Upgrade from i5 4460 to i7 4790
Upgrade from i5 4460 to i7 4790
Consider upgrading your i5 4460 to an i7 4790—definitely worth it for better performance!
Review your motherboard's compatibility guide to determine if a budget Xeon is feasible. The Xeon E3 V3 uses the LGA 1150 connector, while the E3-1280 V3 might offer a more affordable alternative.
I concur, the E3-1271 v3 CPUs are reasonably priced on eBay. Their performance relative to the i3-10100 looks fair given their ~$80 cost. Much more affordable than a refurbished 4790.
This is quite a contrast to what people are seeking for the 4790/4790k price point. I actually followed a similar path, swapping from an i5 4440 (slightly slower than the 4460) to an E3-1280V3. It was a significant upgrade. For $100, it made perfect sense. Moving from a 3.1ghz 4-core 4-thread CPU to a 3.6GHz 4-core 8-thread CPU brought a noticeable boost. Was it truly valuable? Not entirely. The Xeon model had its restrictions. My setup let me boost the multiplier for All Core Turbo across all threads, so under heavy load I could run 4 cores at 4GHz. However, the power limits were fixed—all cores would ramp up to 4.0GHz but then settle back to the base speed of 3.6GHz permanently. On a video editing task, it would briefly hit 4.0 across all threads for about three seconds before dropping back. Overall, it was somewhat worthwhile, though not a game-changer. Personally, I’m still thinking about it. A 4790 without K or K variants is around $300 used—or nearly new. The Xeon was $100 cheaper on eBay. For a third of the cost, it offered roughly 80% of the performance of the 4790k. It’s limited for boosting, but the hardware helped in certain scenarios. I’d likely reconsider again, but I’m using this machine as a server now—it’s not very economical.
A quick note: The i5 4440 has a TDP of 84W, while the Xeon E3-1280 V3 is at 82W. My original cooler couldn’t handle the heat from the Xeon, possibly due to improper installation or poor thermal paste. I resolved it with an extremely powerful cooler (*cough*NH D15S*).
What board do you have? Most 80/90 platforms from major manufacturers support overclocking (the H81-I Asus board in my HTPC multiplier OCs, though the power stages are subpar), so you might want to look into the 4790/70k. The Devils parts perform slightly better with improved thermals and a higher clock speed than the Haswell models, mainly because the IHS design has been updated. Whether unlocked or not, higher clock speeds and enhanced hardware will impact modern games. I swapped my 4670 for a 4770k a while ago, and it's definitely noticeable, particularly with newer titles that rely more on multi-threading.