5820 vs 5930

I did quite a bit of reading up on this, thought I would share

The 5930k has a slightly faster turbo boost ( non overclocked.) This does not mean it can overclock higher. I saw mixed results online. To be honest, it's not clear how to assure a 4.5 Ghz OC like you see on some reviews. Maybe Intel will make a 4.5 Ghz current gen Haswell. If you want a better factory OC, get a 4790k - great CPU if you don't need 6 cores.

The 5930k has 40 PCIe lanes, but how much does this benefit performance?

For 2 and 3 way SLI, there's no benefit I could find to 40 lane. This is because 8 PCIe lanes are adequate for current video cards.

There is one case where it might matter. Three way SLI, while using a M2 slot which uses up some PCIe lanes.

Note that 3 way SLI is not very good from a FPS vs cost pespective - you could spend many hundreds to gain 10 to 20 FPS, and would have added heat. I can see the bragging rights appeal of course ;)

For 4 way SLI, now you probably want the 5930. If you can afford 4 way SLI, it seems to make sense to spend the extra $200-300 for the 5930.

So, for most people, the 5820 is a better choice than the 5930. There's not a compelling benefit for most users based on the info. Nice thing about PCs, is tech can be put to the test :)

Feel free to gainsay me with some compelling benchtests I missed :)

Also, is it possible a future video card will benefit from 16 PCIe lanes?

Edited by michaeljhuman - 30 Jan 2015 at 12:37am