Should You Buy The i7 4790 in 2023? - The $40 CPU That Runs Anything

DO NOT use this product as croutons for a salad...

A couple years ago, I upgraded my system to a Dell Optiplex 7020, which seems to be the standard for el cheapo builds. It and a GTX 970 runs pretty much everything I need in spite of their age, and that includes the emulation of systems like the Playstation 2 and GameCube.

Is i7 4790 discontinued?

what would you recommend for better cooling on CPU i7 4790?

Why pair a $40 cpu with a $300 video card though ? doesnt make sense

I had a 4790k and a gtx 980 in my pc back then. It was the first pc i got myself where i decided on the parts myself (before that i bought prebuilts and laptops in stores).

Nowadays i only build myself btw

Running i7 4790k with rtx a2000 in a optiplex. Emulator beast!

I update in 2023 to the 4790K 4ghz and overclocked it to 4.4.
I was running the fastest i5 at the time.
The first one I had worked for 2 day unclocked before it black screened, the replacement has been perfect.
NOTE: You can only overclock CPU’s ending with a “K”
A VERY cheap upgrade at £77 delivered.

4790 non k was my First "good" CPU xP Back in 2014

These Haswell, Ivy Bridges, Broadwell, hell, even Sandy Bridges and Lynnfields at times, I've been buying them for the past years and they make for excellent budget and capable CPUs for cheap rigs. But I'd say nowadays, with the rise of the "chinese" Xeons, these older i7s have become obsolete in my opinion.

Right now I have 2 Haswells and a Lynnfield, use them and find them to be great, but I bought an e5 2650 v4, for cheaper btw, and I have to say, it's simply way superior, just for the fact that comes with m. 2 full support onboard for cheap and the fact that I can have more than 10c/20t makes everything better.
It's hard to beat these Xeons on value honestly.

But I still love these old beasts, specially if you buy to play around, OC etc, they're great.

I have this cpu and its still awsome with asus pro gamer mobo and nvme drive...you dont need to spend 1000s on the latest stuff...its all a con

I7 4790 and 5700 XT aorus
And getting 80 fps on 1080p
Vsync is off
I bought deepcool ak400 for this cpu

Why do i notice screan tearing in every game you played?

Ryzen 3500X is a Zen 2 core based CPU and its 50$ on Aliexpress. It beats everything cheap.

What's the software used for performance overlay here?

the gaming clips where pretty suspicious tbh

I absolutely loved my build. I had 4670k, then switched to 4790k with a Sabertooth Z87 and a Gtx 1070 Ti OC from Zotac. It can still run most of the games but some more recent games will have lot of stuttering, especially free roaming games. I upgraded recently to ryzen 7700 and an Rtx 4070 from Palit. No need to say stuttering is completely gone.

until few months back i was rocking i5 3570 !!

I am still using my 4790K today and it is mainly for music production. But I run mine at 4,8GHZ (ALL CORES No Turbo) with extremely tight memory timings. usually a 4790K will not turbo when all cores are loaded but the way I overclock I have it configured with 4,8Ghz as the standard speed and then it will still run at this speed with all cores fully loaded. I have it Lapped and undervolted to keep the TJ below 80C at all times to run in this speed even then it pulls up to 130+ (I have a Dark rock PRO 3 air cooler) watts but it is a problem with the built in voltage regulator making it impossible to run it at this speed without Intel Extreme Tuning utility and this is a huge problem in itself because I cannot find a windows 10 compatible version that works with my system so I am stuck with win7. But I can guarantee that I have amongst the highest performing 4790K in the world in this config in 2024. Even though it have a tough life running 4 screens and heavy live rendering

man im just upgrading my pc after a very long period using 4790k and let me tell u this proc is a beast and still can eat a lot of new games to this days. long live the king

I owned i7 4970 and 1070

I have one 4770, 4770k and 4790k they all run things just fine. I have a few newer machines but three get used every weekend.

use the modded microcode to unlock the turbo so you can essentially turn this into a 470k

I have about a dozen computers of different ages, and at least three of them are Haswells. Old AF and runs great!! One is in my iMac, one is my CentOS box, and one for the grand kids to play on.

I3 12100f is 10 times better and cost a little bit more on a lga 1700 with ddr4

So I'd remove the 1080/1440p 60 options from the video as this runs at 30 when in motion

What a video, honestly if I didn't look at the sub count, I'd think you have at least 200k. Well done man

I’ve still got mine with a 2060s. It’s fine 👍

i did buy it 4 years back for 160e. still runs everything in my old pc.

Jeebus Crust! That GPU is SAAAGGIIING

I got a 4790k ,it runs pretty hot,got a nzxt RC-TR120-B1 cooler on it.but its a beast combined with a rx590.actually im very surprised that i could play battlefield 2042 without any problems ore stuttering and smooth on ultra settings.rx590 i7-4790k 32ddr3 on a ultra durable 9 series motherboard.

Where is this $40?

wciaż mam z 2013 :) działa elegancko choć trzeba zmieniać paste bo sie grzeje co pare lat

Where it really comes into its own is its ability to overclock like a beast (at least on the K variant)

i have a work pc lenovo with i7-4770s. planning to put a 2060 to play warzone :)

Great to mine Monero

DDR2 is 3 generations old we have been on DDR5 since 2021

I do not recommend that CPU for low builds. Single-thread performance is not good for todays standards. In this price range, you can now get a Ryzen 2600 for about 10$ more. AM4 motherboards should be easy to find cheap, also, used DDR4 ram is available, for cheap too. For the price difference, 4790 has become a bad choice because in 2 years, it wont be able to run a supported Windows version. 4790 was an awesome CPU, but it's dying now.

any cpu which can play emulition games on yuzu is good to have, I am not interested in high end new games....

Currently waiting on the follow up video, unless he did it and I don't know.

I'm running an overclocked 4.5GHz 4770k with 32GB DDR3 overclocked to 2400MHz and an OC 1070Ti GPU. I tested Cyberpunk on Ultra settings and, with quality FSR, still achieved around 60fps, which suits my monitor's 60Hz display. Assetto Corsa with mods in VR on Rift S plays sufficiently and is limited by the GPU if anything.

I plan to upgrade to the Oculus 3, though, and will probably need at least a 4070Ti GPU. Funny thing - because of the high resolution of Oculus 3, the OC 4770k will probably still suffice. If AC2 comes out in the next year or two and requires more CPU cores, I'll upgrade to a new PC—maybe an i7 15th gen with 8P cores. I'll pay an extra £100-200 for more cores but won't have to worry about buying a new PC for years to come.

If it's unnecessary yet, though, why upgrade now? I won't mind spending £1000 on CPU/mobo/RAM when needed (this time it was 10 years), but I find it silly to spend that amount every year or two for a mere 5% increase in FPS (I lock FPS anyway to prevent overheating my equipment—plus, to avoid coil whine, etc).

I run the I7 4790 with a 4070 and it works fine, you can tell that the cpu is lagging in some more heavier games but still kicks ass in a lot of modern games!

I gave my grandniece I think it was an I7 4770 dropped in 16 gb ram and my old rx6600 she loves it for online gaming I may give her my old 5600x build since I have upgraded to the 7800x3d in any case my nephew seemed upset when he found out that the grandniece gets on average 100fps in almost every game she plays only 1440p I am sure there probably is some bottle necking and other slight issues but I have always believed as a gamer for most of my life since the 1970s that FPS does really matter as long as you are enjoying yourself. the system I have right now to be honest I dont think I notice the difference between 60 fps amd 120 fps on my 4k 120hz screen sure if I am testing and looking at the number I see those numbers but really dont notice anything but the numbers.
cooler but also airflwo matters because GPU creates a fair amount of heat and if there is little airflow it heats up fast the Thermalright Peerless Assassin is an cheaper excellent cooler it is can fit on that cpu

running the 4790 non k on a MSI z97 PCMate mobo you can actually oc it to run 4ghz turbo all core. my wife runs this with 32gb @2400mhz and a MSI GTX 1070 seahawk x

Try again with less thermal paste.. my 4790k runs a fair bit hotter if there is more than the minimal amount of paste, it would reach 100c but with the absolute minimum well rubbed in to the heatspreader its 68c

ive been running the i5 4690k for 8 years at 4.2. does just fine for 1080p.

I will always have fond memories of 4790. As a teen i struggled with money like most teens nowadays so i could never afford a good pc. When i got my first job, i saved money for new PC and i7 4790k came out at that time. I bought it brand spanking new and it was like a milestone to me. It felt like owning a spaceship compared to all the PCs i had before it. Glad to see it still kicking.

Running i5-4670k with an rtx1070, yep old but does well enough to not upgrade for now. With a few kids running around i dont game that often anymore 😅

which card will be better pair for xeon e3 1230 v3 { same as i7 4790} rtx 2060super or gtx 1660 super and i only have ddr 1600mhz ram in my pc

I ran a 4790k till my 8086k and now R9 7950x3d