My question with this discussion was not to compare or weigh purchase decisions; just to weigh processors on performance, not on performance/upgrade cost.
CPU/Mobo Comparing CPUs across generations
- Thread starter calvin1719
- Start date
Well duh. Keep harping on about that if you want to.
rsaeon
Patron
Total platform cost vs reliability and warranty.
Passmark works fine for comparative benchmarks. It's what I've always used to compare raw processing power between generations and also between Intel and AMD. Lately, it's not been as robust because they switched over from v9 and there's not as much data for v10 of their benchmark. This is a temporary issue as more samples are collected over time. But they recognize this as an issue and include v9 scores on the individual processor pages.
Anandtech's CPU Bench stands out if you want to compare specific workloads. For example, the comparison between a 4790k and 7700k shows noticeable differences in video encoding even though they differ by just 100MHz in their turbo boost frequencies: https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2462?vs=2255
The Passmark score difference is about 10% but the encoding performance is 20% faster on the 7700k.
You should keep in mind that no 4th generation processor is left in warranty. Intel won't replace it. The motherboards are aging, with capacitors failing and vrms dying. I have a murderous Z87 board that killed a 4790k. However, 3.5k for a high end motherboard and 7.5k for the processor was cheaper than anything new. It didn't last but if it did, it would've been a good deal. Old hardware is not always bad news, three other Z97 boards work without issues. But I'm painfully aware that they may fail at any time.
Ram pricing is pretty much on par with used DDR3 vs new DDR4. And most of the branded stuff has lifetime warranty.
But system performance suffers with DDR3. LTT did a video a couple of years ago, about a strange 6th gen motherboard that had DDR3 slots. I've seen that board for sale here in India. Their video showed that performance was noticeably slower than a DDR4 motherboard with the same processor.
It's tempting to buy used high end DDR3 motherboards for the cost of a brand new H310/A320 motherboard because of the featureset, but anything you buy today is well past it's expected life cycle and it's just not worth the potential risk and danger to your wallet should something go wrong.