Foolish to upgrade from 4790K to 7700K for gaming?

BlueWeasel

Limp Gawd
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Currently running an overclocked, delidded 4790K (4.7ghz) with a 1080 GPU. I'm getting the itch to upgrade to a z270 board, a 7700k, and DDR4. Will be selling my current CPU, MB, and RAM to offset the upgrade cost. I'd guess the net cost to upgrade would be in the $300 range.

The system is primarily used for gaming. Some light CAD work, but nothing that would require a 6-core or 8-core beast.

Would it be foolish to upgrade? My gut says yes, but I'm curious what other HF'ers think.
 
Foolish. Wait till august and upgrade to CFL-S or get SKL-X very, very soon. While you may not want 6 cores, waiting for CFL-S for example gives you the extra cores for free plus 14nm++ process for possible better clocks and the same price as a 7700K today.
 
you get no tangible performance gains, but for $300 you get new features (better M.2 support, TB, USB 3.1, RGB LED's), slightly higher performance, and the fun of building a new system.
worth it? you decide.
If you wait a couple months, the X299 platform will offer two more cores, twelve more PCIe lanes, and four more DIMM slots at comparable price points, so I'd probably wait. you don't need a six-core beast, but it also doesn't cost that much more than a quad-core so why not?
 
Heck no. If your primary use is gaming, and you don't particularly care for price/performance,
wait for Coffeelake 6c/12t, though that apparently has been delayed to Q1 2018 :|
 
Currently running an overclocked, delidded 4790K (4.7ghz) with a 1080 GPU. I'm getting the itch to upgrade to a z270 board, a 7700k, and DDR4. Will be selling my current CPU, MB, and RAM to offset the upgrade cost. I'd guess the net cost to upgrade would be in the $300 range.

The system is primarily used for gaming. Some light CAD work, but nothing that would require a 6-core or 8-core beast.

Would it be foolish to upgrade? My gut says yes, but I'm curious what other HF'ers think.

Yes. Foolish. Looks like you've got a decent OC there too. There is too much coming down the road in the next 1-6 months to worry about it till then. AMD Threadripper, Skylake-X or CoffeeLake from Intel.
 
I actually have a 4790k as well and have the upgrade itch too, but mainly for newer features / modern chipset as I know my CPU isn't weak for gaming, my primary use.

I'm strongly considering Skylake X 7820x (8-core) and will overclock as much as I can. We'll be seeing a lot more games use the extra cores so it'll be future proof for a while and have the option for a few CPU upgrades in the future.

OP, 4790k to 7700k is a complete waste considering your 4.7ghz. I agree, wait for Coffee-lake or Skylake X and get a 6 or 8 core chip.
 
^ We'll have to see how Skylake-X OCs. Mobo mfgs were saying ~4.3GHz, which is bad.
Someone claimed ~4.8GHz on a 280mm AIO (~5GHz with delid), which is definitely better.

If Coffeelake has increased IPC and clocks the same / higher, it'll probably be the winner for gaming despite being limited to 6c/12t.
 
^ We'll have to see how Skylake-X OCs. Mobo mfgs were saying ~4.3GHz, which is bad.
Someone claimed ~4.8GHz on a 280mm AIO (~5GHz with delid), which is definitely better.

If Coffeelake has increased IPC and clocks the same / higher, it'll probably be the winner for gaming despite being limited to 6c/12t.

No mobo manufactor claimed 4.3Ghz. 4.3Ghz is also below the turbo for a few parts. It was simply "techsite" BS.
 
The only reason you could justify that upgrade is for platform reasons, but even then you don't want to go the 7700k route. The performance increase will be so trivial, especially if you are only using 1 x Nvidia 1080 graphics card. If you had a 4k or multi-screen setup and possibly running multiple GPU's, then it might be worth it to keep your minimum framerate up.

Games really aren't pushing the need for more cores right now and the IPC increases haven't been too dramatic. I say go big or wait another generation. You have to realize, games take several years to produce. If you assume 2-5 year production schedules, you have to rewind the clock from the release date and realize what top of the line was back then. Since we are only now seeing a push to CPU's with more than 8 threads, I suspect it will be at least 2 years before we see AAA games released that will benefit. I'm not saying there won't be a game released soon that bucks that trend (e.g. Crysis), but the odds are slim and you can always just wait to buy if that happens.

If you do go big, get Skylake X or Ryzen and find something to do with all those extra cores.
 
Ryzen is so slow tho it cost FPS in games compared to what he got today.
I see you like to pull things out of context.

Give me a break, it's not THAT much slower compared to his 4790k. In most real-world usage scenarios its not enough to matter. But that is all beside the point. You missed the whole reason for me suggesting it in the first place... a platform change. Would it be an upgrade for gaming? No, but just like a Skylake X setup at this exact point in time it's more of a sidestep to what he has while allowing him to pursue other avenues. I even stated specifically "find something to do with all those extra cores." OP has been rather vague about the rest of his setup. For all you know he's running a single Nvidia 1080 on a 60hz 1080p monitor, in which case upgrading to anything at this point would be pointless. If he's not going to do much else with the system outside of the limited scenario presented in OP, there is no justification for him to even pursue a 7700k.
 
But why downgrade on the main purpose? And its not like slower cores will do any better in the future.

With his 4.7Ghz CPU, its quite a lot slower to end around 4Ghz tops with lower IPC. A 6/8 core SKL-X and a 6 core CFL-S is likely to clock faster as well than his current setup plus faster per clock as well.
 
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I also have a i7-4790K "Devil's Canyon" CPU with 32GB of RAM, SSDs, and a 980 video card. The system was built in September, 2014. And, I see no compelling reason to upgrade the motherboard/CPU for what appears to be a small (maybe 10%) improvement.

I will probably replace the video card from a nVidia 980 to a 1080Ti, but that's a low priority upgrade that may take place at the end of the year. This is for better framerate at 2560x1440.
 
I upgraded from a 4790K @ 4.7Ghz to the 7700K @ 5.0Ghz. because I wanted to, not because I needed to. Do I see a performance boost between the 2 platforms, in a way, yes. I was looking at the X299, but reviews/observations left a bad taste in my mouth and I went with the better cost effective upgrade.

Do I regret the upgrade? Hell no. I luv it! I still game @ 1440 with all the eye candy maxed and yes I'm happy. No regrets.
 
Been looking at upgrading myself for a little while, like alot of people been feeling the itch. But after reading this thread I think I'll be waiting for the i7-7820X to come out and go for the whole hog. Cheers guys!! Now to also wait for the RX Vega's to be released....
 
I also have a i7-4790K "Devil's Canyon" CPU with 32GB of RAM, SSDs, and a 980 video card. The system was built in September, 2014. And, I see no compelling reason to upgrade the motherboard/CPU for what appears to be a small (maybe 10%) improvement.

I will probably replace the video card from a nVidia 980 to a 1080Ti, but that's a low priority upgrade that may take place at the end of the year. This is for better framerate at 2560x1440.
My acid test for a HW upgrade is - if you gave me the sh*t for free, is the performance increase worth my time/trouble of swapping everything out, validating a new OC, reinstalling / reimaging the OS, etc.?
If not, forget it.

While I did own a couple of Sandys and Ivys, my main rig was stuck as an i7-920 D0 since 2008/2009 until Haswell launched in 2013.
I fully expect my 4770K @ 4.6GHz to last a good while longer.
For MT workloads, I have a bunch of other systems around (OCed 3770Ks, 3570Ks, 2500Ks, quad Xeon X5690s), so the main rig is mainly for max ST performance and gaming.
 
I'm on a 3930K @4.5Ghz with a gtx 1080 and haven't had any issues running current games. Keep your system until 2018 and re-assess the CPU landscape then. ;)
 
I went from an x58 4.0ghz i7 920 to a 7700k 5.0 ghz; same 1080 card for both.

There was 0 discernible difference in gaming. From a benchmark perspective, maybe some gains, but in everyday gaming, you are not going to get much. Get a 2nd 1080, better monitor to see some real improvement in gaming experience.
 
I went from an x58 4.0ghz i7 920 to a 7700k 5.0 ghz; same 1080 card for both.

There was 0 discernible difference in gaming. From a benchmark perspective, maybe some gains, but in everyday gaming, you are not going to get much. Get a 2nd 1080, better monitor to see some real improvement in gaming experience.

Min frame rates didn't increase with that upgrade? I find that really hard to imagine.
 
I went from an x58 4.0ghz i7 920 to a 7700k 5.0 ghz; same 1080 card for both.
There was 0 discernible difference in gaming. From a benchmark perspective, maybe some gains, but in everyday gaming, you are not going to get much. Get a 2nd 1080, better monitor to see some real improvement in gaming experience.
Definitely should be a difference for that large of an upgrade.
I mean, we're talking about ~70% upgrade in absolute compute performance (7700K@5GHz ~= 6.9GHz i7 920)
 
Definitely should be a difference for that large of an upgrade.
I mean, we're talking about ~70% upgrade in absolute compute performance (7700K@5GHz ~= 6.9GHz i7 920)

Cpu power hardly makes a difference in games at higher resolutions, if he was at 1080p he probably would have noticed a something. Likely he is at 1440 or above and will notice next to nothing, other then it might load faster. You should read the {H} article on gaming performance https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/05/26/definitive_amd_ryzen_7_realworld_gaming_guide/3 . You will see how little the cpu really matters, unless a game can take advantage of more cores.
 
My rig is also running a 4790K but if I had to spend money on a new motherboard and RAM along with the CPU upgade, I would rather skip the Sky Lake refreshes and wait for Ice Lake. Hopefully the new uarch would have tangible IPC, power and temperature improvements. I've heard rumors that with Ice Lake, Intel intends to shed some of the x86 legacy baggage to do these.

I use my 4970K/GTX1080 system mainly for gaming and I don't think I would be running into a CPU bottleneck anytime soon with most games. When that happens, that's the signal for me to upgrade.
 
I'd say no. It's kinda sad but you would see more performance gains if you upgraded to a 1080ti instead.
 
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Foolish! I recently upgraded from a 2600k @ 4.6ghz (DDR3-1600) to a 5820k @ 4.2ghz (DDR4-2400) and saw literally no noticeable increase for gaming on a GTX 980. I only did the upgrade since I was gifted the 5820k and RAM.
 
Ah shintai the time has come for me to call you out on your shit sir. If gaming is op's only aim he would be better served by getting a better gpu and continuing with his current setup. As for your anti-amd views i refute them with this http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-core-i7-7700k-versus-amd-ryzen-1700x-14-game-cpu-showdown_192508 .

Maybe you should have seen what the recommendation is for CPU. Its SKL-X or CFL-S.

And your test is done with a GTX 970, lol! No wonder all the test you link are GPU limited.
 
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I don't know how this devolved into shintai spewing Intel marketing speak again when the simple answer to the OP's question is that it is foolish to upgrade the 4790k to 7700k just for gaming right now.
 
Yes, hold off bro, Intel has gotten complacent for the last 8 years or so, now that Ryzen is a competitor again, wait for a real upgrade in architecture before spending money. Your ROI from upgrading will be basically zilch for gaming. Wait for the grass to indeed be greener.
 
I did this because my 4790k was dying, though I went to a 7600k. (Primarily gaming.)

The CPU chugs a little on occasion, but at an easy 5GHz overclock it's not common. Plus, the platform upgrade brought along with it M.2 NVMe compatibility, so that outweighs the generally lateral move (for gaming) in my mind.

I'm only regretting it at this point because I'm imagining an i5-8600k with six cores might be just over the horizon. If it is, and it's 1151/Z270 compatible, I might upgrade again...
 
I've heard that they are making an LGA1151v2 socket so no upgrade, but then I've heard it is compatible, so who knows what Intel is going to do. .
I've been out of the game for a while, only back into building PCs in the last few years, so forgive my ignorance: how long do sockets typically last? It seems like 1151 hasn't been around all that long... that's just gut feeling though.
 
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I've been out of the game for a while, only back into building PCs in the last few years, so forgive my ignorance: how long do sockets typically last? It seems like 1151 hasn't been around all that long... that's just gut feeling though.

Eh for Intel, usually 2-3 years but they are known for new socket upgrades mid generation. There are a few that end up lasting and AMD had AM3 for 5 years but I've long since soured on chip upgrades except in rare circumstances. People make way way too much out of it as an option.

1151 is almost two years old. The current rumor is that coffeelake 6 core chips will require a new chipset. Z370/390.
 
SKL, KBL and CFL uses IMVP8 VRM. CNL, ICL and TGL uses IMVP9.

Z370 is a rebranded Z270.

But how support turns out we have to see. A board can be IMVP8+9 compatible it seems and that's the target for 300 series boards.
 
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