i5 vs i7 for gaming in a unique situation

[Totori]

Hi there!

I've been looking into building a PC recently and am tossing and turning between i5 and i7. The vast majority seem to say i5 is the way to go, as there is no gains during gaming.

I agree with them, for the most part, but my gaming is done relatively uniquely.

I play primarily MMOs, which are already heavily reliant on the CPU as far as I am aware. On top of that, I often have multiple instances open.

A regular day for me could be FFXIV on my primary monitor in Windowed Full Screen, a secondary FFXIV on a second monitor and the third monitor would be a mix of video, music, spreadsheets and chrome.

For situations like the one above, am I going to see gains with an i7 over an i5? What about RAM, will I go 'over' the 8gb that seems to be recommended?

Thanks!

 

[videogames101]

Check your RAM usage with everything open. If you're maxed out, add your pagefile size. You shouldn't need much more than that total.

Check your CPU usage. Do you see load across more than 4 cores? If so, i7 may help. If not, the i5 should suffice.

 

[Yuriman]

Battlefield 4 is a good example of a game that benefits hugely from an i7 as it scales well with up to 7 threads. Most MMOs that I have played are very CPU limited but are not very well threaded, usually benefitting very little past 2 cores plus another for background stuff. For 2 instances you may benefit from an i7 but I suspect it will run comfortably on an i5.

 

[Totori]

Thanks so far! I cannot test the usage as the reason I'm buying a new PC is that my current one is acting rather strangely. I will, every now and then, have a new more intensive game open on one monitor and have the MMO on a secondary monitor too- so it's not just MMOs.

 

[tweakboy]

i5 will do but I suggest being future proof. For that you in a i7 , haswell or Ivy,

 

[sm625]

FFXIV is basically a single thread, maybe 1.5. So two instances wont take more than 2 cores. The instance that is not in focus will consume less cpu also. I dont think you need an i7 unless you are running more than 4 cpu intensive processes (ie more than 4 instances of that game)

 

[wand3r3r]

Did you see the TBG review?

http://www.techbuyersguru.com/ochtgaming1.php

 

[tweakboy]

Grab a 4670k with a H87 motherboard and your set and ready to go!

 

[moonbogg]

Is that the only game you want to play? If so then just get an i3 and save money.

 

[Sheep221]

MMOs are not really CPU bound, i5 will be enough for running duplicated instances of your games.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

MMOs are generally cpu bound, and not often GPU intensive. However FFXIV is fairly gpu intensive!

I think in your case the i7 would have benefits over the i5, because of the multiple instances of the same game, and the added background tasks taking place.

HT doesn't replace a real core, in fact it isn't even half as good as a real core, in reality it's like 7% of one core if you're lucky. But you'll have four, so you might benefit worth having in your use case from the extra 4 threads.

 

[Joeydubbs]

Did you see the TBG review?

http://www.techbuyersguru.com/ochtgaming1.php

Wow, that's the best evidence I've seen yet against getting an i7 for gaming purposes. Their results look legit, wonder why HT can actually hinder performance...

 

[Johnny4]

Quite a few people are arguing in favor of the i7's for future gaming so that they don't outdated their rigs, but that is complete BS. By the time games use HT effectively, those processors will be completely outdated. I can say that with confidence

 

[hawtdawg]

Battlefield 4 is a good example of a game that benefits hugely from an i7 as it scales well with up to 7 threads.

while it may use that many threads, HT actually hampers BF4 performance

http://techbuyersguru.com/ochtgaming3.php

as it stands, HT only improves gaming performance in certain situations, and actually lowers it in others, even with core unparking, regardless of windows 7 or 8.1.

 

[frozentundra123456]

while it may use that many threads, HT actually hampers BF4 performance

http://techbuyersguru.com/ochtgaming3.php

as it stands, HT only improves gaming performance in certain situations, and actually lowers it in others, even with core unparking, regardless of windows 7 or 8.1.

Game.gpu got very different results. I cant explain the difference, but game.gpu is a pretty well respected site. They show about a 20% increase in performance with hyperthreading.

That said, I still would think the i5 4670 is the best value, although the i7 may give some additional benefit.

 

[saratoga172]

If you've got the extra for the i7 and plan on keeping the Pc for at least a few years there is no reason not to go with an i7 imo. You may not utilize the extra threads today or tomorrow, but 2 years from now it may come in handy and prevent having to spend more on an upgrade. My philosophy is to pick a budget and max out the build for that amount.

Most games will get by fine on an i5. They are superb procs, but if you're buying for today an i3 will almost get you by. But with ever changing computer you always want to give yourself a little extra. So an i7 paired with at least 8gb (16 if it fits the budget) will give you some headroom for the future. This may also mean only a gpu upgrade to make the system last 3-5 years instead of 2-3 years.

Food for thought. I know a lot of people around here have different philosophies on how they upgrade their systems. I know that had I went with an i5-2500k I'd be feeling the need/want to upgrade to an i7. I ended up splurging an extra hundred for the i7-2700k and have used it more times than I can count with VM's and games. Plus I can leave stuff running and not worry about it.

 

[Imouto]

MMORPGs are 1 or 2 thread tops.

I'd get an i5. With the money you save you will be able to buy a better card or invest it in your next upgrade.

 

[SPBHM]

"multiple instances"

6 core i7 (lga 2011) is probably they way to go... maybe you can get a used 3930K?

 

[mikeyanrol]

Preferable 4th generation Intel Core i7 processor.

 

[Gikaseixas]

I play primarily MMOs, which are already heavily reliant on the CPU as far as I am aware. On top of that, I often have multiple instances open.

i7 4770k is the cpu for you my friend. It will deal with the remaining tasks much better than any i5.

 

[hawtdawg]

Game.gpu got very different results. I cant explain the difference, but game.gpu is a pretty well respected site. They show about a 20% increase in performance with hyperthreading.

That said, I still would think the i5 4670 is the best value, although the i7 may give some additional benefit.

gamegpu got BF4 GPU results that don't even remotely match anything that I've actually experienced IRL.

 

[Ventanni]

Back in 2006 when I was looking to upgrade my computer, I chose the Core 2 Duo because I incorrectly thought that since nothing [I gamed on] really utilized multithreading at the time, that the extra cores couldn't benefit me. What I learned many years later is that I should have purchased the Core 2 Quad instead, as it would be much more viable today.

So when I upgraded again in 2006, I chose the 3770k over the 3570k despite knowing that it probably wouldn't provide any immediate benefit to me at all. But, as we're recently seeing, games are starting to utilize 4+ threads because consoles have 8 complete cores at their disposal (well, 6?), which'll give the 3770k a slight advantage in the long run.

Now, those are just my own upgrade habits. For people who upgrade more often, the 3570k makes more immediate sense. Since I tend to hold onto hardware for many years at a time now, spending the extra $100 and dividing out over 5-6 years is chump change in the long run.

CPU Upgrade Timeline for me - 5-6 years
GPU Upgrade Timeline for me - 2 years

Since CPUs only tend to be ~5-10% faster per upgrade cycle, I feel like you can hold onto one a lot longer. Although we don't see the double performance gains like we used to, GPU performance improves MUCH faster than CPU performance does each cycle, so buying the top of the line doesn't make as much sense since I can buy a $200 card now that'll outperform a $500 card of 2 years ago.

But that's just me

 

[BallaTheFeared]

i7 4770k is the cpu for you my friend. It will deal with the remaining tasks much better than any i5.

Bit of a stretch since you can't dedicate an instance of a game to a HT thread without suffering woeful performance.

It's basically 1 core vs 1 core + 1 thread...

On a per instance bases it's not going to make a huge difference, HT isn't that strong.

 

[Gikaseixas]

On a per instance bases it's not going to make a huge difference, HT isn't that strong.

I agree but i do believe that every bit will help a few years later. HT allows to run MT programs smoother and MS tweaked W8 to better recognize the extra threads.

Other than lower price and temps i don't see anything else that an i5 does better than an i7.