Bang for buck worth it?

toddw

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
1,374
My 2500K won't o/c anymore, just standard turbo boost to 3.9Ghz.

I haven't been keeping up on what's out there as.... well, 2500K has been meeting my wants for a long time now.

Is there a nicely priced AMD CPU (or APU) out now that can exceed 2500K speeds for gaming?

Current card is 7970 GHz edition

Thanks!
 
Is there a nicely priced AMD CPU (or APU) out now that can exceed 2500K speeds for gaming?

No AMD CPU be faster with than an overclocked i5 in tasks that use less than 5 threads. When overclocked FX8320 and above will be competitive to your i5 2500K @ stock + turbo in applications that use 4 or less threads (like most games) and beat the i5 @ stock (and some overclocks depending on the application) on applications that can make good use of 5 or more threads.

The APUs are competitive with i3s and Pentiums in CPU performance and much better at GPU performance. These will be a downgrade from your i5 in most tasks.

Maybe you can get an FX 8320 for $99 and overclock it to >4.5GHz and that should also be competitive with the i5 at stock. Although then whats the point of switching you could look for a used i5 instead? Do you need to encode video?
 
Last edited:
dres - He asked for something that can EXCEED not something that's equal. So I doubt he'd make that change.

Had to reply to my #1 self :D
 
Your 2500K can still kick names and take ass, stick with it until DDR4 platforms become more common IMO.
 
Only real tangible upgrade for you is a 6 core Intel. The older Xeon processors are going for $75 and are really nice if paired with a compatible X58 motherboard. The 3770K, 4770K, etc will save you a little bit of electricity until you overclock them for not much more performance than what you have already.

In short unless you're stepping up to a 6 core Intel, then everything else is a sidegrade.
 
Cheers fellas.

Damn I've already squashed the upgrade itch a few times. The only thing I've done since 2011 is Windows 8 (only because I was on 32 bit Win 7) and 8GB from 4GB.

Seems weird to hold onto a rig this long.
 
Cheers fellas.

Damn I've already squashed the upgrade itch a few times. The only thing I've done since 2011 is Windows 8 (only because I was on 32 bit Win 7) and 8GB from 4GB.

Seems weird to hold onto a rig this long.

I run a Phenom 4core unlocked to 6 cores and I still play every game i want to with my 760 gtx in 1080p.

Sometimes upgrading is desired because we get to build a pc which most of us like to do and not because we actually need the new pc.

I am honestly itching to build one myself too so i know the feeling. I told myself I'm holding off until sometime in 2015.
 
Cheers fellas.

Damn I've already squashed the upgrade itch a few times. The only thing I've done since 2011 is Windows 8 (only because I was on 32 bit Win 7) and 8GB from 4GB.

Seems weird to hold onto a rig this long.

A GPU upgrade is worth it. CPU is still pretty good. I would wait for the next line of Intel CPUs to come out as well as reasonably priced DDR4.
 
My 2500K won't o/c anymore, just standard turbo boost to 3.9Ghz.

I haven't been keeping up on what's out there as.... well, 2500K has been meeting my wants for a long time now.

Is there a nicely priced AMD CPU (or APU) out now that can exceed 2500K speeds for gaming?

Current card is 7970 GHz edition

Thanks!
There is still no AMD chip worth upgrading over a Sandy Bridge quad core, even one that can't overclock. Doesn't matter how far you OC the AMD, it won't be worth it. The amount of heat created on a 4.6-5.0ghz AMD chip will be a helluva lot more than your Intel i5 ever put out, and it still will not outright beat a non-overclocked Intel i5 in 9/10 gaming scenarios. Highly multi-threaded tasks are another story.

Even the Devil's Canyon cpu's aren't much of an upgrade at this point. If you really have to spend, wait for Haswell-E in september, and then get a 6 core or better.

If you only have a few hundred, go out and get a new video card.
 
Cheers fellas.

Damn I've already squashed the upgrade itch a few times. The only thing I've done since 2011 is Windows 8 (only because I was on 32 bit Win 7) and 8GB from 4GB.

Seems weird to hold onto a rig this long.

in the same boat. i used to upgrade every 18 months to two years.

my current PC dates from May 2010, and the only thing that has changed was an upgrade from a 2GB 5870 to an MSI Lightning 7970.

there simply hasn't been anything that i have deemed it worth replacing with (outside of crazy priced intel s2011 hex-core stuff).

even the platform features have been pretty stagnant recently, my PC has SATA3 and USB3, so it is only now with s2011-3 that i am getting interested again:

PCIe3 (at last for me)
SATA Express
USB 3.1
DDR4
Affordable hex-core that will be substantially faster than my 1090T
 
My 2500K won't o/c anymore, just standard turbo boost to 3.9Ghz.

I haven't been keeping up on what's out there as.... well, 2500K has been meeting my wants for a long time now.

Is there a nicely priced AMD CPU (or APU) out now that can exceed 2500K speeds for gaming?

Current card is 7970 GHz edition

Thanks!

What do you mean your cpu won't o/c anymore? I've never seen a 2500k that couldn't go higher than 4.5ghz.

Just stick with what you have.
 
What do you mean your cpu won't o/c anymore? I've never seen a 2500k that couldn't go higher than 4.5ghz.

Just stick with what you have.

Its possible to damage a CPU by overclocking / overvolting. Although it usually takes years to manifest unless you go crazy with the voltages.
 
overvolting for a min will not damage a cpu it has fail safes, thats why it wont boot with the high voltage you give it. Its hard to hurt a cpu, you would have to high voltage it for years but then it last for years with high voltage.
 
Its possible to damage a CPU by overclocking / overvolting. Although it usually takes years to manifest unless you go crazy with the voltages.

I've never seen any real-world examples of that scenario (at reasonable voltages) other than the Northwood Pentium 4s. I'd suspect the motherboard or power supply before the CPU.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top