i5 or i7 for my needs

[crashtech]

I'm a fan of E3 Xeons. But people seem to be afraid of what they don't know, so I've stopped recommending them.

There are E3 12xx V3 Haswell Xeons available now. But last I looked, they were not priced quite as attractively.

 

[Michael Meio]

Yes, Haswell Xeons are pricey atm.. $265 for the 3.3GHz one

As comparison:

Xeon E3-1220 V2 3.1GHz Base, HT, 8MB Cache $205
Xeon E3-1230 V2 3.3GHz Base, HT, 8MB Cache $235
Ivy Bridge i7-3770 3.4GHz Base, HT, 8MB Cache $280
Ivy Bridge i5-3570 3.4GHz Base, no HT, 6MB Cache $215
Haswells i7's are $310 and up for 3.1GHz Base, 8MB Cache, HT
Haswells i5's are $200 and up for 3.2GHz Base, 6MB Cache, no HT

Hold it there.. Haswell Xeons have to wait for Bios revs from major manufacturers but MSI. Last I checked Asus and others won't take them unless you go for Workstation/Server class MoBos, according to their CPU's listing.

People can -and should- take advantage of the 1155 platform (H77,Z77, etc) that can take the Xeons. It took a while for them too to be listed. I think I saw people trying on them successfully way before Bios revs listed.. So, Haswell Xeons may work on all H87, Z87 MoBos currently on market but since Xeons don't OC, H87 will do.

They used to be restricted to specialty, demanding for ECC and stuff, but not anymore. I don't have the slightest of clues if Xeons still undergo special treatment and testing @ the factory. I hope someone with the knowledge let us know.

Adios

 

[tkivisto]

I really don't think you will regret the i5. By the time you find a mainstream application that needs the i7 performance (other than encoding and other incredibly intensive special applications), you will be upgrading your PC again because something better will be out and we will be getting nostalgic about the old "i5"'s

 

[toyota]

I really don't think you will regret the i5. By the time you find a mainstream application that needs the i7 performance (other than encoding and other incredibly intensive special applications), you will be upgrading your PC again because something better will be out and we will be getting nostalgic about the old "i5"'s

if it comes to a point where you actually notice the difference in day to day applications then it is way past time to upgrade.

and he said "A PC Gamer Enthusiast.. wanna make sure I'm okay when the next gen titles come out for PC"

well even right now Crysis 3 needs more than 4 threads to stay smooth the whole time so again if he as the money then its silly not to go with i7 at this point for his needs if building new.

 

[sxr7171]

Its an outdated benchmark tho. Quite large benefit with Crsysis patch 1.3 and up.

Personally I would still go i5.

With that chart the biggest difference actually is in the i7. It seems they highly optimized for hyperthreading in patch 1.3

 

[frozentundra123456]

With that chart the biggest difference actually is in the i7. It seems they highly optimized for hyperthreading in patch 1.3

I would like to see more data on this. I wonder is there is some flaw in the data. Seems like an awfully big gain for HT, especially since it showed no benefit in the earlier versions.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I would like to see more data on this. I wonder is there is some flaw in the data. Seems like an awfully big gain for HT, especially since it showed no benefit in the earlier versions.

That HT gain, is well... a bit suspicious, I agree. They should of benched 2011 chips as well.