Great review. So I'm glad I have what I have now @ 4.5 GHZ. In the future, I would like to see SLI, CFX, surround and 4K gaming scaling review of this system vs a similarly clocked 4790k. I think BF4, BF3, Metro series and Crysis 3 engine games should also be tested since those may actually use more than 4 threads/cores to test scaling. It seems the two games tested were mainly GPU limited @ 1080p but with 4K in the future, that may be where the x99/Haswell-E would shine with more PCI-E lanes and more cores to feed 2-4x gpus.

Thanks a lot Hilbert for another great review as always.. I must admit that i really love reading your in depth reviews of new tech and hardware as soon as they are available to you.. That was one of my main reasons i kept visiting Guru3D and finally joining the forums back in 2008.. Now back on topic..

Now to decide which to get, that 389$ for the 6 core is cheap

Finally Intel is providing us a high end platform with the Core i7-5820K 6 core CPU at a reasonable affordable price.. The 3.0 PCI Express Lanes might be reduced from 40 to 28 but that is still more than enough for me compared to my current Core i7-2700k with only 16 2.0 PCI Express lanes. I won't really need anymore as don't go crazy on multi Gpu setups,i always end up going with the fastest single performing Gpu when i can afford it or else one model below.(No Nvidia Titans BTW) This platform might just be my next Upgrade with the Core i7-5820K as i am not only a gamer and the extra cores/threads will come in handy. I just have one request i would love to see Hilbert. I am pretty sure a lot of users would love to see a more in depth Overclocking session later down the road on the more affordable 6 core chips, with a table of various clock speeds achieved along with voltages used and the one most important thing is max Temps.. Preferably with an AIO water-cooler like the one used in this review the Corsair H105. From what i am seeing a lot of users lately go for AIO closed loop cooler like the H100i.. I was really looking forward this review and i loved it..

Nope, even OCed it wont be close to an i5/i7. The PCIe controller being in the southbridge doesnt help either. A 3rd or 4th card would reap zero benefits on an FX http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-fx-8350-vs-intel-core-i7-3770k-4-8ghz-multi-gpu-gaming-performance/17494.html

This is running the heaven benchmark, still trying to find game benches.. Running an intel would be better, yes, but I know my current system would be just fine till at least skylake comes out. I do want to switch over because DDR4 is what iv been waiting for and amd just cant get off the pot. Which is to bad since iv only used them since 2005. If i just wanted the highest bench scores intel all the way, but as far as gaming. As long as I can keep up with my refresh rate (110hz) im ok with it. With new games coming out and me wanting to go with 3 1440p monitors, i need more. Either watercool this system and get 5.2ghz out of it or go with the haswell e or skylake. Just not sure what i want to "invest" in. lol. http://cdn.overclock.net/b/b6/900x900px-LL-b61d84ef_heaven3333.jpeg http://www.overclock.net/t/1473361/amd-high-performance-project-by-red1776

Star Citizen will.. should push all 6 cores.. and will probably need them once you're in a computational heavy instance, but it will still do well on a quad as well.

You keep saying that, but where is the proof? I saw some benchmarks and the game doesnt need more then a 3-4year old i7 with a very strong gpu.

Yeah, yeah, all you need to do is close your eyes, point and fire, wait for explosion then rinse and repeat, im gonna go get myself an Xeon 12 core just for that.:D

Hah, well hey are we hardware enthusiasts or what? And I think that's a pretty bold oversimplification of what the game will be like but anyway.

You keep saying that, but where is the proof? I saw some benchmarks and the game doesnt need more then a 3-4year old i7 with a very strong gpu.

where do I keep saying that? I think I might have claimed this once before.. Once. So you look at one benchmark and suddenly you are telling me about a game I've followed for the last two years? Okay. The plan all along was for the game to take advantage of the most current hardware, 4core +. Obviously it will play great on a quad core.. but it should play even better on a 6/8 core at times.

Im just saying in general, Cryengine is only a gpu whoe as long as you have at least a i7 cpu. But ok what ever.

thanks, very interesting link you provided. Indeed there's no big boost to be expected. I'll go for the rog monitor instead...and wait to see if the Witcher 3 makes use of more than 4 cores. I was very tempted by the 5820k but I'm not ready to pay that much for ddr4.

I'm guessing it'll make better use of a 780 ti than a 6 core processor, but you've got that taken care of.

As tempted as I am by this, I don't see myself spending all that money especially since I also plan to upgrade my GPUs in the coming months, it's just too much at once lol.

It reads like I'm the only one, but I still see the 5930k as my favorite. Because, I expect it to be cooled "easier", as in quieter with those clocks at 4GHz and above. I am very, very surprised nobody is reviewing that thing with applied oc though... If I get my hands or better: eyes on one of those reviews, it will surely make my choice. But as things look now, I think I will go 2011-3 with the 5930k towards the end of this year, or early 2015, when the next custom geforces are out. And I can't wait! 🙂

This is running the heaven benchmark, still trying to find game benches.. Running an intel would be better, yes, but I know my current system would be just fine till at least skylake comes out. I do want to switch over because DDR4 is what iv been waiting for and amd just cant get off the pot. Which is to bad since iv only used them since 2005. If i just wanted the highest bench scores intel all the way, but as far as gaming. As long as I can keep up with my refresh rate (110hz) im ok with it. With new games coming out and me wanting to go with 3 1440p monitors, i need more. Either watercool this system and get 5.2ghz out of it or go with the haswell e or skylake. Just not sure what i want to "invest" in. lol. http://cdn.overclock.net/b/b6/900x900px-LL-b61d84ef_heaven3333.jpeg http://www.overclock.net/t/1473361/amd-high-performance-project-by-red1776

Heaven isnt affected much by CPU.. Try a real graphics intensive game like crysis. No point in investing in a dead socket. The 5820k being 380 bucks, thats by far the best thing to get atm.

PCIe graphics isn't part of the southbridge and never has been. Only 3rd party controllers are attached to the SB.

Its in the Northbridge then.

Great review, as usual....;) If I'm looking at this correctly, then it means I can buy Intel's fastest cpu & a supporting motherboard and ram so that I can outrun AMD's fastest 8-core Piledriver & mboard and ram by at least 2x, and it will only cost me 10x as much to do that. Now that's a goo--uh, oh--huh? :3eyes:

Gentlemen I need your advice. I'm interested in the i7 5820k to replace my i5 2500k. Since I use my pc for gaming mostly (some photoshop from time to time, and virtualization as well) shouldn't I go for the i7 4790k instead? is there much of a performance leap going from i5 4.5ghz to an i7 4790k? or should i keep my money and go for the Asus ROG monitor (another tempting item I'm contemplating 🙂 )

If indeed *most* of what you do is 3d gaming, then my advice is keep your present cpu and take the savings and invest them in a better gpu(s) & monitor, and possibly even in some more ram if you have $ left over (but if you already have ~16GB, then you won't need any more than that for gaming.) At gaming resolutions above 1920x1200 everything is nearly 100% gpu-bound (ie, performance is dependent on your gpu as opposed to your cpu.) If, otoh, you enjoy amusing yourself by running synthetic cpu benchmarks all day, measuring such titillating factors as zipping and compiling rates, then maybe you'll want the cpu instead...;)

Hi guys. I just want to share with you what my plan is. I want your opinion if it is worth it. First a few words what problem I have right now. I play at 1080p and my processor still good. I can play any game on ultra and sometimes I even add some AA. The problem I have is with Shadow play. When I activate it in BF4 I get stuttering and slowdowns. It feels like my processor is struggling to keep up with the task. I have to use Fraps for recording but I really want to use Shadow play. The other thing is "Movie maker" When i start adding clips it takes forever to process them and combine few of them together. This is my plan. I want to upgrade to i7 5820k with ASUS Z99 plus I want to get SSD also. I really waited for a long time to upgrade and I think this new processor is a good way to go. Do you think it will help with the issues I have now? Thanks in advance for your input.

Will definitely help, a 5820K is twice as fast as that old 920. Get a good sized SSD as well, 256gb~

Just checked again and yeah it looks kinda cheap now Average mobo ~ 220€ http://compare.eu/?cat=mbp4_2011-3&sort=p&xf=4400_1~4400_11#xf_top http://compare.eu/msi-x99s-gaming-7-7885-001r-a1159302.html http://compare.eu/asrock-x99-extreme4-a1148673.html I payed 240€ for mine last year, although X99 Deluxe variant is more €€ a hefty 330€ 5820k ~ 350€ http://compare.eu/intel-core-i7-5820k-bx80648i75820k-a1121100.html Ram is the only issue atm. Most 16gb kits start from 220€, usually 250-300€+ and almost none in stock. http://compare.eu/?cat=ramddr3&xf=2216_DDR4~256_4x&sort=p its just a fckin rippoff for what it offers and that ugly latency. I guess they had to use DDR4 or they wouldn't save any power going from X79 to X99 with same DDR3.

Thank you for your replies. Now I have an idea what to expect. Soon I will open new thread in Intel processor section since I have much more questions to ask but they are not related to this thread. I am sure I will get all the answers.

Yeah, prices are like this at release, especially the DDR4... best to wait a couple of months before diving in.

Hey Mr Alexander longtime! If i remember that 920 you have is a c0, its time to upgrade that now, the d0 is still fine for gaming but the c0 struggles to hit 3.8ghz. I got rid of my c0 in early 2010 as they were just poor clockers but a great introductory cpu to x58 at the time. Get the 5820k and you cannot go wrong, not only that you will get a massive performance boost that will be very very noticeable.

Hey man. You have good memory. I have one of the first ones 920 and yes it is CO. Could not get it pass 3.6 no matter what I tried. You are the one actually who helped me to overclock mine. Not directly but I found your post in one of the threads where you posted your BIOS settings. Still running strong but yeah it is time to upgrade.

The boost you will get going to a 59**k will be insane:rock: On a side note if you are not ready to stop using the x58 platform yet and what to breathe some life into it then get a Xeon 6 core preferably the 5675. These have unlocked Multiplyers, are 6 core and often hit 4.4 on water or 4-4.2 on air. Check out this thread and this thread. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18618052 http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1820772 They go for cheap on ebay either the 5650 5660 5670 or 5675. They are all 6 core and are being removed in there masses from 1366 workstations. Just letting you know incase you want to wait for next architecture after X99.

No. I want to upgrade. I've waited long enough. I've used my rig for five years. That was good.

Think a 5820k will finally be a worthy upgrade from a i7-9xx running at 4Ghz? Single threaded performance is important too to me, for example running PCSX2/Dolphin/single threaded games. Would a 4770k be a better choice instead you think? Though, I would want decent temps at 4.2-4.4Ghz at least without going on water..(Don't want to deal with pump noise maybe?)