i7-4790k vs i5-4690k for gaming

[cardboardbox]

I have a 4790k in my study/work pc that doesnt do much except occasional video encoding and a little gaming. This pc has a GTX 760.

I have a 4690k in my gaming pc out in the living room paired with a GTX 970. I might be switching to a new motherboard in my gaming pc so I'm also thinking about swapping CPU's between my two pc's.

So my question... A while back everyone said the i5 was plenty good and the i7 wouldnt make much difference for games. Is this still true?

 

[Araxie]

no is not true, actually with basically every modern game and still few of the most couple of years recent games, i7 are starting to show major advantages in gaming specially when talking about minimums and average which make games smoother and more enjoyable if you are one of those who like to hugh 60fps as minimums, so yes with a GTX 970 the 4790K make much more sense specially if you aren't overclocking due the higher stock clock. until 2 years ago i5 was plenty for everything, one game here and there that would benefit from the extra thread as crysis 3 or hitman absolution for examples but for most people it wasn't worth buy a more expensive chip for couple of games, however with every recent launch this i7 advantage keep growing.

 

[iowa_doug]

If you don't mind the study/work PC taking longer to perform its existing tasks (occasional video encoding especially), then by all means go ahead and swap CPU's.

If you do swap, you may also want to re-do any existing overclock(s), as the different motherboard / CPU combination may affect your existing OC.

Good luck.

 

[cardboardbox]

thanks guys! Its more work but I'll probably do the swap this weekend...

One more question... Will switching motherboard and cpu invalidate my windows key? It will look like a new pc to MS wont it?

 

[iowa_doug]

thanks guys! Its more work but I'll probably do the swap this weekend...

One more question... Will switching motherboard and cpu invalidate my windows key? It will look like a new pc to MS wont it?

I have never attempted this, so my formal answer is "I don't know".

If I had to do this same process (at my own risk, of course), before swapping motherboards on the computer in question, I would back up all mission critical files on an external drive and then follow the steps outlined in this video.

Proceed at your own risk.

 

[iowa_doug]

thanks guys! Its more work but I'll probably do the swap this weekend...

One more question... Will switching motherboard and cpu invalidate my windows key? It will look like a new pc to MS wont it?

Also, for what it's worth, I have swapped CPUs (3570k to 3770k) on the same motherboard without any issues, other than to confirm at startup that a different processor was installed. At the time, I had Windows 7 OEM installed.

 

[cardboardbox]

Also, for what it's worth, I have swapped CPUs (3570k to 3770k) on the same motherboard without any issues, other than to confirm at startup that a different processor was installed. At the time, I had Windows 7 OEM installed.

yeah I dont think just the cpu would be a problem but I bet most pc owners dont swap out their motherboard very often.

I'll check out the video, thanks!

 

[itsGEE!]

Benchmark and post results? I regret not getting the 4790k at the time of purchase. I only paid $179 for my 4690k, and the 4790k was like $70 more from MC. I don't know what I was thinking, but I was aiming towards more of a budget build. I'm still waiting on pascal cards to finally pick up more recent GPU, but by the time they come out, I might be ready for a new skylake build :/

 

[silkiejohnson]

I'm debating on buying a 4790k/mobo combo from microcenter and giving my wifes gaming rig(old AMD 1090T Crosshair IV Formula) the my i5-4670k and whatever Z board I get with it. I was under the impression that it wasn't worth making the jump, but reading some of the comments is making me feel like it will be a good choice. Now, to find the cash to upgrade!