Switching from i5-4590 to i7-4790 worth it?

[jeffersondrobinson@gmail.com]

Hi. I'm running windows 10 on a dell optiplex 3020 with i5-4590 (3.3gHz) and 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD. I gotten to the point in my DAW where I'm expericiencing alot of drop outs particularly from stereo synth instruments. My processor is running at 70-100% constantly when I'm using the DAW. So my question is, would it be worth it to upgrade to the i7-4790 (3.6gHz)? Or is there a better option with more processing power that I should be looking into that also has the H81 pin set? TIA

[merlyn]

Given that socket 1150 CPUs are discontinued you'll have to get one secondhand. Shouldn't be too expensive, so get the best CPU that fits the socket. This is an i7 4790K. The 'K' does make a difference -- 4GHz base clock, 4.4GHz boost clock.

[resistorman]

Also, if you aren’t already, you should be using SSD drives. And memory is still dirt cheap so you should load up.

[jeffersondrobinson@gmail.com]

Given that socket 1150 CPUs are discontinued you'll have to get one secondhand. Shouldn't be too expensive, so get the best CPU that fits the socket. This is an i7 4790K. The 'K' does make a difference -- 4GHz base clock, 4.4GHz boost clock.

Ok I'm a bit out of my comfort zone on this subject so please forgive my ignorance. Is the 1150 socket the same as h81? Or, if I get a i7-4790k, should I be searching for 1150 socket specifically? For some reason I thought the cpu socket on my motherboard was called h81. Thanks for your reply!

[merlyn]

H81 is the chipset and socket 1150 is the socket the CPU goes in. According to this post on the Dell forum it does work :

https://www.dell.com/community/Optiplex ... -p/6180089

You may need to update your BIOS though.

[Martin Beech]

On paper the performance boost is miniscule - about 4% overall. Most improvement comes from doubling of threads from 4 to 8, but a lot of DAW audio processing is single threaded anyway, as it needs to happen in sequence.

There may be other bottlenecks in your system which you have more options for, but CPU upgrade unlikely to be a fix.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/I ... 2293vs2604

[ef37a]

NOT that 'i' know FA, just bits I have picked up over the years, mainly here!

I have run up to 22 tracks of Cubase ESS 6 on an i3 4core HP without bother and I would have thought that i5 was easily capable of running quite a load?
I can run the demo tracks that come with Samplitude Pro X3, over 20 and quite a few pluggins.

Have you run a latency checker to see if anything else is grabbing CPU grunt?
What is the DAW? I recall Cubase tend to throw its toys out of the pram a bit unless it is given sole access to the processor.

And of course, not all AIs/sound cards are equally as slick?

Dave.

[merlyn]

On paper the performance boost is miniscule - about 4% overall. Most improvement comes from doubling of threads from 4 to 8, but a lot of DAW audio processing is single threaded anyway, as it needs to happen in sequence.

There may be other bottlenecks in your system which you have more options for, but CPU upgrade unlikely to be a fix.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/I ... 2293vs2604

There's a few things here. First compare the 4590 to a 4790K

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/I ... 2384vs2604

This is a 13% boost in 'effective speed', whatever that is.

Second, cpu.userbenchmark is biased towards Intel and the benchmarks are focussed on gaming and single-threaded performance to make Intel come out better.

Third, I don't know what DAW it is that you're suggesting can't make use of extra threads.

[jeffersondrobinson@gmail.com]

SO I made the switch. I also doubled the RAM to 16GB from 8GB. I don't really know how to see if it's technically faster than it was for the processes that I'm using it for, but I personally notice a big difference in my DAW (Presonus Studio One) and my stereo synths are no longer dropping out so I'm pretty happy with it. Studio one's CPU monitoring is reading no higher than 30%, when before it was 70%-100%. I believe Presonus uses single threading on a per track basis - so yes if I was only using 3 or 4 tracks minimum there would probably be no difference, but I usually have dozens of tracks working with multiple heavy load plug-ins.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in for the discussion!

[merlyn]

Thanks for reporting back and confirming that it works.

I don't really know how to see if it's technically faster than it was for the processes that I'm using it for, but I personally notice a big difference in my DAW (Presonus Studio One) and my stereo synths are no longer dropping out so I'm pretty happy with it.

That is the best benchmark -- how it performs in the task you want to use it for. There are a load of benchmarks -- Geekbench, Passmark, Cinebench ... They all give a rough idea of the power of a CPU, but the best test is to try it with the software you want to use.

userbenchmark, or userbitchmark as it's known in the trade, has become misleading since AMD chips started to outperform Intel. The figures are fiddled to make Intel look better.

For anyone finding an old machine is struggling putting in the best processor the motherboard will take will get some more life out of it. CPUs don't hold their value, so the top of the line chip from years ago will be an inexpensive upgrade.