Conclusion
Conclusion
Intel’s Devil’s Canyon may be an interim revision to the Haswell architecture but it has been designed specifically for enthusiasts. When the original Haswell processors made their way into the sales channels, there were plenty of complaints of high temperatures and limited overclocking headroom due to thermal throttling. Intel listened to those concerns and has launched a pair of new K-series processors which are supposed to address those concerns. For the most part, that’s exactly what the i7-4970K does.
Out of the box, the i7-4790K is fast. Really, really fast. It can either match or beat an i7-4960X in gaming while only trailing by a hair in many other tasks, though don’t expect it to emerge triumphant in heavily threaded environments where IVB-E tends to shine. There’s also a significant lead against the i7-4770K though that does deteriorate to almost nothing when playing games at higher resolutions. Intel needs to be commended since this has all been accomplished without a massive TDP and power consumption premium.
For many enthusiasts, out-of-box performance doesn’t really matter. If they were looking for a CPU to leave at stock frequencies non-K series processors are available at much lower price points. This means overclocking plays a huge role in these higher end chips’ appeal but despite expectations, the overclocking goal posts haven’t moved by any perceptible amount with Devil’s Canyon. Our sample hit 4.719GHz on all cores on high end air cooling with full 24/7 stability in both 3D and general task-related applications. That’s about 200MHz higher than our quick and dirty i7-4770K overclock during that processor’s launch review but perfectly in line with what most overclockers have achieved with comparable first generation Haswell CPUs.
Intel’s
very public claims of 5GHz on air and 4.6GHz on fanless cooling are ringing hollow for those of us without access to cherry-picked chips or extreme methods of cooling. After speaking to numerous motherboard vendors who have tested dozens of samples, we’re told that less than 5% of retail i7-4790K’s will hit above 4.9GHz on air. We have no doubt some will be able to hit 5GHz with Devil’s Canyon but the vast majority of these processors likely won’t get any better results than their predecessors did.
When faced with the prospect of either jumping on the Haswell bandwagon now, in the twilight months of the architecture’s life or waiting until Broadwell launches sometime in the future, gamers will be faced with a daunting decision. For those who absolutely need to upgrade right now, it’s hard to argue against the potent combination of Devil’s Canyon and a
Z97 motherboard. A system based around those two key components will be able to remain competitive for years to come while still retaining an upgrade path to Broadwell should the opportunity present itself. However, other than slightly better core temperatures, there really isn’t much of a case for upgrading to an i7-4790K from a Haswell-based system. If you have an i7-4770K that’s capable of 4.8GHz or more on air, hang onto it.
This review ended up being an emotional rollercoaster mixed with wonderment alongside a smattering of disappointment. From a value perspective, the i7-4790K is an absolute triumph though. It doesn’t cost a penny more than the lower-performance processor it replaces and yet it still manages to match strides with significantly more expensive Ivy Bridge-E CPUs. Overclocking headroom is still largely based on your chances with the silicon lottery but with the i7-4790K, Intel has launched one hell of a processor.
