Comparison: i7-6700k vs i7-4790k vs i7-3770k vs i7

With the arrival of the Skylake processors we already have six generations of Intel Core among us, so it is interesting to observe the evolution that has occurred over the years to see if it is worth making the leap from an "old" platform to one more. updated or if on the contrary the economic investment does not compensate the escalation in benefits

To this end, the guys at eurogamer have conducted a battery of tests on the Core i7 6700K, Core i7 4790K, Core i7 3770K and Core i7 2600K processors to assess the performance improvement among the latest generations of Intel processors.

Comparison to stock frequencies

First, they compare the processors to their Stock frequency together with an Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X graphics card to see the differences between the four chips in a total of nine current video games at Full HD 1080p resolution.

As we can see, the biggest performance improvement with stock speed processors occurs in GTA V and Far Cry 4 games in which the move from a Core i7 2600K (Sandy Bridge) to a Core i7 6700K (Skylake) represents an increase in performance of 37% and 43% respectively. A few bulky figures but perhaps not everything they should for processors four years apart, remember that Sandy Bridge hit the market in 2011.

However, it is not all good news, we also observe games in which the improvement is equal to 15% or even less and the most discouraging thing is that this situation occurs in six games out of a total of nine.

Comparison with 4.4 GHz overclocking

The improvements in performance observed in the previous test are due to two factors, one of them is the performance per MHz of each processor (IPC) and the other factor is the operating frequency of each processor that we remember can be altered in the four models compared to having the multiplier unlocked (K-series).

In order to observe the improvements in the architecture and therefore the performance per MHz, an overclock of up to 4.4 GHz has been applied in the four processors to eliminate the variable of the operating frequency difference.

After equalizing the operating frequencies of the four processors we see how the performance differences are reduced, being the maximum of 32% when before it was 43%.

conclusion

As a Core i7 2600K Sandy Bridge processor from 2011 has been demonstrated, it is still perfectly valid to move current video games along with a GeForce GTX Titan X, one of the most powerful graphics cards on the market if not the most. In case of using a lower graphics card, the differences will be even smaller, so before updating the processor you should consider changing the graphics card, it will give you a greater performance jump in most video games than if you update the processor while maintaining the card graph.

Note: Video and data taken from DigitalFoundry.