New CPU Advice

[frid]

Hi all -

I've been looking to upgrade my CPU, and so far the most likely candidate is the i7 3770k http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

My question is this: should I stick to the old LGA 1155 and get this cpu or get a new mobo/cpu combo? (the 4770k is looking nice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901)

I want to be prepared for the future and just don't want to jump on to a sinking ship. (a little over dramatic I know)

I have roughly $500 to spend so I might be able to squeeze both in there.


My current rig is:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115073

HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 ST1000DM005/HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&Tpk=samsung f3

MB: ASUS P8Z68-V LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131729

GPU: EVGA 03G-P4-3784-KR GeForce GTX 780 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Dual FTW w/ EVGA ACX Cooler Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231468

RAM:G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-17000CL11D-8GBXL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231421

PSU: CORSAIR CX series CX600 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

Any feedback is much appreciated, thanks.

- frid

 

[RyanCouch]

you have 500 and one gpu, buy a matx 1150 board and the 4770k but if it's just a gaming rig buy a 4760k and a good mobo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132046

stretch your budget 5-10 bucks and buy this and a 4770k for 500

 

[EarthDog]

With that rig, I would wait until at least the haswell refresh releases very shortly. But honestly you can wait until broadwell.

Buy yourself an ssd instead.

 

[frid]

With that rig, I would wait until at least the haswell refresh releases very shortly. But honestly you can wait until broadwell.

Buy yourself an ssd instead.

Oh, I've got one, forgot to put it in the first post.
And it looks like May 10 is the date for the haswell refresh releases, so I will look into that. I doubt I will be able to afford a new mobo to fit the 1150 and a brand new cpu, but I guess I have to wait and see the prices.

And yes, this is primarily a gaming rig. Judging from the gaming specific benchmarks, the i5 4670k seems to perform almost identically to the i7 4770k.

 

[RyanCouch]

Oh, I've got one, forgot to put it in the first post.
And it looks like May 10 is the date for the haswell refresh releases, so I will look into that. I doubt I will be able to afford a new mobo to fit the 1150 and a brand new cpu, but I guess I have to wait and see the prices.

And yes, this is primarily a gaming rig. Judging from the gaming specific benchmarks, the i5 4670k seems to perform almost identically to the i7 4770k.

that's because most games can't use the hyper threading.

 

[frid]

that's because most games can't use the hyper threading.

Do you think they will in the near future?

 

[EarthDog]

I'm sure you can get away with the haswell refresh quad no ht and a new mobo. If you have $500 perhaps both. You don't need but a $140 mobo for them. For sure if you have a microcenter around you.

 

[Lvcoyote]

The best thing you could do for that system is get a SSD, that would give you a more noticeable speed increase than changing any other part you currently have.

 

[RyanCouch]

Do you think they will in the near future?

near as in 2 years yes, near in tech terms no, broadwell will be out before hyper threading is a thing

 

[frid]

The best thing you could do for that system is get a SSD, that would give you a more noticeable speed increase than changing any other part you currently have.

I have an okay SSD (forgot to include in the first post) that gave me significantly better load times, but in terms of fps, not that much. I'm fairly certain my cpu is my bottleneck at this point because my rig absolutely kills single player games, but once it gets to MP, I start to stutter. And honestly, for 300/400 usd, fixing that problem is totally worth it to me. (not to mention I am selling the i5 2500 if I do upgrade the CPU, already have a buyer lined up)

I just feel kind of silly playing some of today's mulitplayer games with my gtx 780 not getting at least 60 fps.

 

[EarthDog]

That cpu is not holding you back though. And besides, overclock it a bit to the max turbo multi for all the cores.

 

[wingman99]

near as in 2 years yes, near in tech terms no, broadwell will be out before hyper threading is a thing

I wont hold my breath the CPU's are so far a head of the GPU and with 4K monitors dragging down the GPU's it's going to be a long time when we need to have HT or more cores.

 

[frid]

That cpu is not holding you back though. And besides, overclock it a bit to the max turbo multi for all the cores.

Regardless of that, I have an old build sitting around that I can't sell without a decent processor, so buying a new one for my main rig is basically zero cost because I can sell the 2500

Also the turbo isn't much, since I got the 2500 not k.

 

[EarthDog]

Well aware of the CPU which is why I worded that post the way I did and saying "max turbo multi" as that is all you can get + a bit of bclk.

NOW that you say you essentially NEED to get rid of it things change quite a bit. That would have been more helpful in the first post, but glad to know now regardless so we can help as best we can.

Truth be told, there is no point to move to Ivybridge from Sandybridge. Either get a 4670K/4770K or wait until broadwell.

 

[Mandrake4565]

If you really feel the cpu is holding you back, pick up a I5 3570k an after market heatsink and call it a day. This way you can overclock the 3570k when you feel you may need it. Reality is in most cases the 4xxx series cpu's aren't going to net you a significant amount of Fps when gaming over the 3570k.

 

[Theocnoob]

If you really feel the cpu is holding you back, pick up a I5 3570k an after market heatsink and call it a day. This way you can overclock the 3570k when you feel you may need it. Reality is in most cases the 4xxx series cpu's aren't going to net you a significant amount of Fps when gaming over the 3570k.

This is good advice. Once you sell the 2500, the 3570K will cost very little.
Get a good aftermarket heatsink so you can overclock.

If you are having issues in multiplayer with performance, it may be your network controller. Have you tried a standalone PCIE Ethernet card? Have you tried your chip on a different motherboard?

A 3570K is maybe 10% (optimistically) higher performance than a 2500K at the same clock speed. It's the overclockability that makes the upgrade a smart decision.

 

[frid]

This is good advice. Once you sell the 2500, the 3570K will cost very little.
Get a good aftermarket heatsink so you can overclock.

If you are having issues in multiplayer with performance, it may be your network controller. Have you tried a standalone PCIE Ethernet card? Have you tried your chip on a different motherboard?

A 3570K is maybe 10% (optimistically) higher performance than a 2500K at the same clock speed. It's the overclockability that makes the upgrade a smart decision.

I have not tried it on another mobo, though I doubt the network card contrivutes to the 30-60 fps loss that much . Also, I was mistaken in saying MP was the sole problem.

Using Battlefield 4 as a benchmark, I've found that the smaller maps/smaller player counts run as well as single player does.

Obviously this doesn't disqualify the net card from being the culprit, but its kind of a moot point if I go 4th gen because that would replace both potential suspects.

I guess a test I could try is to run BF3 and compare the mp performance to see if its a cpu thing or a net thing, since its a little less graphcally intensove than 4

 

[Mandrake4565]

BF4 Cpu performance

 

[frid]

I just tried a low pop server and was getting okay results in some spots, 30 fps in others. (everything on ultra except antialiasing off)

I was monitoring cpu and gpu usage during the game and, at the point I was getting 30 fps (looking out over a ridge onto some heavy polygon areas), my gpu was sitting at 54-70% usage and all four cores were at high 70s-80% usage. Is this correct...? I figure if it was struggling to put out frames those numbers would be closer to 100 for all

 

[wingman99]

Intel Core i7-4770K vs Core i7-2600K Gaming-Performance

It's your software or GPU, people run SLI off i5 2500 with no problems.