Curious Cats - Sandy Bridge @ Stock!

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PGHammer

2[H]4U
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Oct 8, 2002
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Though this is [H] after all (if you aren't overclocking, you're not [H]ard), at some point all you Sandy Bridge adopters *did* run your new CPUs at bone-stock (if for no other reason than to set a baseline and install the OS). Since I'm considering going there (leaning more toward i5 than i7 to be honest, for budgetary/availability reasons), what are the impressions of the i5-2500K (and i7-2600K) at bone-stock on P67 (or H67, if you went that way instead)?

How does it compare to your last system at stock?

How does SB @ stock compare to your last system overclocked?

Impressions of HT + Turbo (i7 owners, naturally)?

Applications and games that improved the most (and least) with the CPU change?
 
PGHammer said:
Though this is [H] after all (if you aren't overclocking, you're not [H]ard), at some point all you Sandy Bridge adopters *did* run your new CPUs at bone-stock (if for no other reason than to set a baseline and install the OS). Since I'm considering going there (leaning more toward i5 than i7 to be honest, for budgetary/availability reasons), what are the impressions of the i5-2500K (and i7-2600K) at bone-stock on P67 (or H67, if you went that way instead)?

How does it compare to your last system at stock?

How does SB @ stock compare to your last system overclocked?

Impressions of HT + Turbo (i7 owners, naturally)?

Applications and games that improved the most (and least) with the CPU change?
Click to expand...

I went from a Q6600 ~3ghz to a SB ~4.5ghz, but the 4.5ghz isn't really necessary. In SC2 it makes a huge difference OC'ed or not. Like night and day.

I was getting min frames in the low 20s with my Q6600 in large battles. Now it stays above 60.
 
BottomsUp said:
I went from a Q6600 ~3ghz to a SB ~4.5ghz, but the 4.5ghz isn't really necessary. In SC2 it makes a huge difference OC'ed or not. Like night and day.

I was getting min frames in the low 20s with my Q6600 in large battles. Now it stays above 60.
Click to expand...

Interesting I get as low as 10fps. Hopeing when I get a SB it'll improve My fps.
 
Just waiting for my new board to come in, so far I did 4.6Ghz on a P8P67 LE.

EDIT: cpu was a i5 2500k.
 
Last edited:
PGHammer said:
Though this is [H] after all (if you aren't overclocking, you're not [H]ard), at some point all you Sandy Bridge adopters *did* run your new CPUs at bone-stock (if for no other reason than to set a baseline and install the OS). Since I'm considering going there (leaning more toward i5 than i7 to be honest, for budgetary/availability reasons), what are the impressions of the i5-2500K (and i7-2600K) at bone-stock on P67 (or H67, if you went that way instead)?

How does it compare to your last system at stock?

How does SB @ stock compare to your last system overclocked?

Impressions of HT + Turbo (i7 owners, naturally)?

Applications and games that improved the most (and least) with the CPU change?
Click to expand...

My baseline for comparison will be my 2 year old 3DMark06 score of 23428. That's my Q9650 at 4275MHz with two 4870s in Xfire and 8GB RAM.

New system will be
2600K (@4.8+ if I am one of the lucky ones)
16GB RAM
Two 6970s in Xfire

I'm hoping to do better.
 
I had a Q6600 at 3.5 for the last 3 years. I just upgraded to a 2600K. I did a comparison in Arma - my FPS in one of the benchmarks was 44 FPS before. the 2600K at stock (3.5) yielded a result of 69. That's pretty big difference at clock for clock. There are probably other variables though. My MB is different, and memory - so I am sure that has something to do with it too. But pretty much anyone going from a Q6600 to SB is going to have all that upgraded as well. I'm pretty damn happy. when I went to 4.5 my FPS went to 78.
 
notarat said:
My baseline for comparison will be my 2 year old 3DMark06 score of 23428. That's my Q9650 at 4275MHz with two 4870s in Xfire and 8GB RAM.

New system will be
2600K (@4.8+ if I am one of the lucky ones)
16GB RAM
Two 6970s in Xfire

I'm hoping to do better.
Click to expand...

I got something like 29k with an "unlocked" but stock-clocked 6950 and a 2600k at 4.4GHz. Haven't tried it since I ramped up to 4.6GHz.
 
My system underwent a fairly major overhaul going from an e6750 @ 3.3GHz with 8800GTs in SLI and 4MB of RAM to an i7-2600k with a 570GTX and 8GB of RAM. I have not yet overclocked my new system, but it's like going from a Vespa scooter to a Gallardo at it's current stock speeds. BC2 is buttery smooth with incredible detail (seemed kind of gritty before and not as polished) and the multitasking capability of the system is awesome. I now leave a ton of stuff open all the time and jump around windows whereas I was always opening and closing things on my old system. Well worth the money invested!
 
I went from an i7-920 to an i5-2500k, and passed the other system to my wife so she had something decent to use. I haven't bothered overclocking just because everything is running perfectly as it is... there's a noticeable improvement in everything I've done with the system, and after work sometimes I just want my computer to work instead of having to mess with it :p

I'm not much of a benchmark guy, but in games I've seen the benefits already. Batman AA's bench went from about a 105 average frame rate to 123 on the new system. I've been waiting for another Rift beta event to start so I can try it out there, since that's a big part of why I built the new system; from what I've seen so far, though, I'm anticipating a decent increase (even if not an enormous one).

At stock speeds it's impressive for the price. It's outperforming the i7-920 I had at stock speeds and is cheaper to build even now than the 920 would be to do again.
 
LOL - I upgraded from a Q6600 as well (looks like alot did that).. put that computer off to the side for... something.. not sure yet... hehehe

But.... I've not really OC'd yet. still seeing a huge difference thou.

Axe
 
Comparing i7-920 to an i5-2500k is like night and day... almost. The stock 920 is 2.66ghz and the 2500K is 3.3ghz. Turbo also hits 3700mhz (the 920 Turbo's to 2.8ghz IIRC). Then add in the IPC improvements to Sandy and it's a pretty noticeable improvement overall.
 
rUmX said:
Comparing i7-920 to an i5-2500k is like night and day... almost. The stock 920 is 2.66ghz and the 2500K is 3.3ghz. Turbo also hits 3700mhz (the 920 Turbo's to 2.8ghz IIRC). Then add in the IPC improvements to Sandy and it's a pretty noticeable improvement overall.
Click to expand...

From what I'm hearing so far in this thread, if you were CPU-limited before (and so far, the posters had far more powerful CPUs than I do today), you wind up GPU-limited by Sandy Bridge, even (if not especially) if you keep the same GPU you had before.

That is what I had long thought a CPU upgrade was SUPPOSED to do.

Stock i5-2500K is *where*? Yeeks. (Consider that my E1200's stock is a mere 1.6 GHz.)

That all by itself is a clock-doubling (not to mention a core-doubling) over where I am today.

Scary stuff.
 
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