Who is still using a Sandy Bridge era chip

2500k here.
I'll be upgrading when Skylake becomes available.

I'm hoping that it really smooths out things like Dolphin and PCSX2.
 
gsilver said:
2500k here.
I'll be upgrading when Skylake becomes available.

I'm hoping that it really smooths out things like Dolphin and PCSX2.
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I think that's going to largely depend on whether or not they'll support new instruction sets. If not, I doubt you'd see much improvement.
 
I have a 2500K at 4.5 and a gtx 780 non ti. skyrim chokes it with a mix of 2K and 4K textures with enb on top of it, i suspect my 2500k may be the culprit, also 8gb of ram. Any sugestions.
 
dogbyte_13 said:
I have a 2500K at 4.5 and a gtx 780 non ti. skyrim chokes it with a mix of 2K and 4K textures with enb on top of it, i suspect my 2500k may be the culprit, also 8gb of ram. Any sugestions.
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I highly doubt its the CPU. More likely the 3GB of VRAM on the GPU. I've seen people push 4GB of VRAM use with certain Skyrim mods. Skyrim isn't very CPU intensive at all.
 
dogbyte_13 said:
I have a 2500K at 4.5 and a gtx 780 non ti. skyrim chokes it with a mix of 2K and 4K textures with enb on top of it, i suspect my 2500k may be the culprit, also 8gb of ram. Any sugestions.
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skyrim run in 1-2 cores.. and most of the things in skyrim run more in the processor side than the GPU. so one core utilization at 100% will really bottleneck that game and that sucks.. RAM also can not bottleneck that game as its limited to 4GB unless you run ENBoost + KSE 1.7 and then start to check values (google it :p im on phone right now) to increase the RAM utilization to more than 3.1GB and also change the vRAM block sizes to 512-1024mb instead of 256mb....

but the most important thing overclock even more the CPU.. the difference with every mhz in skyrim its pretty noticeable.. when im playing skyrim I increase the clock of my chip to 4.8ghz just to be able to give it more CPU power and avoid bottleneck which happens at 4.5ghz specially in Whiterun with Enhanced cities and villages mod where a single thread of my chip will run at 99% and others at 20% a severe bottleneck that does not occur at 4.8ghz
 
Absolutely hurting for performance with this awful chip from the dinosaur era.... ;)

http://valid.x86.fr/7fxp0s

7fxp0s.png
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
I highly doubt its the CPU. More likely the 3GB of VRAM on the GPU. I've seen people push 4GB of VRAM use with certain Skyrim mods. Skyrim isn't very CPU intensive at all.
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it is CPU intensive in fact, as more of the workload its put on the CPU instead the GPU.. the sad thing its that the game its only coded for 1-2 cores.. so a high IPC and high clock its really required when pushing mods.. i have over 75mods and my max vRAM usage its still 2.7gb and the main bottleneck its still the single threaded coded engine of the game making my 3770K at 4.8ghz a bottleneck in some parts..
 
Trust me i tried all kinds of tweaks and i learned alot about ENB and how it works, even with a performance ENB it still chokes abit, and yeah i know about ENB boost and suck, heck even tried some ini tweaks, if i just have the base game with HD pack from bethesda i get a solid 60FPS no matter where i am, once i pile on the graphic mods i get stutter and frame rate that is all over the charts and which i think is causing my lag/stutter. Oh and if i dont use Vsynch i get some funny results like the cart ride in the beginning it bounces all over the place :) . I guess im spoiled at playing at a solid 60FPS cause once it dips to to 58FPS(yes i notice that much of a drop) and forget it when i goes to 55 or lower. I was hoping a new CPU would help but i don't know at this point.
 
dogbyte_13 said:
Trust me i tried all kinds of tweaks and i learned alot about ENB and how it works, even with a performance ENB it still chokes abit, and yeah i know about ENB boost and suck, heck even tried some ini tweaks, if i just have the base game with HD pack from bethesda i get a solid 60FPS no matter where i am, once i pile on the graphic mods i get stutter and frame rate that is all over the charts and which i think is causing my lag/stutter. Oh and if i dont use Vsynch i get some funny results like the cart ride in the beginning it bounces all over the place :) . I guess im spoiled at playing at a solid 60FPS cause once it dips to to 58FPS(yes i notice that much of a drop) and forget it when i goes to 55 or lower. I was hoping a new CPU would help but i don't know at this point.
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thats because the game engine its completely tied to the refresh rate, what i do to avoid this its disable Vsync and enable a framerate cap.. you can force vsync off in Nvidia Control Panel and use the MSI afterburner or EVGA precision X frame rate limiter to 60fps. results? the game silky smooth and a solid as rock Frame time of 16.6ms..
 
Araxie said:
thats because the game engine its completely tied to the refresh rate, what i do to avoid this its disable Vsync and enable a framerate cap.. you can force vsync off in Nvidia Control Panel and use the MSI afterburner or EVGA precision X frame rate limiter to 60fps. results? the game silky smooth and a solid as rock Frame time of 16.6ms..
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Overlay Programs Like afterburned and such don't work with ENB unless you use the injector version which isn't good as the wrapper version. But i may try it with just all the texture packs and not the enb, anoother question should i be using the AA and AF in the nvidia control panel instead of teh game?
 
i5 750 running at 4Ghz here, very close to upgrading to an i7 4790k though to get rid of that upgrade itch
 
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CD on the family iMac (plays Minecraft and Sims just fine, all the kids care about). C2D on my Macbook Pro
 
My main gaming rig is still pushing an Intel Core i7-2600K. This chip has not let me down, and have had no reason to even overclock it all.

Ridiculous how this same chip is still selling on Newegg for the same price i paid for it over 2 years ago. Makes me feel confident it is still around to stay for a while. RMA'd my 7970 and they sent me a R9 280X so I shouldn't have to upgrade for a while.

I haven't played very many games lately that push my system either. Damn League of Legends addiction.
 
Running a stock 3930K since January 2012. I see no reason to upgrade or even overclock.
 
i3-2105 in the HTPC and a 2500K in the server. Both are still going strong. I am selling off a Pentium G620 which worked great for a long time. SB gen FTW!
 
*Looks at sig*

Atleast theres some i7's in there now, It was all Core 2 Quads for a long time.
 
Still enjoying my i5 2500K @ 4.4GHz. I've been using this since the "B3" revision P67 boards came out, and I think I've gone two years without even adjusting anything in the BIOS. I keep looking for a reason to upgrade and Intel just isn't giving me one.
 
ocellaris said:
Still enjoying my i5 2500K @ 4.4GHz. I've been using this since the "B3" revision P67 boards came out, and I think I've gone two years without even adjusting anything in the BIOS. I keep looking for a reason to upgrade and Intel just isn't giving me one.
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Same here, except running my i5 at 4.5 ghz. Not any great reason to upgrade. Only a 6 or 8 core would really be a big bump for me when I encode video or process raw photos, but just not worth it yet with the price of DDR4.
 
3930k @4.5 was 4.7 no need. There is nothing faster except via benchmarking as far as my perception goes. I probably wont get a new chip until this one either does or is too slow for the avg task. Im even thinking of going to stock speed and maybe disabling 2 cores to save power and gen less heat as this thing is faster than I7 2600K with 4 cores running due to larger cache.
 
I'm still rocking an Ivy Bridge i5-3550S on a Q77 chipset because its the last one to support native Intel PCI (read: low DPC latency on my favorite sound card). It's not quite the same as ISA or VLB, but I like having one foot in the past just in case. Though older, my server has a Lynnfield X3440 Xeon for the same reasons. I have a couple PCI TV Tuner cards and the aftermarket PCI chips suck.

At this point, for my use, I gain more benefits from a better video card and SSD.
 
gsilver said:
2500k here.
I'll be upgrading when Skylake becomes available.

I'm hoping that it really smooths out things like Dolphin and PCSX2.
Click to expand...

PCSX2 runs great on my Q6600. Did you enable MTVU in the "Speedhacks" menu? It basically makes the emulation much more effective for people with 3 or more cores.


Dolphin on the other hand.... well, good luck.
 
Heh, running even older than that on my server box.

It's still rocking a i5-760 that used to be my desktop board. Though it's running easier in it's "old age" as I backed off the overclock a few months after putting it in the server. (running close to stock now, used to be +800Mhz over stock)

Desktop runs a i5-3000 series of some kind, I forget which. It's running around +800Mhz (funny how that worked out, that's about the max I could get stable for an overclock)
New GPU on the desktop? Sure, that's in the cards, new CPU? heck no.
 
Still rocking a 2600K since early 2011, might have a video card upgrade in the future. See no reason to upgrade until DDR 4 starts becoming "standardized", then it will be demoted to server duty.
 
2500k @ 4.2 here.. waiting for skylake if possible. It's hard to wait though. I want a new case but dont want to buy one before getting a new mobo and cpu.


Hopefully skylake comes sooner rather than later
 
Phlorge said:
2500k @ 4.2 here.. waiting for skylake if possible. It's hard to wait though. I want a new case but dont want to buy one before getting a new mobo and cpu.


Hopefully skylake comes sooner rather than later
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Same here. I've been drooling over the Corsair Air 540 case since I can't stand messing with cables. I can't really justify buying one until I upgrade from my 2600k.
 
I don't see the problem with a new case... one the cable management its done you only have to switch motherboad with a new CPU and done.. 95% of the job its already done.. motherboard connectors layouts are generally the same.. and connectors are in practically same place.. so ins't hard unplug connectors from actual motherboards and then connect it later with a new one.. =D..

@Phlorge squeeze that 2500K to lests say 4.5-4.7ghz and you will have a champion chip until you buy a new one. =).. 500 extra mhz can make a good truly difference...
 
I am still on a 2500K and am damn happy with it. Alot of heavy lifting can be done by my ESXi hosts if needed, and the 2500K still screams in most applications. Most of my gaming has been moved to my HTPC's throughout the house. The only thing my main rig is missing atm is a huge SSD. If 14nm on the desktop is a significant performance boost then I may be swayed just for the fun of it.
 
monster stealth said:
I am still on a 2500K and am damn happy with it. Alot of heavy lifting can be done by my ESXi hosts if needed, and the 2500K still screams in most applications. Most of my gaming has been moved to my HTPC's throughout the house. The only thing my main rig is missing atm is a huge SSD. If 14nm on the desktop is a significant performance boost then I may be swayed just for the fun of it.
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SSDs are super cheap now when I got my Crucial 256 M550 or whatever I think it was 280$ I just bought a second but a MX100 and it was 110?
 
One of my gaming rigs (that gets by far the most use) is rocking a 2500k @ 4.7Ghz. This is still a fantastic gaming CPU, there's really no need to upgrade right now. Might decide to upgrade when Broadwell drops, but even then it'll be a hard sell. If I'm going to drop ~$500 on an upgrade, something tells me I'm a lot better off getting a second GPU...
 
Still running an i5-750 Lynnfield since Nov '09....

These chips have serious staying power!
 
PornoSatan said:
PCSX2 runs great on my Q6600. Did you enable MTVU in the "Speedhacks" menu? It basically makes the emulation much more effective for people with 3 or more cores.


Dolphin on the other hand.... well, good luck.
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Dolphin runs great for me....
 
Running a i7-970 since Q4 '10 and I think my mobo is starting to fail but all of my $ is tied up in a long term investment that won't pay off for about a year so I can't afford to upgrade until then.
 
I'm still using a 2600K. Hasn't really been slow at all for anything I've needed it to do so I haven't felt pressed to upgrade. Switched out videocards a couple times and got a bigger SSD though and those actually did make noticeable differences.
 
I was slow to upgrade to an i7 from a three-year-old Q9550. I've had my 2600k for right at three years. I upgraded my ESX servers to 2600ks at the same time. They've all been running solid 24x7 for three years. I run them at stock speed with the stock cooler... I know, boring, but the incremental gain for the effort isn't worth it for what I do. I'm from the old days when you could get 15 or so extra MHz ;)... The days of over clocking a 486SX-25 to a 33... Or P75 to a P90!

20 years ago I had to have the latest thing all the time because the incremental gains were actually noticeable. I really have no inclination to upgrade at this time as I'm not doing anything to challenge the 2600k. Adding an SSD a couple years ago made all the difference. I've been in IT for 23 years so it's not because I've lost interest or don't know any better... Just other things to spend money on. When more cores becomes cheaper maybe... Heck my file server is still an E2180 (but about to become a Xeon 1230 as I upgrade my drives).

I just think the gains aren't there as they used to be. Someone has already said it... Features will drive upgrades more now than ever.

Mike
 
*Raises hand*
I'm still using my trusty old Sandy Bridge i5-2320 in my main machine that I've been using since 2012. It's by far the longest I've ever used a CPU before and I still don't feel the need to upgrade to anything newer.
All my friends called me crazy for loading up on 32GBs of RAM way back then 10 years ago. However I believe it's actually a big part of the reason that this build has had such longevity for me, as I have a few games now that recommend 16GBs and I often have encoding or rendering tasks open in the background while I'm gaming.
This trusty CPU and I have been through so much together. So many memories, and yet it still keeps going and continues to run any apps or games that I've thrown at it. Twitch streaming, Video editing, Red Dead 2, Cyberpunk 2077, PS2 emulation, Virtualsation, 4k video, you name it.
Previously I used to always build AMD systems. But in 2012, AMD's FX offerings didn't look very appealing to me so I thought I'd go Intel once because of all the good reviews Sandy Bridge had gotten at the time, and here I still am now haha.
The system still feels very modern to me as well. It now drives a 165 hertz monitor, a M.2 enterprise grade SSD and a 4k capture card.
10 years ago I had the forethought to buy a spare Asus Z77a motherboard as well that I still have new-in-box so I should be ready well set in order to make any repairs that I could potentially ever need to do in order to keep her running for the next 10 years, hopefully longer.
Is anyone else here still using one of those legendary chips as their main driver? I've truly been blown away at what a great computer it's been for me.
 
ZodaEX said:
*Raises hand*
I'm still using my trusty old Sandy Bridge i5-2320 in my main machine that I've been using since 2012. It's by far the longest I've ever used a CPU before and I still don't feel the need to upgrade to anything newer.
All my friends called me crazy for loading up on 32GBs of RAM way back then 10 years ago. However I believe it's actually a big part of the reason that this build has had such longevity for me, as I have a few games now that recommend 16GBs and I often have encoding or rendering tasks open in the background while I'm gaming.
This trusty CPU and I have been through so much together. So many memories, and yet it still keeps going and continues to run any apps or games that I've thrown at it. Twitch streaming, Video editing, Red Dead 2, Cyberpunk 2077, PS2 emulation, Virtualsation, 4k video, you name it.
Previously I used to always build AMD systems. But in 2012, AMD's FX offerings didn't look very appealing to me so I thought I'd go Intel once because of all the good reviews Sandy Bridge had gotten at the time, and here I still am now haha.
The system still feels very modern to me as well. It now drives a 165 hertz monitor, a M.2 enterprise grade SSD and a 4k capture card.
10 years ago I had the forethought to buy a spare Asus Z77a motherboard as well that I still have new-in-box so I should be ready well set in order to make any repairs that I could potentially ever need to do in order to keep her running for the next 10 years, hopefully longer.
Is anyone else here still using one of those legendary chips as their main driver? I've truly been blown away at what a great computer it's been for me.
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I'm surprised you haven't upgraded the CPU at least to something newer and faster, they're cheap as chips, now. Performance has come a long way. You'd be surprised at what you're missing.

Are you planning on fighting to get Win 11/12/15/er, 13 running on it in the next 10 years?

I still have 3 Sandy systems (2120T, 2x 3930k's). One of the SB-E's was my daily driver, the other my dad's at the time he died, but now they just see occasional use for Primegrid challenges. The 2120T runs my file server and is overkill for it at that, but the motherboard is starting to wear out and next year will see replacement for what I think will be some fun new capabilities.

PS. Nice necro, but not enough to chart.
 
ZodaEX, good thread to resurrect, for us [H]ardCheapskates anyways.....:p

While I have built Ryzen and Comet Lake systems for friends and family, the newest architecture I've ever personally owned was a Sandy Bridge Xeon E3-1240 I put in a Dell Optiplex 790 and used for a long time. I was made an offer I couldn't refuse on that system and then pieced together my current 1st gen Lynnfield system off of ebay for next to nothing, with the Xeon X3480 CPU being the most expensive part at $35. I went 1st gen because I found my SuperMicro motherboard new in box for $18 shipped!! It runs everything I wish to play and do with zero complaints! Maybe someday when the next generation Ryzen parts/prices get to market and stabilize I might build a brand new system.

Anyways ZodaEX why not pick up a Xeon E3-1270 for a bit over $20 and get a bit more speed and hyper-threading to boot, as it's basically an i7-2600 without integrated graphics so it has a lower TDP:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165362645954?epid=4020284212&hash=item268061bbc2:g:OKQAAOSwPOZiHp-Q
 
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