Intel Core I7-4790 Review

Intel Core i7-4790 was one of the Haswell refresh products resealed earlier in 2014. However, contrary to popular belief, the refresh didn’t have much to offer especially for gamers. Although many people would be expecting some performance enhancements, they are very minor and wouldn’t make a difference to the normal computer user. In the tests done by experts from various companies it was evident that the Intel Core i7-4790 performance increased by 200Mhz in comparison to the Intel Core i7-4770. If compared to the Intel Core i7-4770K, that would be around 100MHz. So is it really worth to buy or upgrade?

Well, there are a couple of offers here that you need to consider. First of all, getting a product that performs really well and is compatible with the Z97 would be complete genius. In 2014, manufacturers did produce some of the best motherboards and getting a hold at one of them with an Intel Core i7-4790 is just a cheat. With these two and integration of a nice SSD storage, you will be having a very good performing PC. However, this is only a case for the people who have completely outdated PC’s. If you already have an Intel Core i7-4770 then there is no need to upgrade to the Intel Core i7-4790 as there isn’t much to enjoy.

First of all, during the tests all over clocking attempts failed miserably. If you are the kind who is in love with over clocking, then you should be looking at the 4790K model instead. If you are looking to tweak your processor, then the 4790K is still the best choice as the 4790 won’t allow you much. Well, when it comes to energy consumption, the Intel Core i7-4790 is not a hungry beast.

Let’s give credit where due. Anyone not interested in over clocking should not be looking further for a fast quad core processor. This is one of the fastest quad core processors that you will find on the market today. However, if you already have a 4770 there is no need of spending more to upgrade to the 4790. The reason behind this is that the increase in performance as mentioned earlier is not practical at all. I mean 200Mhz or the 100MHz wouldn’t be noticeable in the real world and therefore this makes the upgrade useless for the regular PC user. The good news though is that the SKUs keep the price margin between the Intel Core i7-4790 and the 4770K on check.

To be honest, the only need to upgrade would be due to the new Z97 motherboards introduced last year. You will get better performance with all the new features such as the SATA express, M.2 PCIe SSD and more. If you are looking to create a good gaming rig, the Intel Core i7-4790 is totally recommended. However, for all those people looking for something that they can tweak or over clock, then this isn’t your best bet. For new buyers, this is highly recommended as you won’t find faster non K CPUs in this price range.