Power Consumption, Perf per Dollar, Closing Thoughts
Power Consumption Testing
Our power testing was done with the discrete graphics card installed with the system running at idle (obviously). Cinebench 11 was used to obtain our CPU load values, but all measurements are for the full system.
I find it somewhat interesting that the idle power consumption was a bit higher with the Core i7-4790K. It isn't enough to be worried about, but I imagine this is something that will be tweaked in the UEFI of this motherboard in the near future. Load power consumption is a bit different, as the Core i7-4790K pulls 28.5 watts more power than the Core i7-4770K. That extra power comes with another 500 MHz of clock speed and 7-14% additional performance though, and I think all enthusiasts would gladly make that trade.
It does put the quad-core Core i7-4790K damned close the load power draw of the Core i7-4960X, a 6-core part with a quad-channel memory controller.
Performance per Dollar
One thing we wanted to take into consideration with this review is the idea of performance per dollar. To get some interesting data I selected three benchmarks (7zip, Cinebench 11 and x264 v5.0) and included current pricing from Newegg.com (or Amazon if out of stock on Newegg).
The projected MSRP of the Core i7-4790K is $339, matching the price of the Core i7-4770K, an interesting move I'll discuss in the conclusion. I have doubts on to the availability of that part at that price. If it sticks, anyone considering a 4770K would obviously see better performance with a 4790K.
The results for the new Intel processor are great, but not unexpected. With performance that is clearly faster than the Core i7-4770K at the same price point, the value of Devil's Canyon cannot be argued.
Pricing and Closing Thoughts
Based on the preorder options at Amazon.com, the new Core i7-4790K will be shipping as soon as June 20th. Amazon's price of $379 $339 is $40 over the MSRP but Newegg and MicroCenter have it at MSRP or less! I am honestly confused by Intel's decision to price this part exactly in line with the Core i7-4770K, but I am not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, as the saying goes. If Intel is trying to "do the community a solid" with this move then I am excited for the gesture and excited for all the enthusiasts that are able to pick one up.
Performance of the Core i7-4790K is impressive, even if you choose to not overclock at all. The 500 MHz clock speed increase (at both base and Turbo speeds) when compared to the Core i7-4790K makes the choice between the two parts pretty much a no-brainer. Benchmarks clearly showed the advantage of the Devil's Canyon CPU and it range from 7-15% depending on the application and the threaded efficiency of the application. That is a hefty boost in today's world of x86 processors and the fact that we are creeping closer and closer into the Ivy Bridge-E territory is great news. And hopefully means the Haswell-E parts are right around the corner.
Overclocking results for my part were a bit disappointing, even if the temperature results I saw proved that the new thermal interface and added capacitors were doing their job. Hopefully as we see more samples make their way into the community we'll get a better sense of how much these changes actually mean to the average overclock. I wouldn't expect a world changer though and users hoping that skull logo would mean you could just hit the 50x multiplier button and go should slow down a bit.
Even with that, the Core i7-4790K is an exciting processor. It's not "budget" by most people's standards but getting this kind of performance with a $339 CPU helps everyone and Intel's good will gesture to the community at least indicates that the lack of competition on the high-end of the market isn't totally damning us all.
If you were planning a new build in line with the Z97 platform shift, the Core i7-4790K is the perfect processor to pair with it. You'll get one of the fastest consumer processors you can buy and you won't have to shell out $1000 for it. Overclocking, as always, will vary from user to user and if that is the crucial factor in your purchase, you'll likely want to wait and see what lots of other users have to say first. For me though, the Core i7-4790K fits perfectly in a high end gaming rig without tweaking a thing.
Always get to get 2 different
Always get to get 2 different chips from 2 different countries. Send the 1 back the doesn’t OC as good. I expect an easy 5ghz on all 4 cores full time oc turbo disabled.
If broadwell’s version of devils canyon can hit a good 5.4ghz or so I may even give up on x99 and build a badazz mini itx gaming rig in the ncase m1 with a 45mm double thick 120mm rad in push pull for the cpu and a 45mm double thick 120mm radiator in push pull for the GPU (Preferable the GTX 880 or 980 maxwell flagship) or maybe just a triple slot version since the ncase m1 can handle triple slot gpu’s even tho it’s a mini itx case. And with maxwell being so incredible power efficient a triple slot gpu in that architecture would have the fans running so slow from that massive of a heatsink it would be so quiet. Like tripling the amount of heat the gpu can dissipate with what it needs to dissipate =’s very low rpm quiet gpu fansn
Stock speeds really dont
Stock speeds really dont matter much in a K part because 100% of the time it will be OCed or else it would not be a K part. If Intel wanted to push performance to average person they could have made 4790 non K @ 4GHz also. The way i see it these K CPUs are getting less and less impressive. 4.7GHz OC even if not a amazing one still shows how far this CPU can go. 200-300Mhz more will not make it a amazing overclocker unless 90% of the CPUs can achieve it. Feels like Intel is killing overclocking with this CPU. I mean a 300MHz OC, why even bother. Why spend money in high end MB, cooling for this CPU.
It’s about time they
It’s about time they addressed the die to heat spreader issue post sandy bridge is this Tim better than soldered ? Energy efficiency are always good, but that better be a bad binned part compared to average were looking for a cool <>5ghz, and the fact there’s been transistor count or logic improvement on the cpu side excluding energy efficiency and igpu for so long, makes one worry they lost the skill to advance it, and they’re for core count increase to resolve the power advancement issue for them, Moore law since sandy bridge has been skewed.
Devils canyon: It’s about
Devils canyon: It’s about time they addressed the die to heat spreader issue post sandy bridge is this Tim better than soldered ? Energy efficiency is always good, but that better be a bad binned part compared to the average, were looking for a cool <>5ghz, and the fact there’s been no transistor count or logic improvement on the cpu side excluding energy efficiency and igpu for so long, makes one worry theyve lost the skill to advance the xx design, and they’re waiting for core count increase to resolve the power advancement issue for them or the need to enhance the design, Moores law since sandy bridge has been slooowwed. And the use of the stream units in the igpu is dependant on people coding for it ? Whereas plain increases in x86 could from logic enhancement that is largely static at the moment. Corrected version
Thanks for the review, I have
Thanks for the review, I have mine on order from micro center.
where’s the gaming benchmark
where’s the gaming benchmark we love to see?
“Performance of the Core
“Performance of the Core i7-4790K is impressive, even if you choose to not overclock at all. The 500 MHz clock speed increase (at both base and Turbo speeds) when compared to the Core i7-4790K makes the choice between the two parts pretty much a no-brainer. ”
I think you meant “when compared to the Core i7-4770K”.
I think the proper comparison
I think the proper comparison should be the 4790 (non-K). For an extra $38 (list) you get a guaranteed 400 MHz boost (that’s almost linear scaling!) and the unlocked multi on top.
Best value in a long time, IMHO.
If you still have the
If you still have the engineering sample, do you know if the lid is soldered on or not? I want to know if this can be de-lidded asap.
A big Thank You for including
A big Thank You for including a 2600k in your review. Mine is still in service and it looks like it’ll stay at least until Skylake. It’s tough to find comparisons between old and new so it’s great you included it.
Any take on why only Core #1 got really hot during overclocking?
ok..maybe someone could help
ok..maybe someone could help me out understanding something.
currently running 2 pcs ..1 gaming with an i5 3570k and gtx 780 and 1 streaming box for twitch with an i7 970. I want to give my 1 i7970 system to a friend who is disabled and loves to game but his system is dying. I want to re-purpose my i53570k for an Htpc.
Looking to build a system that i can play Swtor, ESO, BF4 and be able to Twitch Stream at 720p 60fps smoothly or 900p at 45 fps using Fast settings.(no worries on upload speeds..i have that covered at 15mb up)
looking at the Haswell 4790k x264 second pass it does VERY well against the 4960x 6 core. I was denating on going Haswell e 6 core at release but maybe i wont have to..
would the 4790k do what i want and give me good in game performance with my gtx780 + 27″ 2560 x 1440 monitor) AND stream to twitch at 720p 60 fps or 900p 45 fps at fast encoding settings? (i use xsplit and obs..havent really settled on 1 yet)
well one thing, the reason
well one thing, the reason why you where limited on the overclock is that you used asus motherboard, I’ve never had any asus board compete with a msi gaming or a power version of any of their motherboards, and that isn’t using the auto overclock, try better componets when trying to overclock
I have just purchased this
I have just purchased this CPU and currently shopping around for an aftermarket cooler (as Intel’s HSFs are crap). I’ve run across a few forums where bad CPU thermal throttling occurs, including this one with nice details on testing procedures:
https://communities.intel.com/thread/54032?start=45&tstart=0
Ryan, have you heard about this? Thanks.