Intel Core i3-4170 vs Intel Core i7-4790K

Compare Intel 4th Generation Core i3 2 core CPU vs Intel 4th Generation Core i7 4 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

CPU Comparison

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Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 41.60
$ 241.52 significantly less expensive
$ 283.12

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

1489 points
3124 points
109% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

2858 points
5019 points
75% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

1121 points
2564 points
128% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

1076 points
2462 points
128% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i3-4170 and the Core i7-4790K? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

27.13 points
73.53 points
170% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

2036 points
4415 points
116% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1049 points
1357 points
29% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

2163 points
4402 points
103% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1119 points
1403 points
25% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

2
4
100% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

4
8
100% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.7 GHz
4 GHz
8% slightly higher clock speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

54 W
62% significantly lower TDP
88 W

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

16
Identical
16

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

2
Identical
2

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

32 GiB
Identical
32 GiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

811th of 1,089
520th of 1,089

Family

The product line

4th Generation Core i3
4th Generation Core i7

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2015 February
2014 May

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR3-1333
DDR3-1333

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

Yes
No

Core i3-4170 vs Core i7-4790K benchmarks

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i7-4790K performs better than the Core i3-4170. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i3-4170 in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i7-4790K has significantly more cores than the Core i3-4170. Indeed, the Core i7-4790K has 4 cores compared to 2 cores found in the Core i3-4170. It also has more threads than the Core i3-4170. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i7-4790K has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i3-4170. A Core i3-4170 CPU outputs less heat than a Core i7-4790K CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

Modern CPUs generally have more logical cores than physical cores, this means that each core is split into multiple virtual cores, improving efficiency for parallel workloads. Indeed, the Core i3-4170 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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