Skylake i5 vs. Skylake Xeon for gaming?

JBDelta · Nov 25, 2015

Hey Guys!

Just wondering, Intel's new Skylake CPUs are out, which would be better for gaming, a Skylake i5 (6500-6600) or a Skylake Xeon (1220v5 or above). Definitely a CPU below $250 with the exception of the Haswell Xeon 1231v3, I will be playing games specifically Skyrim (heavily modded), BFBC2, BF3, BF4, and Steam games like WarFace and Dirty Bomb. I will also a lot of recording and editing.

Thanks in advance!

terry4536 · Nov 25, 2015

The Xeon is a more business oriented choice. It is going to limit the gaming choices of motherboards. I would choose the I5 or I7 CPU

JBDelta · Nov 25, 2015

Why is it that the Xeon 1231v3 (a "business" oriented CPU) can get fantastic gaming results vs. the i5 4690k?

dudeman509 · Nov 25, 2015

The Xeon is basically an i7.

"Recording and editing" points you to two things the Xeon would excel at over the i5.

terry4536 · Nov 25, 2015

The CPU is fine in either flavor. That isn't the point. The motherboards for the Xeon are oriented towards business applications. For example , overclocking features would not be necessarily found on a server motherboard.

bystander · Nov 25, 2015

terry4536 :

The Xeon he mentioned supports socket LGA 1151. You can get gaming motherboards that work with it.

iamacow · Nov 25, 2015

Xeon is only if you plan on using ECC RAM and running mission critical work. Most companies buy them for severs, not in desktop computers these days.

You are paying more for a slower cpu and inability to overclock.

Get an Xeon If...

-You NEED ECC Ram
-Want 2 CPUs (dual socket)
-Want more than the normal amount of cores
-Run lots of VMware / Networking

To clarify the Xeon is the same as the i5/i7s just with less things disabled. Usually lower TDP/ CPU clocks for servers (hence locked multiplier). You will benefit way more from a desktop cpu than any Xeon under $1000

spentshells · Nov 25, 2015

Also please note the xeon you have selected, the 1220v5 is in fact a 4 core 4 thread xeon, it won't really be any different than an i5. Check it out, 4 cores 4 threads

http://ark.intel.com/products/52269/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1220-8M-Cache-3_10-GHz

Just go with the i5 at least then you get the integrated graphics as a backup.

JBDelta · Nov 25, 2015

"Xeon is only if you plan on using ECC RAM and running mission critical work. Most companies buy them for severs, not in desktop computers these days.

You are paying more for a slower cpu and inability to overclock.

Get an Xeon If...

-You NEED ECC Ram
-Want 2 CPUs (dual socket)
-Want more than the normal amount of cores
-Run lots of VMware / Networking"

So basically, what LinusTechTips said about the Xeons being good budget options with similar performance to the i7 CPUs is a joke???

iamacow · Nov 25, 2015

I forgot to add that if you want to buy the old Xeons from the X79 2011 socket (not 2011v3). you have get 8 and 10 core cpus for less than $500 on ebay. That will be a boost over a 4core cpu. downside is they run at lower clocks (like 2.5ghz) so you need apps that really use more than 1 thread/core or your games will preform worse.

Interesting enough BF4 is the only game on your list that uses more than 2 cores. So in your case Mhz rules over cores. 4.0ghz will stomp a 2.5ghz in games if only 2 cores are being used. BUT those extra cores can be used for recording video and encoding in real time.

JBDelta · Nov 25, 2015

My CPU options are:

1. Xeon E3-1231v3 (4 cores + 8 threads)
2. i5 6500 (shows almost identical if not better performance with the i5 4690k)
3. i5 4690k
4. i5 4590
5. i5 4460

iamacow · Nov 25, 2015

JBDelta :

Linus is a joke haha. Half the things he says on that youtube channel is wrong. I cracks me up watching him build that server and not knowing two things about ram when he spent 2k on it.

k1114 · Nov 25, 2015

From info so far, the skylake xeons were made not compatible with consumer chipsets. So the i5 build would be a little cheaper on mobo and a little more performance with a slightly higher clock. The k cpu will be best for games with an oc but the performance is already high enough on all the cpus, it may not matter. You'd also spend more on mobo and cooler.

iamacow · Nov 25, 2015

JBDelta :

well you get two different series there. the 6000 is for the 1151 socket and the 4000 is for the 1150 socket. different chipsets and sockets...and ram

JBDelta · Nov 25, 2015

I'm sure at least some of the information he delivers is true.

terry4536 · Nov 25, 2015

Why would you choose a 3.0 GHz server processor (Xeon E3-1220 v5 ) as opposed to a faster I5 processor?
Even the faster model doesn't seem to be a better buy than the I5.

JBDelta · Nov 25, 2015

Yeah, I had to mix up 6000 and 4000 CPUs because the pricing to performance ratio. I am leaning more towards the 1231v3 and the 6500.

photonboy · Nov 26, 2015

XEON CPU's:

If the XEON is similarly priced to an i5, but the i5 is clocked higher then for gaming I'd get the i5.

The higher clock speed is more important for gaming than having hyperthreading.

JBDelta · Nov 26, 2015

But, I am also recording and editing, so, the extra hyperthreading wouldn't pull ahead?

terry4536 · Nov 26, 2015

The I7-6700K ($419) is a 4.0Ghz quad core with 8 threads. If you want the hyper threading, it has the features you want. The Xeon E3-1231V3 ($249) is a 3.4Ghz LGA 1150 socket processor. It is also a quad core processor with 8 threads. And finally the I5-6600k ($270) is also a quad core processor with 4 threads and runs at 3.5 Ghz. So the Xeon E3-1231V3 and I5-6600k are most similar (with the exception of hyper threading). And the difference in price is minimal at $21. I would suggest the I5-660K processor as your best choice

The I7-6700K is an extra $149, but you get a hyper threading and a 4.0 Ghz processor speed. This is the one I would choose if you can afford the extra cost. If I talk my self into a new build, this is probably the processor I will build my new system around.

Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 95W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel® HD Graphics 530
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117559

Intel Xeon E3-1231V3 Haswell 3.4 GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1150 80W BX80646E31231V3 Server Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117316

Intel Core i5-6600K 6M Skylake Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1151 95W BX80662I56600K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117561

RobCrezz · Nov 26, 2015

In the UK the 1230 v5 is about the same price as the i7 6700, so seems like Intel got wise to us using the cheaper e3 cpus.

If you dont want to overclock, then go for either regular 6700 or 1230 v5 depending on whichever you can get cheaper.

DonkeyOatie · Nov 26, 2015

I've read through all this and I'm a little confused. Here's my experience.

I replaced my LGA 1150 i5 4590 with a Xeon 1231v3 to handle fluid dynamics and molecular modelling software better, as well as to game. The gamin performance is about the same. I don't notice any difference. The computation is about 45% faster with the extra hyperthreads.

Today, in the USA, looking only at CPUs.

Xeon 1231v3 $228
i5 6500 $185
i5 6600 $205

i5 6600K $255
i7 6700K $420

For gaming only the i5 6500 wins price-performance and the infrastructure, motherboard and RAM, is only a little more.
When you throw lots of editing and recording into the mix, the Xeon moves into the lead if you editing software will use enough threads (and most software does)

Overclocking will get you more performance but not more threads unless you go to the i7 6700K and the infrastructure build up too with better motherboards, power supplies and faster memory.

From what you have said, the Xeon is the price/performance choice.

JBDelta · Nov 26, 2015

Okay, well I definitely can't pick i7 6700k because that would just blow my budget 3 times over so I guess that narrows it down to the i5 4460, i5 4590, i5 6500, i5 4690k, and Xeon 1231v3. I might be able to throw in a GTX 970 if I go with the 4460 but benchmarks are showing that the i5 6500 is performing almost identically to the i5 4690k and in some the 6500 even pulls ahead, is this due to the 6500 being part of the new Skylake series? (Because it's 14nm????)

DonkeyOatie · Nov 26, 2015

Skylake is about 10% more efficient than Haswell so you get about 10% more throughput at the same clock speed. The Xeon will game a little less well than Skylake but wil edit and render much better because of the Hyperthreading.

photonboy · Nov 26, 2015

*Hey.. some confusion here:
http://ark.intel.com/products/80910/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1231-v3-8M-Cache-3_40-GHz

1) The number to compare is the TURBO value which is 3.8GHz. Any time the CPU is heavily stressed it will stay at that value, not at 3.4GHz.

2) http://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/11

The XEON is not overclockable (AFAIK) and is slightly slower than the i7-4770K by about 3%. So just use that i7 to compare at stock.

*In the benchmark note the multithread Cinebench test shows the i7-4770K and i5-6600K are similar (the i7-6700K at the top). So the Skylake architecture is doing quite well.

**In 7-zip the hyperthreading helps but at the same time the new Skylake architecture is obviously benefitting Cinebench quite a lot (but not 7-zip), so it's very difficult to determine which processor is "best" overall though I personally would get the i5-6600K.

If confused, know that there is a lot of back and forth so either way you'll end up with a great system, plus it depends how much you can save overall with the Skylake vs Haswell platform.

Summary:
Study the benchmarks, use the i7-4770K at stock for reference in place of XEON.

Optimizing for Skylake can benefit quite a lot vs Haswell. Pros and cons.

Update:
Recent Windows 10 lets Skylake use "Speed Shift" which toggles the CPU cores in and out of low power state faster than previous. I don't know how much it benefits normal desktop usage, though Ryan at PCPER did an experiment that showed scrolling a mobile browser up and down was snappier (cores started in 6ms instead of about 60ms from wake on Haswell).

Skylake i5 vs. Skylake Xeon for gaming?

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