i7 3960X 0r i7-4790K

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DenyGFX

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Feb 15, 2015
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Looking to upgrade and can get good deals on both. Was just wondering which would better suit my needs.

Games are mostly BF4 Diablo III and Star Citizen.
I also use Cinema 4D and Photoshop.

Price on 3690X is $450 with an ASUS Sabretooth X79

Price on 4790K is $300 with a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5

I realize there's quite a difference in price. I'm just looking for which is the better deal.
 
Not sure how CPU dependent Star Citizen is, but I would THINK that it would want as much CPU power as possible given all the intelligence built into that game.

That being said, the X79 3960x is the more "future proof", however my plan was to build a new computer once star citizen came out..

Anyway, which would I rather have? The X79 3960x setup and it's worth it for $150 more.
 
The performance in games will be minimal. Doing other cpu intensive tasks, you could see better gains. No one has ever truly needed an 3960x for gaming. At a certain point, the gains in performance stop and your narcissistic yearning for more performance continues.
I had an i5 3670k. It was fast and I did not need to upgrade. I was offered an i7 3770k for 180. Took the deal. Was there any difference in performance? None. Was I happy to own something better? You bet your sweet a** I was.
 
That 3960X and X79 Sabertooth would be my choice out of the two.

Both setups are like getting a used processor and free board (with the X79 having a higher resale value), but I'd go for the six core part just for fun. It won't do anything for Diablo, but it may for BF4 and SC.
 
I would look at a bencher's results comparing the two in Photoshop rendering before making your decision. You should also compare chipsets as those are sometimes the biggest money makers when considering chips.

For the games you play, the extra 6 cores won't help, if you plan to OC you can get that 3960X up pretty high on water (I recommend water)

Use this:

http://c p u b o s s.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-3960X (apparently this site doesn't like CPU bo$$)

Direct comparison of both side by side. Don't pay any attention to the ratings/scores. Pick what you want.
 
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Get the x79, I got my 4930k for $300 so I made a similar choice
 
For the price I'd go 4790K, I had a 3930K before at 4.6 under water, and it just hogged power.. now my machine sits around 300w while gaming. The 3930K would hit 550-600 w/the same videocard.
 
how much do you use Cinema 4D and Photoshop.
they will get much more out of the 6 core 12 thread then the games will
purely gaming id get the cheaper of the two
 
Then again that X chip does have good resale value yeah? Shit buy'em both.
 
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