Someone I know keeps going on about the X-99 CPUs so far (socket 2011-3) and mentioning the hex and octo core capability (which is not even on the Intel roadmap for regular desktop releases for Q2 2015).
My question is would these even be any good for gaming? I know that the power these CPUs have will mostly only be utilized for rendering videos etc which I do occasionally do but not all the time so it may not be worth the extra price.
I am unsure if I should spend $700AUD to get the Intel Core i7 5930K because it has more performance (on paper) than or not due to the large cost involved (obviously a new mobo, DDR4 etc). My main concern is that the extra cores etc wont even be used in games. I know from some benchmarks I saw current games like Battlefield 4 do not.
Currently I am running an Intel i7-950 which is starting to show it s age and is no longer listed on some Minimum game requirements.
What do you guys think? Should I splash out for a bit of extra grunt that is possibly more useful down the line or just save money and not jump to X-99/DDR4 yet?
If you do a good bit of rendering X99 is worth it. You'd be fine with a 5820k; it's the 5930k without 12 PCI lanes. However if its mainly gaming you'd be able to save money with Z97.
I personally still stick to the tried and true FX 8350. If you want the core count, go AMD till prices drop on X99 (never will). On multithreaded applications that will use the multiple core count, AMD is great. It is only in the Single core tests that AMD has issues. AMD FX-8350 has shown it can handle HEAVY multitasking with ease.
Benchmarks of current games show the X-99 CPUs as performing worse than the previous i7 line up for example an Intel Core i7 4790K. The Intel roadmap shows i7-6000 series CPUs coming out in the later half of this year and it mentions DDR4 support so I might just wait for that release.
Although unlike the Haswell-E it appears the upcoming 'Skylake' CPUs will only be quad core with hyperthreading. This will probably bode better for gaming anyway.
still those cpu´s perform totaly fine in gaming. There is not much of a diffrence between a 4790K an 5820k wenn it comes to gaming. Only the 4790k has higher clockspeeds out of the box, but a 5820k can be easaly overclocked to similar levels. so they will roughly perform the same, depending on the games.
For productivity stuf, like rendering, encoding, virtualization or what not. X99 will make sense.
X99 is basically a preview of what is to come in the next series of chips, However because it is the first iteration of the new technology it's not hard to see that its all pretty expensive. If however you are wanting the latest and greatest then sure X99 is perfect for you, but in many benchmarks and reviews i've seen, it makes very little difference when it comes to pure gaming. While having more cores helps with multitasking, most games these days only make use of 2 cores and newer games quad, but anything higher then that and its just wasted unless you are doing productivity like video/music editing.
If gaming is the only aspect you want, I'd suggest having a look at the 1150 chipset, because its been out for a while now its not as expensive, still gives a great gaming experience and from what I've seen so far per core it performs better then AMD.
It's personal preference which you choose, do research, stick to a budget and define your prime use and you'll build something that will serve you well into the future.
However, in my own head i see X99 being some what future proofing your Rig, having DDR4 up to 128gig which would be great for a 50/50 ram disk, 40PCIE lanes for crazy SLI/CF goodness 6/8 cores that will be able to handle anything you give it and for quiet a while to come. It just really depends if you take the leap and do it now or wait til Skylake comes and see where you stand.
Think of the 5820k/5930k as an i7 2600k with 6 cores in terms of single threaded performance, and as a 3960x in terms of multithreaded performance; the best of both worlds. That's why an OC of 300-500mhz is required for it to out the 4790k in games that don't use more than four threads.
I wasn't necessarily comparing clock speed but rather threaded performance. An oc of 500mhz put the 2600k at around the 4790k. Considering that more cores are roughly in the same die space as a modern i7, I figured there would be a decrease in single threaded performance thus putting single threaded performance along the lines of a 2500k/2600k. In terms of multithreaded performance, the i7 5820k performs about as well as a 3960x if not better. One question I do have though is are the sizes of the cores in the 5820k the same as in the 4790k? I'd imagine they'd slightly suffer as far as the die is concerned.
Games are not really optimized for more than 4 cores (usually). Also, they need GPU way, way more than CPU. So, if you want to spend 700AUD, spend it on a GTX 980 or the upcoming AMD 390X. You can do that and get a cheap i5 or even a cheap AMD FX CPU and do better than if you get an expensive 2011-3 CPU and a lesser GPU.
Also, if you test the same gpu on both the 5930K and the i5 4960K the fps is almost the same. So, it doesn't make sense to go 2011-3 unless you are editing/rendering, etc. They are great for gaming... but that is not their first job.
an i5 will scale better than an i7 in games. Due to the lack of hyperthreading essentially halving the core usage in games optimised for less than 8 threads.
X99 isn't worth it for gaming, you are going to want GHz/cores. Spend your dough on a GPU.
A bit of advise on waiting. In the computer world, new stuff comes out all the time. You may as well get what is out now rather than just spend your life waiting for the next best thing to come out. It will last if you pick carefully and even longer if you OC.
like i said in allot of threads before, games dont use more then 4 main threads. There are only a handfull of games atm, that have the capabillity to use all the availeble threads. But this still doesn´t gonne give me significant better performance on an i7 then on an i5. it will only lower the load on each individual core.
For mainaly gaming a 4690k is realy all you gonne need for a while. pair it with a highend gpu and you are good to go. the 4690K is simply the best "gaming" cpu on the market right now.
Even a 4790k would be overkill for gaming. unless you do allot of live streaming aswell. Then you could concider the 4790k for the extra threads.
X99 is a waste of money for gaming. Unless if you do allot of productivity stuf and gaming. then something like a 5820k could be a nice sweet spot cpu.
X99 pointless for gaming, go 8350 or 4790k if you got that skrilla to spend. ^^ what this guy said, you can never really keep up with tech, just buy the best you can afford now!