Intel i7 4770 vs i7 4790S

[Heisuro]

Hi, question about these two CPUs
Ignoring prices for both, which out of the 4770 (non k) and a 4790S (65W TDP) is more worth keeping? Can't find much information online as everyone compares it to the K versions.

I currently use a 4770, and might be able to acquire a 4790S quite cheaply, and don't know which to hold on to.

I don't plan on overclocking, currently using the Z97M DS3H and a GTX970.
Eventually I will be moving this build into a silverstone FTZ01 (mini ITX case), and in the process will change motherboards too.

I like cool, silent, and energy efficient, but I like the power when it's there too. I render sometimes and photo edit using Lightroom, but not too much. Play the odd games too.

Would the 4790S or 4770 be better for me?

Thanks

[kalniel]

Stick with the 4770 - it's not significantly worse for power draw in the real world (and some sites found it actually better than the 4790s).

[Alvie]

I like cool, silent, and energy efficient, but I like the power when it's there too. I render sometimes and photo edit using Lightroom, but not too much. Play the odd games too.

Would the 4790S or 4770 be better for me?

Thanks

An i7 4770 is a haswell chip that uses 84W, and the i7 4790S is more energy efficient as it used 65W and it is a down clocked version of the haswell refresh of the i7 4770, the i7 4790, which also uses 84W. The 4790S is only clocked 0.3/0.4GHz less that the 4770/4790 so performance difference may not be too big. I would probably say go with what is cheaper seeing as you don't render too much. Also the 4790S is cooler as it uses less power.

[kalniel]

An i7 4770 is a haswell chip that uses 84W, and the i7 4790S is more energy efficient as it used 65W.

That's not true - the benchmarks show the 4790S using as much, if not more, power than the 4770W in the real world.

Also the 4790S is cooler as it uses less power.

See above.

[BlueScream]

As I understand it the difference in power draw is negligible as they idle at similar and when given work to do the 4770 takes less time to do it before returning to idle. So though the 4790s peaks at a lesser draw it stays there longer - meaning sometimes it actually draws more power to complete a given workload over x amount of time.

Is this how others understand it? The s versions seemed a waste of money for most scenarios when I looked into them.

[chrestomanci]

Anandtech did a review of the -S and -T low TDP versions of intel CPUs a few months ago.

Might be worth a read:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8774/i...7-4790s-tested

I think the basic conclusion is that the CPUs are the same as normal, but are configured to throttle themselves sooner than normal CPUs in order to stay within a thermal envelope. So if your are building a small, or passively cooled system, they might be a good idea, but in a normal system with a good cooler, they will put a limit on the maximum performance.

[Alvie]

Can you please send me a link to the benchmarks that say that? I'm not trying to be rude but I want to see exactly what the article/benchmarks say.

[watercooled]

I've looked into this myself multiple times for normal vs S/T version CPUs. In general, actual efficiency tends to be about the same - the lower power cap on an S CPU may force the CPU to use less power, but it also runs more slowly.

Here's another article comparing them: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...70s-4670t.html

[kalniel]

Can you please send me a link to the benchmarks that say that? I'm not trying to be rude but I want to see exactly what the article/benchmarks say.

Linked in the post above yours. The TDP is not a measure of real world power consumption.

[Alvie]

That's interesting, I always thought there was a bigger link between temperature and tdp.

[TheHypfTom]

Unless you're looking to build a small, cool system, I would recommend 4770 since it doesn't throttle itself as soon as the S variant.