Though, with DX12 on the horizon and it's ability to utilize multi-core and/or more than 4 core/4 Thread CPU's more effectively over DX11 (hey Windows 10 being free and the adoption rate being astronomical it'll be here sooner than some might think I'm sure) the i7 will benefit you there every day of the week. In-game performance fluctuates between the two CPU's by a meager 2-4 FPS on most the games I play, but the two I play that do manage to utilize the extra threads (FO 4 and GTA V) it does make a noticeable improvement and less stuttering when going into heavily populated areas nonetheless both still pull 59-60 FPS (With Vsync on) but with the i7 the stuttering is practically non-existent. Neither one of them 'RIGHT NOW' is better than the other when you talk purely from a gaming standpoint.Īfter running benchies between the two, at the end of the day you're only going to see the difference on properly optimized software (i.e synthetic benchmarks engineered to utilize the latest hardware).

In games that are programmed for more threads the i7 wins hands down, games that rely on strong, fast single core performance the i7 and i5 are tied (500Mhz faster core versus more IPC). Nonetheless, performance between the two is negligible. My local Fry's Electronics has a deal going on for an i7 4790k and ASUS z97a USB 3.1 motherboard with literally the same features that the z170 has in tote, yet higher quality board versus the one I had and more tried and proven chipset versus the z170a, I returned all the 6600k stuff (RAM/CPU/MOBO/Heatsink since the 6600k doesn't come with one) and paid $8 more for the i7. Just remember, unless you already have a cooler that'll fit the socket 1150/1156 etc you're going to have to factor in that cost to the cost of a k version of a Skylake processor since they don't come with one by default so that up's the actual upfront cost of the i5 6600k by $20+. Speaking as someone who's actually owned an i5 6600k system, DDR4, and a z170 motherboard I can tell you going a few steps back on the generation and going for the i7 4790k might be your best bet.

4th gen vs 6th gen i7