# Worth upgrading fra i5 to i7 for video encoding



## puma99dk| (Feb 1, 2016)

Lately i am starting to do more and more video encoding again using Handbrake to make the mkv files i want on my Plex Media Server, but now a days, I am still thinking about if it would be worth just getting a i7-6700 (non-k) bcs i don't really oc anymore only using X.M.P. on my motherboard.

So my question is still after looking at some review of Skylake i5 and i7 not sure if it would be worth upgrading and choose the i7-6700 (non-k) vs k the price is about $32 / €30 / £22 from a non-k to a k.


----------



## xfia (Feb 1, 2016)

i7 or xeon no overclock is the way to go if you got the money.. and ecc ram. true ecc is not needed but it eliminates another possible source of instability and you can buy cool looking spreaders to put on the kit.


----------



## puma99dk| (Feb 1, 2016)

xfia said:


> i7 or xeon no overclock is the way to go if you got the money.. and ecc ram. true ecc is not needed but it eliminates another possible source of instability and you can buy cool looking spreaders to put on the kit.



Problem with the Skylake series cpu is that Xeon cpu's can't run on the customer chipsets Z, H, Q & B, u need the C232/C235 chipset, and I don't want to change out my Asus Maximus VIII Gene board so it has to be a i7


----------



## arbiter (Feb 1, 2016)

you would be lookin at around 15-20% going to an i7, that is using i5 4690 and i7 4790 for comparison. could be there about. But problem is if you go with non-k part the clocks being atm you are running 4.1-4.2. if you went with k part which would have i7 at around same clocks probably see something like that. non-k i7 6700 is clocked at 3.4ghz so probably won't see very much improvement over what you got now as it stands.

Just theory using older cpu's as a base but price of upgrade for non-k part vs you could probably just bump that i5 up more and get same speed as what you are asking about replacing it with.


Core i5-6600K (3.5GHz, 4C, L3:6M, GT2, 91W, rev.R0)
Core i7-6700 (3.4GHz, 4C, HT, L3:8M, GT2, 65W, rev.R0)
Core i7-6700K (4.0GHz, 4C, HT, L3:8M, GT2, 91W, rev.R0)

that is just going by specs you have listed if that i5 machine in there is one you are refering to.


----------



## puma99dk| (Feb 1, 2016)

arbiter said:


> you would be lookin at around 15-20% going to an i7, that is using i5 4690 and i7 4790 for comparison. could be there about. But problem is if you go with non-k part the clocks being atm you are running 4.1-4.2. if you went with k part which would have i7 at around same clocks probably see something like that. non-k i7 6700 is clocked at 3.4ghz so probably won't see very much improvement over what you got now as it stands.
> 
> Just theory using older cpu's as a base but price of upgrade for non-k part vs you could probably just bump that i5 up more and get same speed as what you are asking about replacing it with.
> 
> ...



u forgetting that the i7-6700k boost up to 4ghz, i see it's common for ppl to forget the cpu's default boost clock some do higher but not lower.


----------



## xfia (Feb 1, 2016)

its more like hyper threading is easy 15% gain in threaded apps and if all 8 threads are at the task at hand it can be closer to 50% depending on the programming


----------



## arbiter (Feb 1, 2016)

puma99dk| said:


> u forgetting that the i7-6700k boost up to 4ghz, i see it's common for ppl to forget the cpu's default boost clock some do higher but not lower.


it boosts up to 4.2ghz, its base is 4.0ghz. http://ark.intel.com/products/88195/Intel-Core-i7-6700K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_20-GHz.



xfia said:


> its more like hyper threading is easy 15% gain in threaded apps and if all 8 threads are at the task at hand it can be closer to 50% depending on the programming


Yea but also gotta take clock differences between 6600k and 6600 non-k as well in to account. with the i5 he has clocked at 4.1-4.2. vs 3.4ghz base clock (up to 4ghz boost) with all 4 loaded probably expect maybe 3.6-3.7. encoding speed probably be pretty close to same as gets now, within a few % probably 5% at most. going to non-k don't think you will see much fast fps to make it worth the $, even K part would be bit of a stretch less you overclock it a bit.


----------



## puma99dk| (Feb 1, 2016)

I was honestly thinking about the non-k me and my fingers but still xD

well from my i5 at 4.1~4.2ghz to a i7-6700 at 4ghz should still give me a boost in encoding bcs there is more threads to work on, and same for i7-6700k but i am still not sure if it's really worth the money.


----------



## vega22 (Feb 1, 2016)

define worth?

i would find it hard to justify it to myself, but maybe saving 10% of the time your machine is encoding is worth it to you?

the extra threads only get more done in some software, in others they can make the cpu do slightly less. ht is not just a case of more from nothing, it is still 4 cores.


----------



## newtekie1 (Feb 1, 2016)

puma99dk| said:


> I was honestly thinking about the non-k me and my fingers but still xD
> 
> well from my i5 at 4.1~4.2ghz to a i7-6700 at 4ghz should still give me a boost in encoding bcs there is more threads to work on, and same for i7-6700k but i am still not sure if it's really worth the money.



The standard 6700 boost differently than the 6700K.  The 6700K boosts to 4.2GHz with 1 core loaded and stays at its base 4.0GHz with 2 or More.  The 6700 boosts to 4.0GHz with 1 core loaded and only 3.7-3.9 with 2 or more.

IMO, It isn't worth it to switch from a i5 to an i7.


----------



## cdawall (Feb 1, 2016)

xfia said:


> its more like hyper threading is easy 15% gain in threaded apps and if all 8 threads are at the task at hand it can be closer to 50% depending on the programming



Do you have an example of an encoding application that shows a 50% gain (or any gain for that matter). Most encoders perform worse with ht enabled.


----------



## xfia (Feb 1, 2016)

cdawall said:


> Do you have an example of an encoding application that shows a 50% gain (or any gain for that matter). Most encoders perform worse with ht enabled.


hmm..  not my area but i have seen plenty of ht tests that are done clock for clock and on toms forum its usually strait to a xeon for encoding..  if what you say is true then i could only imagine that its because when you really get into it or its your actual job you have multiple apps going on multiple monitors.


----------



## newtekie1 (Feb 1, 2016)

cdawall said:


> Do you have an example of an encoding application that shows a 50% gain (or any gain for that matter). Most encoders perform worse with ht enabled.



In the old single threaded encoding days, yes they did perform worse.  But modern encoders do show an improvement with HT.

I was actually curious so I tested it myself on my 4790K.  I encoded a 1080p clip from avi to mkv using the default Handbrake settings.

With HT = 137.6fps
W/out HT = 114.3fps

That is about a 20% gain.  Is that worth it?  IMO, no.  But the OP really needs to decide.


----------



## xfia (Feb 1, 2016)

newtekie1 said:


> In the old single threaded encoding days, yes they did perform worse.  But modern encoders do show an improvement with HT.
> 
> I was actually curious so I tested it myself on my 4790K.  I encoded a 1080p clip from avi to mkv using the default Handbrake settings.
> 
> ...


thanks for taking your time to do that. its always been my opinion that the greatest gain with ht is when you actually need 16gb of ram or more and multiple monitors.


----------



## Slizzo (Feb 1, 2016)

Take a look at Xilisoft video converter. With a .dll swap you can get CUDA working in it again. That will resolve your long encode time issues.


----------



## puma99dk| (Feb 1, 2016)

Slizzo said:


> Take a look at Xilisoft video converter. With a .dll swap you can get CUDA working in it again. That will resolve your long encode time issues.



most GPU encoders i have come across don't give that good output in the end.


----------



## alucasa (Feb 1, 2016)

Suppose it depends. Since I do rendering, I chose i7 over i5. It was no brainer really. i7's HT offers so much benefit over i5. Even real time preview rendering in Blender's viewport window shows noticeable difference with HT.

Encoding would certainly benefit from HT. The big question is where you wish to spend the extra for what I'd call a significant benefit.

For me, it was no brainer. I chose non-K i7-6700 due to lower TDP.


----------



## puma99dk| (Feb 1, 2016)

the TDP doesn't really matter bcs i can always undervolt even that requires testing time too which i don't have a lot of, and the much difference doesn't matter that much bcs i will sell my i5 anyway.


----------



## alucasa (Feb 1, 2016)

The price different of i7 6700 and the K version is 100CAD in Canada, so it mattered to me. And, since my build is Mini-ITX, lower TDP sounds better overall. A big render takes hours up up 10+ hours depending on scene, so I can't afford any instabilities. The last thing I want is an error window on screen after waking up from bed.


----------



## GhostRyder (Feb 1, 2016)

puma99dk| said:


> I was honestly thinking about the non-k me and my fingers but still xD
> 
> well from my i5 at 4.1~4.2ghz to a i7-6700 at 4ghz should still give me a boost in encoding bcs there is more threads to work on, and same for i7-6700k but i am still not sure if it's really worth the money.


 I am going to say no, I do not think you would get enough performance to justify changing the part out.  I know your not big on overclocking but I would still say just overclocking the CPU a bit further to like 4.4-4.5ghz would be more beneficial and cost less than switching out the CPU.  Its not that hard to hit that range.

That's just my opinion.


----------



## arbiter (Feb 1, 2016)

cdawall said:


> Do you have an example of an encoding application that shows a 50% gain (or any gain for that matter). Most encoders perform worse with ht enabled.


if you go to anandtech's website under their bench section at top you can compare cpu's to each other and they use handbrake for 1 of the test's so you can see the that i7 vs i5 that i7 does perform better cause the extra threads make sure cpu is busy rather then small delay of switching tasks.


Slizzo said:


> Take a look at Xilisoft video converter. With a .dll swap you can get CUDA working in it again. That will resolve your long encode time issues.


if wants HQ video then want to stay away from gpu based encoders as output tends to not look that great. Like a game that needs AA bad. I deal with a lot of real time video encoding and tried gpu based encoding and its not very good.


----------



## Leothelesser (Feb 1, 2016)

kitGuru has 6700k gaining 30% (30.7 to 40.5 fps) over 6600k with Handbrake.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/luke-hill/intel-core-i7-6700k-i5-6600k-skylake-cpu-review/5/


----------



## newtekie1 (Feb 1, 2016)

arbiter said:


> if you go to anandtech's website under their bench section at top you can compare cpu's to each other and they use handbrake for 1 of the test's so you can see the that i7 vs i5 that i7 does perform better cause the extra threads make sure cpu is busy rather then small delay of switching tasks.



That isn't a really good way to compare, since they use stock clocks.  So the i5 is almost always clocked lower than the i7.


----------



## cdawall (Feb 2, 2016)

newtekie1 said:


> That isn't a really good way to compare, since they use stock clocks.  So the i5 is almost always clocked lower than the i7.



Not to mention it still isn't a 50% performance gain.


----------



## arbiter (Feb 2, 2016)

newtekie1 said:


> That isn't a really good way to compare, since they use stock clocks.  So the i5 is almost always clocked lower than the i7.





cdawall said:


> Not to mention it still isn't a 50% performance gain.


yea other thing he did say was using an i7 6700 non-k part which clock wise is pretty close to same clocks as i5 6600k base. So add in what 15-20% cause HT, but his i5 he has is clocked at 4.1ghz according to post/system specs.


----------



## xfia (Feb 2, 2016)

cdawall said:


> Not to mention it still isn't a 50% performance gain.


its just some older tests i got that from when there was less evolved programming. ya know there has been plenty of people over 40 in the industry fired for being paid a lot and not really keeping up with new methods.. just like how my mother is a registered nurse and has to take continued education classed so she remains relevant at her work place. 
its a opinion from someone here that gpu accelerated apps are not the way to go here but we know its evolving all the time so they push it and that gpu's are much more powerful than cpu's but also a little stupid when compared.


----------

