Intel Core i7-4960X vs Intel Core i7-4770K

[theosg]

Thinking of getting the older i7 4960x over the newer lower wattage 4770k
What do you guys think? Do you think they will release a fourth gen haswell extreme anytime soon?

 

[jimbo75]

In which world is the 4960X older than the 4770k? The 4960X is a 1000 dollar server CPU which has just been released, called Ivy-E. Don't spend your money on a 1000 dollar CPU if you don't know exactly what you want/need.

Haswell E is coming in a year or later.

 

[theosg]

I meant older chipset.
I am building the machine as for workload in photoshop. based on some of the reviews it seems the 4960x has gains in the PS department. BUT it is significantly more.

Just looking for some input. I have considered waiting for a Haswell E but there is no word on when it will come out so I am not sure to wait.

 

[jimbo75]

Well ok some input.. I don't think the 4960X will be necessary. In my experience an i7 can handle a PSD file over 1GB just fine. For photoshop you normally should be ok with an i5 cpu.

And those benchmarks are usually don't have much real world value. Because for example: Lets say the 4960X is 50% faster in photoshop and it takes you 5 seconds to apply that filter. An i7 would just need 7.5 seconds. You won't see much performance difference in photoshop. Those CPUs are meant to run all day on servers or for heavy video editing or 3D modelling. So for example lets say you render an animation that takes 10 hours to render on an i7, the 4960X will just need 7.5 hours. And at some point you will have 50 hours saved, but with photoshop you will save like 5 minutes. Not sure if those 5 minutes are 700 dollars worth.

Those values are just made up of course, don't quote me on that. Simply to give you an idea.


And Haswell E is definitely not in near future. At least one year from now.

 

[flmmkr]

I meant older chipset.
I am building the machine as for workload in photoshop. based on some of the reviews it seems the 4960x has gains in the PS department. BUT it is significantly more.

Just looking for some input. I have considered waiting for a Haswell E but there is no word on when it will come out so I am not sure to wait.

Older chipset? The 4960X is the Ivy Bridge-E CPU and that just came out. Are you referring to the 3960X, which is Sandy Bridge-E that has been out for a while and is replaced by the Ivy Bridge-E? Both processors work with the X79 chipset, which is limited in some capabilities compared to the Z87 chipset that works with the 4770K.

Or maybe you meant the 3770K, which is the predecessor to the 4770K in the Ivy Bridge line and works witht he Z77 chpset. 4770K is the new Haswell chip.

Go with X79/4960X if you want more cores, but also look at the 4930K which will probably get you 90% of the performance (maybe more) at half the price. Go with the Z87/4770K if you want more SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3, built-in graphics, etc. Don't get the 3770K unless you find a deal on it and want to save some money.

Keep in mind that there's another significant upgrade to CPU's and chipsets coming in a year or so. It will be more significant than the update from Sandy Bridge-E to Ivy Bridge-E and Ivy Bridge to Haswell that we're getting right now.

For what you're doing, more cores probably isn't necessary, as jimbo75 said above. You're probably better off with 4770K for now.

 

[theosg]

Yes I was leaning more towards the 4770K but waiting for a Gigabyte z87 thunderbolt board to come out GA-Z87X-UD7 TH or the UD4, UD5. I know ASUS has the Z87 Deluxe Dual but I rather build with Gigabyte since their boards are the easiest to set up and I'm still a noob.