i7 920 to Ivy Bridge or wait for next gen?

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jonneymendoza

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 11, 2004
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Hi. i currently have a i7 920 clocked at 3.8ghz and was wondering if i will see any benefits in gaming at 1080p or in the snappiness off windows applications?

i am planning to dump a 680gtx or a 690gtx on my current setup but i am worried that maybe my 920 is too slow and wont utilise the full power of the 680/690?

Is it time to upgrade my cpu too or shall i wait for the next gen offerings?
 
What games are you playing that you care about performance in?
 
im running the same CPU at the same clock speed.... just an upgrade to an SSD made a huge difference. its the single biggest performance upgrade i have ever seen. you want to talk about snappiness of windows applications? hows this.... at the end of POST... its 11 seconds to boot to a usable windows desktop. applications instantly open. Adobe photoshop now opens in 2.5 seconds instead of 30. SSD all the way.
 
He has an SSD according to his sig.

I have an i7 860 and I was thinking of going IB, but now I'm pretty sure I will wait until the next generation. The faster IB would be nice for some things but overall I'm not sure it would be worth the cost as I don't think it would impact any of the games I play.
 
Same boat bro.

I am waiting. My upgrade path is to get a single 680 and be happy with it. Remember, the i7 9xx series are the server sized socket, and can handle quad SLI like the breeze - although it would bottleneck anything more than dual 680's. The only reason i could see upgrading is if you want to reduce power consumption.
 
Pwoz said:
I have an i7 860 and I was thinking of going IB, but now I'm pretty sure I will wait until the next generation. The faster IB would be nice for some things but overall I'm not sure it would be worth the cost as I don't think it would impact any of the games I play.
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Same here. I have a very hard time thinking of a reason to upgrade from my i7 860. The CPU isn't really the bottleneck in the games I play, it is still about GPU and storage, and I have those covered with a GTX 680 and SSD.

Not that I'm complaining, it has been over a decade since I've been able to milk the same CPU/mobo for so long. :)
 
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I'm in a similar boat to the OP. I'm running an i7 920 and was considering pulling the trigger and upgrading when ivy bridge came out.

I do a moderate amount of virtualization (routers and PCs) and for gaming I play starcraft 2 while encoding video (streaming) and hope to push up the encoding resolution to 1080p when I get better internet.

I already have a 128gb SSD, and my GTX570 hasn't bottlenecked me so far. I have 12gb of ram so anything but a 2011 would require me to reduce that or buy new ram.

All in all, Ivy bridge just hasn't struck me as what I'm looking for and I'm considering going for either the i7 2770k, socket 2011 (so much ram) or just waiting for haswell. Any advice?
 
I have a i7 920 oc to 4.2ghz.... but I am tempted to upgrade because I would like more SATA ports.... also I would like to utilize SATA 6GB/s speeds. I have a few drives like the Corsair Force GT that is not being used to it's full potential :)
 
I'm wondering the same thing. I wanna see someone do an i7 920 vs i7 3770k clock-for-clock in ArmA 2 OA. :cool:
 
I also have a 920, SSD, 6970... I was planning to upgrade to ivy bridge but I am debating it now....
games all run fine and all other programs run fine.

it makes me kind of sad that I can use a cpu for so long... I want a reason to upgrade but I unfortunately don't have one
 
If you don't notice a need for more performance with the applications that you run then chances are you are fine with your hardware. I upgraded from my i7-930 build because I wanted more performance for competitive bench marking. Lower TDP also interests me for improved power usage and lower temps on my water cooling loop. I also enjoy the added performance in gaming but unless you notice a need for this then I think you are fine with what you have. i7-920 X58 is very capable. I enjoy over clocking and playing and pushing the limits of hardware. I had fun with I7-930/x58 and I'm still having fun with S1155/SB.

If you want or need more performance with improved electrical power usage then it makes sense to upgrade.
 
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saedrin said:
lol no.

I max 6gb playing BF3 and running my typical background apps. And my 920 can run my overclocked 580 flat out, no problem.
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Windows with less RAM is more aggressive about freeing RAM, so I doubt he would run into memory issues even with 4gb RAM. It just tends to leave more things in the memory when you have more of it.
 
Haiku214 said:
I feel the exact same way, even with my older hardware.
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I'm in the same boat here. I want to upgrade, but I can't think of a compelling reason to do so, given how I use my computer. I guess my computer fund will continue to grow a while longer.
 
My system with a 6990 struggles with BF3 in Ultra, but I'm using an eyefinity 5760x1080 resolution.

So basically, yes, you need a better card before you should invest in a better CPU.

Edit: I should also add that it's completely fine at high settings. I also tried out 1920x1080, my system could easily max out everything. So your 920 at 3.8 shouldn't be holding you back.
 
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It seems a lot of people (me included) are sitting this one out and waiting for Haswell. Buying an IB CPU/mobo/RAM is simply not worth it when it comes to gaming, much better off spending that money on a GPU.

I have my i7 920 clocked at 3.8 also, and a 7970 maxes BF3 @ 1920x1080 so if you get a GTX 680 you'll be very happy.
 
I also have a i7 930 @ 4ghz (1.3 v) and I'm 85% sure I'm not upgrading yet. Well maybe new video cards (will run a lot cooler than my 2 6950's in the summer), some 4TB 7200 RPM HDD's,etc, but not a new CPU/MB.

The only feature my MB lacks that I really want is SATA-3 support for my OCZ 120GB Max IOPS SSD. I believe it would be much more snappy with that tech. Other than that, just don't feel it's needed at this time.

I'm hoping Haswell brings 6-8 cores, high OC's, and some great temperatures.
 
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I am in the same boat as the OP with an i7 950 and a 6970. I agree with other posts that have said buy an SSD but I see his sig says he has one already. That upgrade alone was THE best upgrade I have ever made. Having said that and read the entire thread you could always buy ram now as its SOOOO cheap and just use it in your next build. I have 12gb and when playing BF3 and background stuff I hit 6gb usage easy. The only thing I wish I had was SATA III as that would be nice.

I have no hands on with Ivy obviously but I do with Sandy and Sandy-E, both of which I have done many customer builds with. Sandy is fast but Sandy-E in my experience is the jump that makes it worth that much money outlaid. I spent a week with a 3970k and an AsRock Extreme 7 board combo. I can't stress enough how much it crushed my 950 and the 2500k/Z68 setup I had in house. Save up. Wait and go Sandy-E or wait for Haswell.
 
jonneymendoza said:
i already have a ssd and 6gb ram


BF3. i can only get like 30fps at 1080p res with everything in ultra and in batman arkham city, same thing.


do i just need a 680gtx and be done with it?
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YES. I have an i5-750 @3.8 and just purchased a 680.

After you get the 680 installed, you won't be worried about your CPU anymore. The 680 is a beast and will not be bottle-necked by your setup. Get a 680 and save until the next generation comes about. You won't regret it.
 
I have i7 920 @ 3.8Ghz paired with 680GTX and it's running everything nicely, Arma 2, Crysis 2, BF3, hell even original Crysis, so you'll be fine with the single card. I don't know about SLI though.
 
GibsonEX said:
I have i7 920 @ 3.8Ghz paired with 680GTX and it's running everything nicely, Arma 2, Crysis 2, BF3, hell even original Crysis, so you'll be fine with the single card. I don't know about SLI though.
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What FPS do u get when playing Arma 2?

yea im looking to get a 680gtx and that will sort me out untill the next new gen intel cpu comes out.

Thanks all. glad i forked out on a 920 i7 to begin with. what fucking beast it is till this day!
 
jonneymendoza said:
Thanks all. glad i forked out on a 920 i7 to begin with. what fucking beast it is till this day!
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No kidding. I bought it on release and it's probably the longest-used piece of high-end hardware in my main rigs over the years.
 
MavericK96 said:
No kidding. I bought it on release and it's probably the longest-used piece of high-end hardware in my main rigs over the years.
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+1
Although I didn't get one straight away but got a D0 stepping one when they came out.
 
Another i7-860 (@ 3.8) owner here checking in who is also holding on to his old build. The only recommended upgrade I haven't made is to install a SSD. The reason I held off on that is because I thought I'd be doing a SATA III build by this time.
 
Another i7-920 @ 3.4 and its the CO stepping but can't seem to get this chip to OC to even higher. So should I just hold on to this chip or upgrade?
 
mickeykool said:
Another i7-920 @ 3.4 and its the CO stepping but can't seem to get this chip to OC to even higher. So should I just hold on to this chip or upgrade?
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Does it do what you need it to do? If so, then there's NO NEED to upgrade.

Do you want new gear? If so, then there IS A NEED to upgrade! :)
 
Got a i7-860 but the upgrade-ich is killing me.
No need really, but I have to say the control software for the new Asus boards looks amazing. It feels like they are pretty far ahead of everyone else at this point.
 
I was actually going to make this exact thread. I have an i7 920 and have been waiting for Ivy Bridge to upgrade, but doesn't seem like there's a big reason to. I guess SATA 6GB support would be nice for my M4 SSD, but otherwise I can't really see any :\
 
I just did upgrade from i7-875k to i7-3820. Its noticeable, but not significant.

Nice to have extra ram [16gb -> 64gb], native SATA III for my Crucial M4.

Playing with a 32GB RAM drive... since I can.

And really, just got the itch and went for it. Sold my old gear and payed for 75% of the cost.
 
wow lots of 920 owners up in this thread that have been waiting to upgrade hahah... me included

@OP, judging from what you've said so far, you'll get by far the biggest performance boost with a better video card if your rig is currently struggling with those games

perhaps even try a free boost by overclocking more?


i currently have a 920 @ 4.2ghz 1.35v and the upgrade bug has bitten me even though i dont necessarily need to upgrade...i want to! the longer you wait though, the cheaper new stuff will be but at the same time, the less your current rig is worth for resale. just something to think about when upgrading...

good luck!
 
mickeykool said:
Another i7-920 @ 3.4 and its the CO stepping but can't seem to get this chip to OC to even higher. So should I just hold on to this chip or upgrade?
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damn this is a pretty low overclock...whats limiting u? temps? voltage? or just a crappy chip?
 
I'm in the same boat, though my cpu is I7-975. I imagine it's probably not worth it for me, either, right? Would I be better off investing in another GTX 680? Or I could wait for Nvidia's supposed true successor to GTX 580 at end of this year. ;) I wish I could overclock my cpu beyond 4.0. It seems that anytime that I do that, my pc won't boot or ends up crashing soon after I get onto desktop. Grrrr.....
 
Seems like a waste of money. When I see reviewers using that 4 year old CPU in GTX 680 reviews I have confidence they know what they are doing and would not bottle neck it's performance. I upgraded a much slower e8400 at same 3.8 ghz and noticed little differences.
 
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