Going from i3-6100 to i7-6700. Expectations?

[nerp]

So I'm beginning an upgrade phase. Going from an i3-6100 to an i7-6700 in my current rig. Few questions here.

How much faster per thread is the i7 despite being 200mhz lower clockspeed?

Is this really going to be a crazy good upgrade? I generally work with 10-30 tabs open across multiple browsers. Mostly content creation. The i3 has never let me down and it seems very nice and fast but ....

Gaming - compelled partially due to cities skylines being very cpu demanding, especially with tons of mods. I am going to 24gb ram from 16. How bottleneckd will my GTX950 be with the new i7?

I'm not going to buy a gtx1080 but I might consider a 1070, though I'd probably be happy with a 1060? I don't plan on gaming at 4K. I have a 2K display. Will the 1060 suffice? Would I still be bottlenecking the 1060? Seems kinda silly to go to an i7 and not replace the GTX950 with something to match it but I'm not sure which.

My plan for the i3 is to pair it with a decent mini-itx board and give it the spare 8gb ram I'll have left over. Throw it in a little case and I'll have a sweet little spare box. With the 950 it will be a nice media machine and light gaming/minecraft box for the family.

 

[Burpo]

Not much in single thread improvement.. (2105 vs 2152)

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-6100+@+3.70GHz

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-6700+@+3.40GHz

For your use, I like the GTX 1060..

 

[jana519]

Well your GPU is the bottleneck, so you won't see any improvement in gaming.

 

[Sheep221]

Many users as of late ask if they should upgrade when they don't actually feel their current setup being slow/bottlenecked/inadequate for their needs. I mean really, wtf?

 

[nerp]

Many users as of late ask if they should upgrade when they don't actually feel their current setup being slow/bottlenecked/inadequate for their needs. I mean really, wtf?

Not exactly my scenario. I'm in the midst of an upgrade cycle and building a second machine using parts in the first. As a result, I'm getting a faster CPU, more memory, ETC, and as part of that is the video card. Everything I'm swapping out will be used in a second box.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Hmm... Why not 6700K? Clock speed is still king.

 

[UsandThem]

I'm not going to buy a gtx1080 but I might consider a 1070, though I'd probably be happy with a 1060? I don't plan on gaming at 4K. I have a 2K display. Will the 1060 suffice? Would I still be bottlenecking the 1060? Seems kinda silly to go to an i7 and not replace the GTX950 with something to match it but I'm not sure which.

It depends on what type of gamer you are. Some people, even at 1080 have to every setting on ultra, 60 FPS+ minimum, and some games will be pretty demanding (Witcher 3). If you are fine running some very demanding games with a few settings dialed down a bit, a GTX 1060 will be perfectly fine. If not, and must have 60 FPS+ on max settings, you will be looking at getting a GTX 1070.

For most 1080 gamers who aren't chasing benchmarks and just want to play games, the GTX 1060 is a solid card. With a 6700, you will be GPU limited regardless if you buy the GTX 1060 or GTX 1070.

A GeForce GTX 1060 is a near perfect product for Full HD gamers at 1920x1080/1200. However given the nature of it's performance this actually is a pretty darn good WQHD (2560x1440) card as well. Not everybody requires or demands 100+ FPS and many people find that 40~60 average FPSes good enough, especially with a GSYNC monitor. For that last category the GeForce GTX 1060 is going to offer a tremendous amount of value as at WQHD you are indeed in the 40 to 60 FPS marker.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_1060_review,30.html

 

[nerp]

Hmm... Why not 6700K? Clock speed is still king.

Well, I don't OC and I don't have an overclocking board, nor do I feel like messing with OCing. The base clock is a little higher with the K but so is the TDP. . .Figuring I never plan to overclock the non-K made more sense. Was I wrong?

 

[2is]

2k is what? 1440p? In that case you'll want the 1070 at a minimum.

 

[nerp]

2k is what? 1440p? In that case you'll want the 1070 at a minimum.

Hmm. You're probably right. SLI won't be an option for 1060 either.

 

[LTC8K6]

I think an i5 gives much more bang for the buck.

 

[nerp]

I think an i5 gives much more bang for the buck.

It sure does. I guess I was willing to pay a bit more for a little more performance. I was very strongly considering the i5. If they had a non-K i5 with a 3.7ghz or higher clockspeed I'd have been much more likely to get the i5.

IMHO, Intel needs a few more models. A faster non-K i7 and i5 and a few models in between.

 

[therealnickdanger]

I suggest upgrading your GPU first since it sounds like you're going to do that anyway. Try that, see what sort of impact that has on gameplay before upgrading your CPU. While I can tell you with certainty that upgrading your GPU will net you more frames, the CPU upgrade won't benefit nearly as much. There will be a benefit, but going from the 950 to something in the 1070 realm will be a massive boost. FPS/$$$ will be better spent on the GPU.

https://youtu.be/PVl8Eupbr_E?t=1m43s

http://www.gameplayinside.com/strategy/cities-skylines/cities-skylines-game-performance-review/

 

[LTC8K6]

There's no reason not to get a "K" version. It has higher clocks. If you decide to get a new board, you can then overclock it. If you decide to sell it, it has higher resale value.

A 6600K is much cheaper than a 6700, and there's little gaming difference.

Since you are not overclocking it, you can just use the copper core cooler for a 4790K, which is pretty cheap. p/n E97378-001

 

[nerp]

There's no reason not to get a "K" version. It has higher clocks. If you decide to get a new board, you can then overclock it. If you decide to sell it, it has higher resale value.

A 6600K is much cheaper than a 6700, and there's little gaming difference.

Since you are not overclocking it, you can just use the copper core cooler for a 4790K, which is pretty cheap. p/n E97378-001

What about power usage? I know the Skylake chips in general are great, but the TDP of 91 vs 65 for the 6700-K vs. non-K seemed notable to me.

By the way, thank you all for responding to this thread. Helpful and interesting information.

Also, BTW, I ordered a GTX1070. I was about to just order a 1060 but I figured if my plan is to not worry about upgrading for quite some time after this, I should go a step up. At least with the 1070 I won't have to worry about much of anything.

 

[TeknoBug]

Hmm... Why not 6700K? Clock speed is still king.

Yup even when I don't plan to OC (and my H110 mobo doesn't support OC'ing), I"m aiming to getting the i7 6700K just for the 4/4.2GHz speed.

 

[LTC8K6]

What about power usage? I know the Skylake chips in general are great, but the TDP of 91 vs 65 for the 6700-K vs. non-K seemed notable to me.

By the way, thank you all for responding to this thread. Helpful and interesting information.

Also, BTW, I ordered a GTX1070. I was about to just order a 1060 but I figured if my plan is to not worry about upgrading for quite some time after this, I should go a step up. At least with the 1070 I won't have to worry about much of anything.

Well, how often will you be stressing the chip? Probably not often. The only time it will use more power is under heavy loads, but it will also complete the tasks quicker, so it's a bit of a trade off. Not overclocking it probably reduces the difference a little as well.

6600K looks pretty darn good for power consumption vs performance.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/core_i7_6700k_processor_review_desktop_skylake,8.html

 

[Arachnotronic]

Get the 6700K. Faster single threaded perf and multithreaded perf when you need it, even if you don't overclock.

 

[2is]

When considering two pieces of hardware, always pick the higher end one.

I've done it both ways and never regretted purchasing the higher performing part. Can't say the same going the other way.

 

[nerp]

When considering two pieces of hardware, always pick the higher end one.

I've done it both ways and never regretted purchasing the higher performing part. Can't say the same going the other way.

Hmm. In that case, are you saying I should get that 10-core Broadwell chip? haha.

I do feel a bit of buyer's remorse for not getting the K chip. The 6700 is on the way, though and I'm reminding myself I don't have to buy a cooler, don't have to start contemplating Z170 boards, don't have to start choosing a new PSU, etc. Also, the single thread performance IS going up, I'm sure my usage patterns will greatly benefit from four juicy cores and 8 threads instead of two cores and 4 threads.

With the new graphics card, yet more memory headroom and the 6700, I think I'll be solid.

 

[2is]

Hmm. In that case, are you saying I should get that 10-core Broadwell chip? haha.

I do feel a bit of buyer's remorse for not getting the K chip. The 6700 is on the way, though and I'm reminding myself I don't have to buy a cooler, don't have to start contemplating Z170 boards, don't have to start choosing a new PSU, etc. Also, the single thread performance IS going up, I'm sure my usage patterns will greatly benefit from four juicy cores and 8 threads instead of two cores and 4 threads.

With the new graphics card, yet more memory headroom and the 6700, I think I'll be solid.

If it was an option, sure. But the options in this case was a 6700 vs 6700k and with the GPU's it was 1060 vs 1070. You made the right choice with the GPU.

 

[nerp]

If it was an option, sure. But the options in this case was a 6700 vs 6700k and with the GPU's it was 1060 vs 1070. You made the right choice with the GPU.

That's a good way of looking at it.

 

[LTC8K6]

I suppose people with an i3 with a high clock speed might feel that Windows is a bit less responsive with an i5 or even an i7 with a much lower base clock.

I imagine that Win10 fairly flies with a 3.9ghz i3-6320.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Hmm. In that case, are you saying I should get that 10-core Broadwell chip? haha.

I do feel a bit of buyer's remorse for not getting the K chip. The 6700 is on the way, though and I'm reminding myself I don't have to buy a cooler, don't have to start contemplating Z170 boards, don't have to start choosing a new PSU, etc. Also, the single thread performance IS going up, I'm sure my usage patterns will greatly benefit from four juicy cores and 8 threads instead of two cores and 4 threads.

With the new graphics card, yet more memory headroom and the 6700, I think I'll be solid.

6700 is still awesome, so don't worry too much Congratulations on your purchase!

 

[nerp]

I suppose people with an i3 with a high clock speed might feel that Windows is a bit less responsive with an i5 or even an i7 with a much lower base clock.

I imagine that Win10 fairly flies with a 3.9ghz i3-6320.

Yes, I figured I'd be in that position, which is why I really had no choice other than the i7-6700 or the top end i5. The i3-6100 is so good that simply going to quad core isn't always the smartest move.