Intel core i5 or i7?

Jake Savage

Jake Savage
I am buying a new PC for the Vive.
The specs are
Intel core i5-6600k up to 4.2ghz
memory-16gb ddr4 2133mh2
nvidia GTX 1080 8gb.

i can buy the same rig, but with an i7 core 6700k up to 4.6ghz, for £500 more. Is that worth the extra £500?
 

Zeeman

Zeeman
500 pounds? You can buy an i7 chip for way less than that, surely - and that does not take into account the value of the i5...

Rift and Vive owners can jump in, but having spent a fair bit of time researching, there seems to be very little advantage for picking an i7 over and i5 for VR as it stands. The graphics card will be more important.

Consider building your own PC, it's easy, and a handy skill...

My new rig:
6600K
Asus Maximus VIII Gene
16GB 3200mhz
Intel 256GB M2 SSD
GTX1080 (kinda hoping for 1080Ti news...)

Existing rig:
4690K
Asus Ranger VII
16GB 1600Mhz
256GB Crucial SSD
Asus GTX970

My existing rig is plenty for VR (though a GTX1080 would do the trick) and I'm only building the 6600K rig because I live between two countries, and want to keep playing ED when I have time.

Z...
 
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Lestenio

L
As Zeeman says. £500 for a processor upgrade is extortionate. An i7 processor on Amazon would be £250 - £300
Building a PC is really easy, it just slots together so hard to go wrong.

But, to answer your question. I use an i5 and I'm perfectly happy. What will make the difference is the graphics card and an SSD
 

Zeeman

Zeeman
Lestenio said:
As Zeeman says. £500 for a processor upgrade is extortionate. An i7 processor on Amazon would be £250 - £300
Building a PC is really easy, it just slots together so hard to go wrong.

But, to answer your question. I use an i5 and I'm perfectly happy. What will make the difference is the graphics card and an SSD
Click to expand...

Yup - exactly. An SSD upgrade is what most people really want when they want a faster PC, in my experience...

Z...
 

Mikevet

Mikevet
When I was upgrading my pc, I first changed the i5 with 8 Gb for an i7 6700 with 16Gb and tested it with the 'Valley' app (can't remember the exact name), and the fps was increased by 2!

Then I changed the Gpu from 970 to 1080 and tested again - the fps doubled!
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
Time for a new CPU for me I think.

pmri5.png


At the moment I can't change this system - but come early next year I think I'll splurge on a new box :)
 

[HJ]-RedRaven

[HJ]-RedRaven
Asp Explorer said:
Time for a new CPU for me I think.

https://s15.postimg.org/lrbqjvdmz/pmri5.png

At the moment I can't change this system - but come early next year I think I'll splurge on a new box :)
Click to expand...

Agree, even in VR, ED doesn't seem to tax the cpu all that much. My i7 3770K sits at about 23-25% when I'm playing. The 3D card is much more heavily loaded.

i7's are generally better all-round, but for ED its not an absolute requirement.

Definitely consider building your own - its fun and way simpler than you might think. And cheaper. There's enough PC enthusiasts in here to help out if you get stuck too! :p
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
[HJ]-RedRaven said:
Definitely consider building your own - its fun and way simpler than you might think. And cheaper.
Click to expand...

Indeed! I've been building computers since the early 80's. Back then you either bought a ready-made machine, a home-build kit, or had to layout, etch, drill, screenprint, populate, solder, test and troubleshoot yourself.

These days it's just like lego :D
 

Seneleron

Seneleron
The ONLY reason to choose a desktop i7 over an i5 is if you're doing video transcoding, movie editing, or other very processor intensive processes. Granted more games these days are utilizing more cores, but we're still talking 2-4 on average.

That said, it's a "nice to have thing" when you're. . say. . transcoding movies in handbrake, but sheesh, the dual core in my Razer Blade STEALTH runs Elite just fine [granted, I have a razer core and a GTX 960 to drive the 2k onboard display.
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
That being said - i7's have been known to cause problems in games that don't fully understand hyperthreading.

Lord of the Rings Online a few years back was a classic example.
 

[HJ]-RedRaven

[HJ]-RedRaven
Seneleron said:
The ONLY reason to choose a desktop i7 over an i5 is if you're doing video transcoding, movie editing, or other very processor intensive processes. Granted more games these days are utilizing more cores, but we're still talking 2-4 on average.

That said, it's a "nice to have thing" when you're. . say. . transcoding movies in handbrake, but sheesh, the dual core in my Razer Blade STEALTH runs Elite just fine [granted, I have a razer core and a GTX 960 to drive the 2k onboard display.
Click to expand...

True - but many enthusiasts will buy an i7 purely for the perceived overhead capacity. Many don't need it, and with a decent overclock, many i5's are more than capable.
 

Jon flint

Jon flint
Well, when the current gen of GPUs launched I remember a few tech sites/youtube guys showing that i5s, even recent ones were bottlenecking the higher end cards like the GTX1080/1070 at anything over 60fps (like 144Hz monitors, or VR)

Essentially if you want to game over 60fps they were recommending an i7.

I'll see if I can find a link to the vids, and leave you to decide whether they've got a valid point :)

Edit* added vid, there's a whole bunch on YouTube,but this is one I remember watching...
[video=youtube_share;s42gvVS77dU]https://youtu.be/s42gvVS77dU[/video]
 
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Zeeman

Zeeman
[HJ]-RedRaven said:
Agree, even in VR, ED doesn't seem to tax the cpu all that much. My i7 3770K sits at about 23-25% when I'm playing. The 3D card is much more heavily loaded.

i7's are generally better all-round, but for ED its not an absolute requirement.

Definitely consider building your own - its fun and way simpler than you might think. And cheaper. There's enough PC enthusiasts in here to help out if you get stuck too! :p
Click to expand...

Totally - I'm just about to throw together my new build, only too happy to help someone do it themselves.

Z...
 

TorTorden_VR

T
Asp Explorer said:
Indeed! I've been building computers since the early 80's. Back then you either bought a ready-made machine, a home-build kit, or had to layout, etch, drill, screenprint, populate, solder, test and troubleshoot yourself.

These days it's just like lego :D
Click to expand...
I too agree with this.
It's as easy as lego now, and considerably easier than anything from Ikea.

I missed the 80's, and have only built 40-50 machines (most of them on order)
The closest to a trick now is picking parts that go together, and that's not what it was either.
And of course plenty of people here who can skim over a list of parts and give recommendations.
 

shadragon

shadragon
TorTorden said:
It's as easy as lego now, and considerably easier than anything from Ikea.
Click to expand...
Anyone can build a PC and get it working like lego as you say, but tweaking it for optimum performance with minimal gating takes skill.

I've seen many systems set-up with wrong RAM freq's, CPU's without thermal grease, bent or crushed CPU coolers and fans installed backwards. They all turned on, but didn't work worth a damn under load. The big one was a guy complaining his external HD wasn't working and I found he had forced the HD USB plug into his network jack.
 

Zeeman

Zeeman
Jon flint said:
Well, when the current gen of GPUs launched I remember a few tech sites/youtube guys showing that i5s, even recent ones were bottlenecking the higher end cards like the GTX1080/1070 at anything over 60fps (like 144Hz monitors, or VR)

Essentially if you want to game over 60fps they were recommending an i7.

I'll see if I can find a link to the vids, and leave you to decide whether they've got a valid point :)

Edit* added vid, there's a whole bunch on YouTube,but this is one I remember watching...
https://youtu.be/s42gvVS77dU
Click to expand...

I'm not entirely convinced, purely because he seems to be using some very demanding games, ED is not so demanding. Having said that, I'd be curious to see some test with a rift/Vive, using ED and an i5/i7 build, because, well, a the end of the day, science and testing are more trustworthy the anecdotal evidence...

Z...
 
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