Conclusion
Surrounded by much fanfare and announced earlier this month, two Haswell-based Devil's Canyon processors were meant to whet the appetites of enthusiasts who build their own systems.
But after looking at the Core i7-4790K version and now at the cheaper Core i5-4690K, enhanced overclocking potential, which is supposed to be their defining feature, is conspicuous by its absence. An all-core 4.4GHz is small potatoes when temperatures are kept in check by a reasonable liquid cooler, so we can only hope that retail examples buck this alarming trend and manage closer to 5GHz.
Whereas the Core i7 Devil's Canyon chip increases frequencies by a healthy margin over the 4770K it replaces - 4.4GHz vs. 4.0GHz - the same cannot be said for the Core i5, which improves upon its predecessor by a scant 100MHz.
If it sounds as if we're disappointed with our chip, then yes we are. A year after the original Haswell processors has resulted in a 'new' chip that is barely any faster. Sure, it makes sense for users upgrading to a brand-new platform, but we can only hope retail examples have better frequency headroom than ours.
To that end, we've spoken to system integrators this week and learned that their Devil's Canyon chips are running at 4.8GHz without issue, intimating better potential than ours. Now, a near-5GHz Core i5-4690K would make us sit up and take notice.
Bottom line: the second-rung Devil's Canyon is, at best, a minor improvement over the processor it will effectively replace in Intel's enthusiast line-up.
The Good
No price premium over Core i5-4670(K)
A minor improvement over a class-leading chip
The Bad
Our sample is a poor overclocker
Doesn't respond to higher voltages
HEXUS.where2buy
The Intel Core i5-4690K is available to purchase from Scan.co.uk.
HEXUS.right2reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
