Intel I7 920 / Intel I5 2500 k

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white_dove

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
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I wanna ask you if is worth to sell my Intel I7 920 @ 2.67 GHz ,and to get Intel I5 2500-k.
Is there any real difference between those 2 cpu ?
I have also GTX 285 / 3 GB DDR3 / monitor with 1920 x 1200
With an OC ( about 3.4 GHz ) for Intel I7 920, would i gain about 25 % performance ?
 
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There's a difference but it's not enormous by any means. I'd say it depends how much you can get for the 920+mobo, and what you'll be doing. For gaming it's probably not worth it unless you can upgrade very cheaply, but for video encoding or similar tasks it may be worth it. If you haven't already overclocked, you could probably just about match a stock 2500K by doing that (although a 2500K can OC too of course).


Here are some actual benchmarks that directly compares to two.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/15
 
It's not worth it IMO since the performance difference is so small. I bought mine i920 in December 2008 and still haven't see a good reason to upgrade. Talk about investment protection :)).
 
Well the 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processors are out performing the 1st generation processors at the same clock speed in a case like this the performnace difference really isnt enought to make it very worth wild to upgrade form the 1st generation Intel Core i7-960.
 
I've had a 920 since early 2009 and I as well am surprised that nothing has come along to justify an upgrade.
You're probably looking at around a 15%~ increase in performance, which isn't justifiable IMO for buying a new rig.

The new CPUs are coming out in Q2 2012 (April-May), they'll probably be worth the upgrade.
 
Even for those that wouldn't take immense advantage of the performance gains over 1st gen i7, a good reason to upgrade is if/when you can do so at minimal cost between the two, so as to stay ahead of the depreciation curve. Many people were able to get out of their i7 920's and the like and into a new 2500k/2600k at little to no cost over the past 6+ months, and in addition to enjoying performance gains (even if minor), they're better situated to upgrade in the future now as well.
 
WildMonkey said:
I've had a 920 since early 2009 and I as well am surprised that nothing has come along to justify an upgrade.
Click to expand...

Intel doesn't switch mainstream server platforms every year, but every three. Have you been living under a rock? Sandy Bridge-E is coming out in the next two months.
 
I agree with travbrad.

If it is for gaming just stick with your current rig and invest in a efficient cooler and you will be golden.
 
Go into the bios and reset your proc to default speed. See if you notice a difference. I bet you won't, so why spend the money?
 
Keep it. When it starts slowing you down (you'll need at least SLI 580's to get a CPU bottleneck in games), overclock it. Depending on the stepping and cooling, you can get it anywhere between 3.6 ghz and 4.2 ghz or higher. Should be more than enough performance to last you a long while.
 
Ah, I'm faced with the same predicament, atleast trying to get BF3 ready (right now I've got 6 GB and a GTX 480 paired with a 920 on a x58 Gigabyte mobo).

What about a i920 vs a 2600k? I've already got two of the 2.5 GB 570s from EVGA heading my way for SLI. Getting 16 GBs of RAM to boot (I run multiple VMs, I need the extra RAM space anyways). I should mention I'm going to 3d Surround gaming with 3x 1920x1080 LCDs.
 
You're most likely going to be GPU bottlenecked. Overclock it to at least 3.6 ghz and you're probably good to go. If you have a D0 stepping, overclock it to 4 ghz or higher.
 
Okay guys, i'll keep the CPU. Thanks a lot.
I never OC it, but it's very possible to do that, soon. With a good cooler, i think i'll change from default 2.67 GHz to 3,6 Ghz.
But i'm not sure if i would see any difference ( gaming , i mean )
 
white_dove said:
Okay guys, i'll keep the CPU. Thanks a lot.
I never OC it, but it's very possible to do that, soon. With a good cooler, i think i'll change from default 2.67 GHz to 3,6 Ghz.
But i'm not sure if i would see any difference ( gaming , i mean )
Click to expand...

That was what I did. i7 gen 1 is still really fast compared with Sandy Bridge, and it does keep resell value. Other thing is the i5 2500k doesn't have hyper threading with only 4 true cores, so it likes you downgrade from 8 cores to 4 cores.
 
Think of it this way : if you'd OC your 920 to 2500k stock speed it would outperform it in most tasks because of HT.
 
So, i'll keep the Intel I7 for a while :) Thanks a million
One more question, offtopic : i have now 3 GB DDR3. Should i upgrade it to 5 GB ?
I found 2 GB DDR3 pretty cheap. And if i do that, i'll have to change the OS from x86 to x64.
Are there any games "hungry" for more than 3 gb ram ?
 
white_dove said:
So, i'll keep the Intel I7 for a while :) Thanks a million
One more question, offtopic : i have now 3 GB DDR3. Should i upgrade it to 5 GB ?
I found 2 GB DDR3 pretty cheap. And if i do that, i'll have to change the OS from x86 to x64.
Are there any games "hungry" for more than 3 gb ram ?
Click to expand...

Get 12 gigs. Seriously, get more RAM. RAM is cheap, a 4GB DIMM is about $20.
 
Yes, i know.
As i said, i have now 3 GB DDR3. If i buy 2 GB more, would that be okay for a while ?
Of course, with Windows 7 X64
 
white_dove said:
Yes, i know.
As i said, i have now 3 GB DDR3. If i buy 2 GB more, would that be okay for a while ?
Of course, with Windows 7 X64
Click to expand...

Don't do that, either keep what you have or upgrade to a better triple channel kit (ie 6gb, 12gb, faster, etc)
 
Tiporaro said:
Even for those that wouldn't take immense advantage of the performance gains over 1st gen i7, a good reason to upgrade is if/when you can do so at minimal cost between the two, so as to stay ahead of the depreciation curve. Many people were able to get out of their i7 920's and the like and into a new 2500k/2600k at little to no cost over the past 6+ months, and in addition to enjoying performance gains (even if minor), they're better situated to upgrade in the future now as well.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I did..Preparing for the next upgrade..A SB setup will be worht more than a 920 come resale time.
 
I thought the 920 was the worst cpu I've ever owned. Sorry to be the dissenting opinion. I can't believe the noticeable heat increase it caused in the small room my machine was housed in. I sold my 920 and mobo at home and swapped to a 2500k/mobo at a wash, and sold my combo at work and went to a 2100 and pocketed money - very happy with the temperature change.
 
920=heat but runs so sweet....love the o/clocking tho....im an amd guy ,now on my first intel system and you have to admit BD is a turd and i was hopeing it to be on 2600 or better performance ..
so it looks like intel for a while...
 
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