Is an upgrade worth it?

Any help is appreciated.

I currently have the following:

i7-2600K that I've never tried to overclock
Appropriate Gigabyte motherboard, I've fallen so far out of knowing chipsets and processor code names (Palomino, Kalamath, Tualatin, used to know them ALL) that "appropriate gigabyte motherboard" is as descriptive as I can get off the top o' me noggin'.
16GB DDR3 RAM - 4x4GB, GSkill I believe.

I've had that combo in place since December of 2012.

Would upgrading to the 6 core i7-5820, with the requisite new motherboard & RAM be "worth" it?

Parts I'd be carrying over to the new rig:

EVGA 670 video card
750 watt power supply
Blu-Ray burner
512GB Crucial SSD
4x 2TB WD Green hard drives - media storage
Acer 27" 1440p monitor

Primary uses: gaming (Blizzard games, some FPS games), video encoding - Handbrake, Folding @ Home.

I'd be looking at $775 or so at my local Microcenter for everything. Then of course, off to find someone looking to buy my old mobo/CPU/RAM to help make some of that back.

I'm not finding anything that is making me think "WHY IS THIS PC SO SLOW", but with longer term plans being made with my wife, this may be the last chance I get for a time to do a major, perhaps more future proof, upgrade. Besides, I love the smell of new computer parts.

Again, thanks for any insight you can provide.

It would be a huge upgrade, especially since you are not currently overclocking.

That being said, are the small number of PCIe lanes on the 5820 going to be enough for you?

You could always try overclocking. If you don't plan on overclocking the 5820, you might as well just overclock the 2600k and be done with it.

Thanks for the reply.

If I've read the articles correctly, I'd only have to worry about the reduced PCI-E lanes if I was running SLI or Crossfire, correct? As tasty as multiple cards would be, the 670 has been a beast/workhorse for me, and I think I can go longer riding that. 1440p res is of course more than 1080p, but it's not like I'm trying to drive a 4K display.

JABoyle3875 said:

Thanks for the reply.

If I've read the articles correctly, I'd only have to worry about the reduced PCI-E lanes if I was running SLI or Crossfire, correct? As tasty as multiple cards would be, the 670 has been a beast/workhorse for me, and I think I can go longer riding that. 1440p res is of course more than 1080p, but it's not like I'm trying to drive a 4K display.

Click to expand...

Very correct. If you have a single video card then the 5820K is perfect.

Even if you had multiple video cards, the PCIe bandwidth isn't as big of an impact as people make it out to be some times.

As for the upgrade: It will make a difference, but it's going to be a very small difference if you're just playing games. You'd probably get more bang for your buck if you did some mild overclocking and set aside some cash for a future video card upgrade.

I'd honestly say it's not worth the upgrade. I think a better investment would be overclocking your 2600k. As the poster above me mentioned if you're only gaming you won't see a significant improvement.

Get a new New vid card instead and oc your cpu to 4+

If I were to OC the processor I have now, and get a new video card, what would you all suggest in regards to a sufficient upgrade to notice a difference? I do notice that if I crank everything to Ultra in things like Company of Heroes 2, it can stutter, and I'm thinking of course it will be better if I OC the proc to 4+ (if possible) and get a new video card.

670 to a 970 would be a significant upgrade. I'm running a 670 myself, and it's fine for 1080p gaming at high/highest settings for the most part, but if you're looking at a 2k display then the upgrade becomes much more meaningful.

I would echo the sentiments of others in this thread.. with that budget, I'd upgrade the CPU cooler if you're using a stock cooler (don't think you specified), maybe upgrade the case if it's been a while, and pick up a 970. once you hit 4+ GHz on the 2600k, with a new GPU, you'll push 1440p no prob in just about everything, cranked.

IMO this is a much better use of your funds, and will be a significantly more tangible upgrade than a new CPU platform.

OP,
If you cannot upgrade your GPU when you go the full platform upgrade route due to $$$, upgrade just your GPU and keep your current platform. Your 670 is ultimately the biggest bottleneck of the plan, platform upgrade or not. You could upgrade to a supercomputer and still be screwed cause of your 670.

If you can do both (upgrade GPU and Platform), and you feel this is the last time for a while you'll be able to wring out a new build - DO IT!@ I can assure you with nearly 99% accuracy that the X99 will still be beastmode for many years to come, and retain value well. DDR4 is here to stay, so you're losing absolutely nothing there either.

So, to summarize: Moving to 2k is a mandated GPU upgrade, no matter what. A 970, therefore, has your name written all over it. For pure FPS improvement context, here is Anand's bench of the 970 vs. your current 670.

P.s. FWIW, the AMD R9 290 and 290X are also very viable options over the 670 here as well.

I upgraded from a 580 to a 970 and the performance difference is staggering. I did have an overclocked processor though. I'd definitely pick up a 40 ish dollar heatsink which should get you around 4.5 ghz on the 2600k and then pick up a 970. Significantly cheaper than your original plan and a massive boost in performance.

Thanks all for the replies - I think I will go with the 970 upgrade + a new CPU cooler. The case itself is good, it is a coolermaster with a 120mm in in the front, 120 out in the back, and a monster (200mm) in the top, sucking air out of the top.

Those benches from Anand are what clinched it for me...CoH2 is one game I'm wanting to get into but was seeing some stuttering or dropping of the quality needed.

I chose not to upgrade my wife's 2500k to Haswell because there hasn't been a huge increase in performance since most of the changes have been in power efficiency. Instead I got her an SSD, a video card upgrade and a memory upgrade (well sort of memory upgrade...I upgraded from 875k to a 5820k on my rig and she got my old 16gb kit) and called it good. I picked up a better case for better airflow and when I can find time to get around it I'll start overclocking her machine. Her computer even without the overlock feels as snappy doing her light to mid gaming (Borderlands 2 and WoW primarily).

Sandy Bridge has long long legs basically. No reason to upgrade right now in all reality.

^ Definitely. I originally intended my 2500k to last a couple years but I had no idea it would still be as good as it was years later. (at least in what I used it for)

SSD + high clockspeed + good gpu nets you very similar to high end rigs at a much lower adoption cost

My only worry with 2500k is that the pcie slots might limit some of the newer graphics cards :/ probably won't be terribly significant but it's still a factor

Again, thanks all - I'll be picking up an EVGA GeForce 970, plus a new full tower case from Corsair, on my way home this afternoon. I've had my current case for probably close to 5 years, and that's enough.

Gonna have a good weekend of overclocking and testing ahead of me!

Sounds like you are going to enjoy that upgrade. It is always nice to upgrade either a GPU or CPU separately and not be bottlenecked by the component you did not upgrade. And in your case you will see significant performance increase in your gaming. Is there a cooler upgrade coming as well? That 2600K was made to overclock....

Kid

Kid744 said:

Is there a cooler upgrade coming as well? That 2600K was made to overclock....

Kid

Click to expand...

Ayup, there is. I decided to silly splurge and buy a Corsair self contained water cooling setup for the processor, I figured if anything a Corsair case shouldn't be too hard to install it in.

Tonight I'm doing benchline stat runs on 3DMark, some games, etc. That way I know exactly what kind of extra kick I'm getting.

Enjoy the new GPU!

Well, first benchies are in, and I'm impressed. DAMN impressed.

Company of Heroes, everything CRANKED: Pretty much the same average FPS between both the 670 and 970, but the 970 has a 25% higher minimum framerate.

Company of Heroes 2 - holy sweet jumpin' jeebus...

670, Autodetect - 39.63 FPS. These settings were often "low", "minimum", etc. I was a dingus and didn't write down exactly which ones were which for another layer of apples to apples comparing.

970, Autodetect - 55.71 FPS, and most of these were medium, etc. So an increase of roughly 29%, or 16 FPS.

CoH2, everything cranked to the max at 2560x1440 resolution:

670 - 17.25 FPS.
970 - 31.77 FPS, way better. Almost 46% increase.

3DMark, from Steam:

670: 6807
970: 9896 - 31% better.

And so far I'm rocking an overclock of the 2600K from 3.4ghz to 4.4ghz - a full 1ghz at stock voltage. With the water cooler (may get some top grade thermal paste), idle temps are about 30-32C. Load temps are a bit high (68C), but I'm also not noticing any change in speed on the fans, so I have some fiddling to do there. I don't think something set right, to have them increase when temps go above X.

Sweet dude, you now have more than enough CPU to max games for several years, and that 970 should keep you happy for some time!

960 for bugdet card and 970 for gaming. 960 is way over priced for its performance.