i7-6700k+RX480 vs. i5-6600k+GTX1070 upgrade

[avitale]

Greetings! I am going to be building whole new systems for both my son and me in the next few months (probably beginning / middle of October), and I'm trying to play catch up on several years worth of not upgrading or paying attention to the latest and greatest hardware. We currently have different configurations and I want to have the same hardware for both computers going forward to make it easier to troubleshoot any potential problems that might happen. I've chosen most of the components within my expected budget except for the CPU and video card. Basically it's down to the slightly cheaper option of going with the RX 480 8gb + i7-6700k (about $590) vs. a slightly more expensive option of going with the GTX 1070 + i5-6600k (about $650).

I don't plan on upgrading again for several years, so I want the system to still be playing games with fast frame rates without much sacrifice quality settings 18+ months from now. The GTX1070/i5 combo is within my budget, but if I got the RX480/i7 I'd probably just use the left over money to get bigger SSD's. So the question is, is it worth spending the extra $60 to get the i5-6600k + GTX 1070 combo?

 

[poofyhairguy]

I think it depends on how long you expect this rig to last overall.

If you plan to throw away the whole thing when the GPU gets slow - the i5 + 1070 option

If you plan to upgrade the GPU (and just the GPU) when that falls behind - the i7 + 480

Also your target resolution today matters. If you are doing 1440p get the 1070.

 

[coercitiv]

OP, tell the forum what monitor you plan on using. It's important.

 

[avitale]

I do not plan on upgrading or rebuilding again for 3+ years. The resolution my son and I have are both 1080p.

 

[RussianSensation]

So the question is, is it worth spending the extra $60 to get the i5-6600k + GTX 1070 combo?

For gaming the i5 6600K + 1070 combo is obviously much better. If you are not going to be overclocking, take the regular i7 6700 over the i5-6600K.

 

[Thinker_145]

Never build a gaming PC with the intention of not changing any hardware for "several" years because the state of the GPU industry makes that a bad idea.

That's basically what you need to change after a couple of years or 3 at max. Every single component in a gaming PC can last 5+ years but not the GPU.

Not even the 1080 can guarantee you "fast frame rate without much quality sacrifice" 2 years from now.

I would definitely go with the i7 option. The 8GB RX 480 is a very capable card and should last you 2 years at 1080p. After that all you would need is a new $200-250 card to get a massive boost.

If you go the i5 route your GPU is likely to last a bit longer but by the time it needs upgrade the CPU might be too outdated. Not to mention outdated i7 CPUs hardly seem to lose value so getting a cheap 6700k down the line isn't really an option either.

Now I know the 6700k is a very expensive CPU but the current state of CPUs is such that it offers significantly more long term performance than any option below it. So despite its hefty price the 6700k is surprisingly worth it. Blame it on Intel monopoly on the industry but that's how it is.

Sent from my HTC One M9

 

[Adul]

6700K + 480 GPU is my take on it.

 

[Thinker_145]

For gaming the i5 6600K + 1070 combo is obviously much better. If you are not going to be overclocking, take the regular i7 6700 over the i5-6600K.

The 6700k is still worth it over 6700 without overclocking as it offers 15% higher stock clocks. The additional cost of a third party cooler does complicate things a bit but you do get lower noise as a bonus.

Sent from my HTC One M9

 

[Arachnotronic]

I would get the 6600K + 1070 combo, hands down.

 

[Ranulf]

I do not plan on upgrading or rebuilding again for 3+ years. The resolution my son and I have are both 1080p.

i7 6700k (as its faster at stock) + 480 then. Easier to throw in a new gpu in 2-3 years if you feel the need. Just keep the 6700k at stock clocks and quiet with a custom cooler. I've gotten great mileage out my my i5 but the i7 is the better long term buy.

 

[richaron]

If you absolutely refuse to update the system then the i5 + 1070 will give better performance. How much better, or if you'll even notice it, depending on game & monitor choice.

But as everyone has said, the i7 + 480 and a simple GPU upgrade down the line would be the wiser move...

 

[avitale]

I wasn't sure if the lesser i5-6600k would hold back the GTX1070 that much, and yes I do plan on mild overclocking. I was leaning towards the GTX1070+i5 combo because for only $60 more for each computer build given my budget options, the GTX 1070 seems to get way higher frame rates than the RX 480 according to the review on the front page of Anandtech. But the recommendations seem evenly split between the two choices, even though the RX480 seems to be way slower.

I won't upgrade or build a new system for AT LEAST 3 years because that's what my wife and I agreed to with our budget (she's not thrilled with the cost of building two new computers), so I really want to make sure I get the most out of my system for 3+ years. My current system is an i7-920 with a HD7950 while my son has an i5-2400 with a GTX680.

 

[avitale]

If you absolutely refuse to update the system then the i5 + 1070 will give better performance. How much better, or if you'll even notice it, depending on game & monitor choice.

But as everyone has said, the i7 + 480 and a simple GPU upgrade down the line would be the wiser move...

We play some online games together (Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead 2, Minecraft) but those run great with our current computers. However newer single player games that we've bought like Witcher 3 and Doom requires a bunch of settings to be lowered to play well. I want to get Mirror's Edge 2 as well, but I'm afraid neither of our setups will be able to run it well with high graphics settings. Witcher 3 is on the Anandtech GTX 1070 review and it's like 80 fps with the GTX1070 and 50 fps with the RX480.

 

[richaron]

People are mostly going with the i7 option because the current trend is for these top CPUs to last many, many years. And the extra threads will come much more into play in the DX12/Vulcan era.

The fact 480 is a very capable 1920x1080 card (and also believed to be forward looking) means that it will also be performing at this resolution for quite some time. If you're using high refresh monitors or higher resolution this might change the issue.

The difficulty will come around your 2-3 year window, where in the i5 system the CPU will most likely be starting to hold you back. At this point the i5 system would need an overhaul, whereas the i7 will happily take a new GPU and keep gaming happily for another couple of years.

 

[avitale]

People are mostly going with the i7 option because the current trend is for these top CPUs to last many, many years. And the extra threads will come much more into play in the DX12/Vulcan era.

The fact 480 is a very capable 1920x1080 card (and also believed to be forward looking) means that it will also be performing at this resolution for quite some time. If you're using high refresh monitors or higher resolution this might change the issue.

The difficulty will come around your 2-3 year window, where in the i5 system the CPU will most likely be starting to hold you back. At this point the i5 system would need an overhaul, whereas the i7 will happily take a new GPU and keep gaming happily for another couple of years.

The monitors are 60hz, I'm not buying a new ones.

So you think the i5-6600k will hold back the GTX 1070 between now and in two years so much that it will be slower than the RX480+i7-6700k? It's such a big gap between the two in the anandtech review.

 

[Mopetar]

I'd go with the 1070 as if you want to hang onto this system longer, you're better off with the beefier GPU, but you still may want to wait a while as the 1070 is still selling well above MSRP at the moment and you'll definitely be better off with an AIB card over the reference design, though the same is true if you decide to go with the 480, in which case you'd still need to wait.

 

[postmortemIA]

i7 is going to outlast that i5 by a lot, while 480 and 1070 are same gen, and will be done at same time, more or less

if you do any CPU intensive work you'd seen how much i7 does over i5. These HT cores do lot of parallelized work for me.

 

[Bacon1]

I'd go with the 1070 as if you want to hang onto this system longer, you're better off with the beefier GPU, but you still may want to wait a while as the 1070 is still selling well above MSRP at the moment and you'll definitely be better off with an AIB card over the reference design, though the same is true if you decide to go with the 480, in which case you'd still need to wait.

If anything, the CPU will last much longer than a GPU. Plus he saves $60 which means he can upgrade the GPU sooner.

 

[Thinker_145]

I wasn't sure if the lesser i5-6600k would hold back the GTX1070 that much, and yes I do plan on mild overclocking. I was leaning towards the GTX1070+i5 combo because for only $60 more for each computer build given my budget options, the GTX 1070 seems to get way higher frame rates than the RX 480 according to the review on the front page of Anandtech. But the recommendations seem evenly split between the two choices, even though the RX480 seems to be way slower.

I won't upgrade or build a new system for AT LEAST 3 years because that's what my wife and I agreed to with our budget (she's not thrilled with the cost of building two new computers), so I really want to make sure I get the most out of my system for 3+ years. My current system is an i7-920 with a HD7950 while my son has an i5-2400 with a GTX680.

As I said you don't just throw all the money at the same time and call it a day. With the i7 system keep $200 spare budget for each computer and that's all you will need to do in 5 years.

Regarding your son's computer had you gone with a better CPU at that time you still won't have really needed to upgrade it. That's how important a high end CPU can turn out to be in the long run when paired with the right motherboard.

Do make sure to buy a Z170 motherboard as it's necessary for overclocking.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Amd cards age better since nvidia stopped supporting their older cards with driver updates.

 

[richaron]

So you think the i5-6600k will hold back the GTX 1070 between now and in two years so much that it will be slower than the RX480+i7-6700k? It's such a big gap between the two in the anandtech review.

No no no. Sorry I didn't mean that. The 1070 system will likely still be faster in 2-3 years, but it could have equalized.

It's not as though you're just going to throw away the PC then though, and even if you flip it the i7+480 will have retained it's value much better. The point it when you reach here, for another ~$200 the i7 systems can be performing up to scratch again.

For the record: I'm no expert with exact games, so maybe someone else can help with those. Nor am I a seer with regards to future ones, but we know the trend of DX12/Vulcan games to use many threads and lean towards AMD hardware ATM. And we've seen past AMD cards improve 5-10% yearly relative to nV .

Also, when games are benchmarked they're usually done at some arbitrary "max" settings. Turning a couple of options down can greatly improve performance for little/no sacrafice in visual quality.

 

[Thinker_145]

So you think the i5-6600k will hold back the GTX 1070 between now and in two years so much that it will be slower than the RX480+i7-6700k? It's such a big gap between the two in the anandtech review.

That is very unlikely to happen in all honesty but the point here is that the i5 would be woefully inadequate for the next GPU that you buy after the 1070 where as the i7 would be fine. So you save a lot of money in the long term by sacrificing a bit of performance in the short term.

Do keep in mind as well that all the benchmarks you see on Anandtech and other sites are run using top of the line i7 CPUs so they are not necessarily representative of what you would get with i5+1070 especially with future games.

 

[nurturedhate]

The monitors are 60hz, I'm not buying a new ones.

So you think the i5-6600k will hold back the GTX 1070 between now and in two years so much that it will be slower than the RX480+i7-6700k? It's such a big gap between the two in the anandtech review.

If you are using a 1080p60hz monitor with no plans to upgrade then it is an easy choice. i7+480. With you not upgrading often the i7 will last you longer. There's always one setting you can turn down to get better performance out of the 480 over the 1070 but there's nothing you can really do to make the i5 feel like the i7.

I'd much rather buy the i7 and replace the 480 in 3 years than buy the i5 and replace everything in 3 years.

Heck, look at my sig. I bought the i5. I wish I had bought the i7. I've been down this road. My only saving grace was my good overclock for a haswell.

 

[Thinker_145]

Witcher 3 is on the Anandtech GTX 1070 review and it's like 80 fps with the GTX1070 and 50 fps with the RX480.

Well if you are looking for maxed out smooth gaming like that then you have to go for 6700k+1070 there is no way around it.

With the RX 480 you may have to turn off "some" settings in "some" games but rest assured at 1080p you are going to game at mostly high/very high settings with 60+FPS for quite some time to come.

 

[Genx87]

OP, tell the forum what monitor you plan on using. It's important.

This