many games supporting 6 or more threads (and demanding at least an i5 minimum).
 
stolikat said:
That was my thinking but people here think I should do my card first.
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Reality is that you need to do both. Personal experience: a GPU will get you more eye-candy, but you can get smooth performance by turning that down; absent a solid CPU, i.e. at least six threads, smooth performance is harder to track toward.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Reality is that you need to do both. Personal experience: a GPU will get you more eye-candy, but you can get smooth performance by turning that down; absent a solid CPU, i.e. at least six threads, smooth performance is harder to track toward.
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Well I can only do one thing at a time at this point. I am leaning towards getting the 7700k for now as there really does not seem to be any good GPU deals right now. The games I am playing right now run smoothly on my 970 even though a 1070 would be a pretty big jump.
 
I would agree but for me to go above a 7700k and get more cores I would have to get a new mobo and this a bridge to far. I screwed up and should have just bought the 7700K to begin with since I just built this 6 months ago.
 
stolikat said:
I would agree but for me to go above a 7700k and get more cores I would have to get a new mobo and this a bridge to far. I screwed up and should have just bought the 7700K to begin with since I just built this 6 months ago.
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Hard to know when you're building; I knew from making the same mistake, so I feel ya.

Where are you located (country)? I have a 6700k that's overkill for what I need it, it's good for 4.5GHz all cores at least. Interested in seeing how hard it would be to trade close to straight up?
 
I am in the US. Would you really want to downgrade? Am I understanding you correctly?

Edit: I could not do that as my mobo is 1151.
 
If I was you... sitting on that rig.. granting that going for the i7-7700K would have probably been "optimal" at the time... but given the current bummer state of video cards only slightly above MSRP or ~MSRP are "scores" and given the crummy supply situation of CoffeeLake stuff..

this is what I'd do if I was y'all... chill ... save up a bit more money (ask for monies for xmas) whatever... wait.. then wait until next year~

and upgrade to what is likely to be a coffee lake refresh or whatever .. and more budget friendly (still OC'able) boards will be an option..


I mean it does some what suck that u jumped in on Skylake and then intel decides to launch coffee lake 6~ months later.. but personally I don't think doing anything right now is the best play... is the rig u have playing the games you play well right now?? if so I personally say wait a cycle hope /wait for a mining crash to flood the used market with video cards?? whatever.. I honestly think waiting is the best play.

I mean i get u have the buyers remorse ..but given the pricing /~supply situation I don't think coffee lake is a great option now.. but I don't think a 7700K is really a good play with zero upgrade path and throwing more money into a now superseded platform?
 
You atari you raise some really good points. I should have held on to the old build for another year. I regret this build for sure. Kaby lake was a one and done and I am stuck with a 1151 board. Waiting may well be the best option. I have just in the last few hours ruled out the GPU upgrade as the prices are just shit. Games play fine on my system right now even @1440. The fact that I still have not pulled the trigger and after reading your post I think waiting is the best option. Fucking intel.
 
stolikat said:
I am in the US. Would you really want to downgrade? Am I understanding you correctly?

Edit: I could not do that as my mobo is 1151.
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Here's the story: I got an 8700k for my main box, and the 6700k is now earmarked for an ITX build that will be used primarily for a Linux learning box. I don't need a 6700k for that, not at all. 7600k will roll just fine in the Z270 ITX board I picked up.

So trade for difference in price, minus some on my end? I'm not above helping a brother out.
 
well.. I think we all have made buys that seem pretty **** in retrospect... I'm just straight chillin' with my i7-4770K till 9th gen i7 I think.

I don't game much these days and when I do it is CS:GO @1080 so.. my HD7950 and i7-4770K do fine with that.. I will certainly gotten my money's worth w/ this hasswell rig...

It is a bummer the way the way the skylake was teh new hotness for all of 1/2 a year.. but .. unfortunately it is what it is.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Here's the story: I got an 8700k for my main box, and the 6700k is now earmarked for an ITX build that will be used primarily for a Linux learning box. I don't need a 6700k for that, not at all. 7600k will roll just fine in the Z270 ITX board I picked up.

So trade for difference in price, minus some on my end? I'm not above helping a brother out.
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But that 6700k is not 1151 socket though right?

atarione said:
It is a bummer the way the way the skylake was teh new hotness for all of 1/2 a year.. but .. unfortunately it is what it is.
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Really is an I got caught out in the cold in a big way.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Here's the story: I got an 8700k for my main box, and the 6700k is now earmarked for an ITX build that will be used primarily for a Linux learning box. I don't need a 6700k for that, not at all. 7600k will roll just fine in the Z270 ITX board I picked up.

So trade for difference in price, minus some on my end? I'm not above helping a brother out.
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Ok my bad.I was confused it is in fact a 1151. So ya I would be interested in doing that bro.
 
the 6700K should work in your motherboad (double check you MB's support site for CPU support details .. but AFAIK pretty much all 270 motherboards support 6/7th gen intel cpus
 
H2R2P2 said:
Hyperthreading isnt going to get you any benefit in gaming. Makes way more sense for you to put the extra money towards a video card.
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I just got an 8600k. No SMT but two extra C Lake cores. that would be a better route than 7700k.
 
I just upgraded from a 6600k 4.5Ghz to an 7700k at 4.6Ghz (I've gone as high as 4.8 but backed down to 4.6 until I get better cooling and a delid, haven't tried 5.0 yet) due to MC having it for $250 and bundling Assassin's Creed Origins and Warhammer: Total War 2 and me already having a Z170 setup. I figure I can get $100 out of the i5 and hopefully $30 each for the two games making the out of pocket only $100ish.

BF1 runs noticeably smoother even though the framerates are the same with my RX570. PUBG fps improved to 60+ on the starting island and hangs around 80fps on the main island while the i5 was usually 40 on the island and fluctuated between 45 and 70 everywhere else. I've not really noticed much difference elsewhere other than normal windows usage feeling snappier but that's probably just placebo.
 
Bankie said:
I just upgraded from a 6600k 4.5Ghz to an 7700k at 4.6Ghz (I've gone as high as 4.8 but backed down to 4.6 until I get better cooling and a delid, haven't tried 5.0 yet) due to MC having it for $250 and bundling Assassin's Creed Origins and Warhammer: Total War 2 and me already having a Z170 setup. I figure I can get $100 out of the i5 and hopefully $30 each for the two games making the out of pocket only $100ish.

BF1 runs noticeably smoother even though the framerates are the same with my RX570. PUBG fps improved to 60+ on the starting island and hangs around 80fps on the main island while the i5 was usually 40 on the island and fluctuated between 45 and 70 everywhere else. I've not really noticed much difference elsewhere other than normal windows usage feeling snappier but that's probably just placebo.
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it actually work snappier specially if you use performance mode in the windows power plan as core parking it's disabled so the system will run even at idle splitting the task across the 8 threads creating that sensation of being snappier, and also have to take consideration of the extra 2mb cache..

about gaming, yes most of the performance comes in the fact that games just work overall better and way more smooth, only 4 cores doesn't cut anymore and on some games the issue it's real so full 8 threads on an i7 help a lot with that. people tend to not believe in that until they really feel the change as you did.
 
The price on the MC 7700k has me thinking of upgrading and I haven't built my system yet. I have a g4560 and a 1060 6gb. I'm well past the return date on the unopened g4560 but that isn't a big deal. However, from the benchmarks I've seen there doesn't seem to be a huge increase unless you go with a faster GPU, 1070/1080. For my use case it' is 1080p single player games and HTPC only.

For reference:


and:
 
Design1stcode2nd said:
The price on the MC 7700k has me thinking of upgrading and I haven't built my system yet. I have a g4560 and a 1060 6gb. I'm well past the return date on the unopened g4560 but that isn't a big deal. However, from the benchmarks I've seen there doesn't seem to be a huge increase unless you go with a faster GPU, 1070/1080. For my use case it' is 1080p single player games and HTPC only.
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This will depend significantly on the games used. However, one can generally state that having too few threads (four in this case) can affect minimum FPS* which would result in choppier performance, even if average FPS is acceptable.

*this is actually better described in terms of maximum frametimes, where the lack of CPU resources results in regularly occurring 'long' frame render times which disrupts gameplay.


[as an aside, I'd be willing to pick up your G4560 if you decide to get something faster, send a PM]
 
IdiotInCharge said:
This will depend significantly on the games used. However, one can generally state that having too few threads (four in this case) can affect minimum FPS* which would result in choppier performance, even if average FPS is acceptable.

*this is actually better described in terms of maximum frametimes, where the lack of CPU resources results in regularly occurring 'long' frame render times which disrupts gameplay.


[as an aside, I'd be willing to pick up your G4560 if you decide to get something faster, send a PM]
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I'll be using this system on a 1080p projector so 60fps is the max I'll need. Games would be things like Hellblade, Mass Effect, Grid, Shadows of Mordor, Witcher 3 and so forth. Just not sure if I want to spend another $190 on what is a secondary system (my main is still a 4670k Oc'd so it seems a little wrong to pick up a 7700k).
 
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