When comparing AMD FX-9590 Black Edition vs Intel i7-6700K, the Slant community recommends Intel i7-6700K for most people. In the question“What are the best CPUs for high-end desktop gaming?” Intel i7-6700K is ranked 3rd while AMD FX-9590 Black Edition is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Intel i7-6700K is:
Being a Skylake 6th generation CPU this chip is able to be used with DDR4 RAM as this is what the new LGA 1151 based motherboards are able to use. DDR4 is available in faster speeds over DDR3 RAM (what was used with previous generation CPUs) meaning an overall speed bump in RAM when using this newer technological chip.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easily overclocked
Being that this chip requires liquid cooling in order to not burn itself into oblivion it is quite easy to overclock the chip in order to get a better performance than the stock speeds. The chip is not locked, meaning it can be overclocked as high as one can get it to go without locking up.
Pro Good speed for the price
Coming in at under $250, this chip performs quite admirably when compared to Intel's offerings. While not quite as good as an i7 4770k, the price for this AMD chip is about $100 lower.
Pro Able to be paired with DDR4 RAM
Being a Skylake 6th generation CPU this chip is able to be used with DDR4 RAM as this is what the new LGA 1151 based motherboards are able to use. DDR4 is available in faster speeds over DDR3 RAM (what was used with previous generation CPUs) meaning an overall speed bump in RAM when using this newer technological chip.
Pro Can allow for extreme gaming solutions
The chip itself allows for 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes (which was not available in such high numbers in the previous generation chips). This translates into how many PCIe devices can be used at the same time and how fast they can communicate, which makes for a scenario where multiple PCIe GPUs can be used at their top transfer speed of 16x for one and 8x for two.
Cons
Con Will need a specific motherboard
This chip needs a motherboard that has a 220w rating, which means there will be few created making them difficult to find and slightly expensive.
Con Uses a lot of power
Due to how much power this chips need to perform there is only a small selection of compatible motherboards. This means that anyone with an older AMD compatible board will not be able to use this chip. It also means there will be less variety in good boards to purchase.
Using a lot of power also has the downside of a higher electric bill if using the PC a lot as well as more opportunity for the chip to wear itself out early (of which there have been quite a few reports of.
Being that this has a high rate of power consumption there is quite a lot of heat produced by this chip. It runs really hot. Running hot is such an issue that it is highly recommended to use this with liquid cooling, which adds to the overall price of using this chip.
Con Does not come with a heatsink
No longer does Intel include a heatsink with their new CPUs, so the user will have to purchase their own. While they are not too expensive, that basically means out of the box this can not be used unless a purchase was made for a heatsink along with this item.
Con Adds another pin to the connection
This processor uses the LGA 1151 CPU socket. For those upgrading from an older generation chip this means the will need to purchase a new motherboard and possibly RAM in order to use this chip. This can be expensive to replace so many components all for a single new pin in the chips connection. While the performance will be better than the last generation, it may not be worth the price of all new gear to see this performance.