Hardware Intel Core i7-4790K (Devil's Canyon) Review

Last paragraph of the review has this to say:
"Overall then, it's a solid if not spectacular entrance for the Core i7-4790K, although we'll have our eyes firmly on the Internet to see how the general masses fare with retail samples when it comes to overclocking. We'll be back soon with a review of the multiplier-unlocked Pentium, as well as the Core i5-4690K as soon as our sample arrives."

Looks like they're on the case

As you also asked, be interesting to see how the i5 and i7 stack up, both out of my budget just now.

 

A good review of the 4790K.

Will be interesting to read the review of the 4690K. My budget is not exceptional, so I'm hoping that cpu will deliver a fair upgrade over my 2500K.

 

Unfortunate that you have only an ES to work with, other ES's appear to be the same as your's or worse - I would like to see results from people with retail units to test.

It's not essential, but I am tempted to buy one as my next upgrade will likely require DDR4 RAM, new mobo, new cooling block to go with the Broadwell CPU.

Like someone else said earlier in this thread - the reality is that we will upgrade our GPU's 3-5times before we need to upgrade CPU's again.

 

Smart thing to do, if you need a new CPU, is get a non K 4790, then move up to a Broadwell K overclocker next year, as I find it hard to believe that a 14nm die shrink won't be finally able to do 5Ghz on air.

 

Considering that in gaming the 4690K is only just off the 4790K at stock speeds and that I can hardly believe that 200Mhz makes THAT much difference, I am thinking of getting the non-K 4590 for £140. But final decisions will be made when higher end Maxwell GPUs turn up... But that's another story.

 

Sooooo bottomline is, if my 4670K that I just bought 2 weeks ago can be auto-clock to 4.2ghz with ASUS Z97 auto-tuning, I shouldn't worry about this article at all?

 

No processor stays competitive for that long, and you will need 4 or 5 new graphics cards over such a length of time.

 

Depends what hes doing for just gaming you can still get away with a i7920.

 

I was looking to replace my old i7 920 this year... this is looking like a good buy for me. My 920 has been running at ~4.2GHz for a good few years now and is probably in need of a rest and rehome.

 

Classic Star*Dagger

 

Lower temps are good! Fingers crossed for the same on the upcoming socket 2011 refresh as is what I have my eye on for upgrade path. I want my 8 core!

 

Originally, Broadwell should have been coming out about now, iirc. Since it got pushed back while issues were sorted out with the 14nm process, the big OEMs started putting pressure on Intel to put out something new so they'd have a reason to push new product.

At least, that's rumored to be part of it. Obviously there aren't any big OEMs that are going to much care if Intel releases refreshes of the K-series. This might help Intel, too - most everybody that was going to go Haswell did. They might squeak out a few more sales from Core 2 and first-gen Core i holdouts that just can't wait until Broadwell drops.

(Wild speculation time: it didn't take all Intel's engineers to sort out Broadwell's problems, so Intel put a handful on working out this Haswell refresh to keep the Dells and HPs of the world happy. They were able to get a bit more out of the K-series with minimal cost, so they're shoving them out the door at almost no risk).

 

Since all CPU generations lately have been clocked at 3.4-3.6 GHz (flagship model), this 4 GHz SKU makes quite a bump in performance over what was available so far. When you think about it, IPC improvements have been 5-10% the last few generations, so why would they push performance so much on the current generation, when the next one is coming in 6 months? Won't this 4790K be very close to the Broadwell flagship? Or do they have a big bump in IPC and/or frequency in store for Broadwell? Being a "tick", I have my doubts on the former, and with the 14nm process proving problematic, it makes you wonder if they'll be able to reach 4 GHz.

 

Im happy with my 3570k, so i will wait for ddr4 chips and mobos
....Anyways great review, and great cpu

 

No game is utilising that amount of power. And except couple of games, the majority doesn't use more than 2 cores. Let alone 4.

Same goes with RAM. Handful of games do support 64bit and more than 3.3GB

As for GPU, my GTX780 @1293 it will keep me going until I switch to 4K late next year. Maybe grab a second one if I go to 2560x1440.

 

To give the OEM's something new to market and to milk enthusiasts who must have the latest and greatest.

 

You just know there are going to be dozens of idiots who will upgrade from an i5-4670K to an i5-4690K and likewise with the i&'s just because they can.

 

We should be greatful they can otherwise companys like Intel and AMD would surely of already given up on the enthusaist market. Leaving us to buy prebuilds ( shudder )

 

Seems like even for me on a Core2 system that waiting for Broadwell and ddr4 is the thing to do. Now that we have the next wave of consoles out, games are beginning to become a challenge to run again. Upgrading the gpu wont be good enough any longer for me.

 

The GTX 680 review is actually linking to the GTX 590 review.