i5 2500k and 6970 still be effecient in april 2012?!

heatthegreat

Limp Gawd
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Oct 12, 2007
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Well, I just built my sig rig about 3 months ago and unfortunately, ill be deploying for 6 weeks :( Now, Im gonna come home with a good chunk of change and the upgrade itch is gonna be. Now, Im wondering if this rig will be good in the next 6 months. If not, I want to sell it now that way I'd get something for it rather than try to sell it in 6 months and get alot less. Or do I need to sell it at all? My plan was to sell and get a really good gaming laptop, but I wont if I get good feedback on my current rig. Thanks in advance!
 
Yes, that machine will be PLENTY of power even in April 2012. Ivy Bridge will likely just be a "tock" in the "tick tock" cycle of Intel chips and, while it may provide a slight boost, wont be worth the ~$300 IMO.

That machine is the best money can buy right now in terms of bang-for-the-buck. The only thing I would do is buy another RAM stick of the XMS3 so you can have it run dual channel.
 
My other option was to add another 6970 when I get back or just upgrade the video card and power supply. And of course another 2GB of ram.
 
TBH at 1080p a single 6970 will probably max everything slated to come out in the next year except for metro last light and probably every thing that comes out the year after that and if you don't mind droping aa down a little and turning off stuff likr DOF and SSAO you'll probably even be good for the year after that.
 
I think the rig should be fine of course that may not stop you from wanting to upgrade when you get back......safe journey.
 
Yes, that machine will be PLENTY of power even in April 2012. Ivy Bridge will likely just be a "tock" in the "tick tock" cycle of Intel chips and, while it may provide a slight boost, wont be worth the ~$300 IMO.

I'm not sure how it's a tock when it will be a die shrink and had the new tri gate transistors. I think it will be a pretty large upgrade. I would just keep your gear until ivy and 7000 series cards release.
 
Processor wise you should be good for a while. Video cards usually require more frequent upgrades but nonetheless you should be good for high settings on a single monitor for at least a year.
 
in 6 months we should have the new round of graphics cards

i'd be more focused on that, than a silly processor, if you're talking about gaming
 
In 6 weeks, nothing will have really changed. In 6 months, there'll be a new generation of GPUs out, and possibly CPUs too. While Ivy Bridge probably will be a quite substantial upgrade (to refer to a previous post, IB is a 'tick', the 'tock' was Sandy Bridge), the 2500K is such a fast CPU, for gaming purposes, I don't honestly think IB will make an appreciable difference to any bar one or two buggy games that use excessive CPU power (e.g. GTA4). The GPU upgrade will be where you'd see differences, but at your resolution again, you'd see some benefit upgrading, but whether it'd be worth it, personal opinion. Your current system will be plenty sufficient for a good couple of years from now.
 
an i5 and 6970 will be more than enough in april 2012.

you wont need any updating at all until the next generation of consoles comes out and developers start to harness their power --- probably some time in 2013 or 2014.

i built a core 2 duo cheap rig back in 2007 that i updated in 2008 with a marginally better graphics card and it still runs all the newest games
 
i built a core 2 duo cheap rig back in 2007... and it still runs all the newest games

^^ this

But in case there is any doubt, lemme check Magic Eight Ball

... yep - just as I suspected

"Outlook Good"
 
considering that computer puts the Wii U to shame, and other consoles aren't coming for some time after that. I expect the majority of games to scale around console level hardware, and thus should be fine as long as you're willing to drop settings a bit occasionally.
 
Yes, that machine will be PLENTY of power even in April 2012. Ivy Bridge will likely just be a "tock" in the "tick tock" cycle of Intel chips and, while it may provide a slight boost, wont be worth the ~$300 IMO.

That machine is the best money can buy right now in terms of bang-for-the-buck. The only thing I would do is buy another RAM stick of the XMS3 so you can have it run dual channel.

and I was definitely right!

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4763/...nce-up-to-60-faster-than-snb-better-quicksync
 
The 2500k itself, will remain a great gaming chip for many years down the road.

Way beyond 2012 lol
 
As far as gaming goes, a 4.4Ghz 2500K is basically as good as it's possible to get for gaming today. That will last well into the future.
 
^^ this

But in case there is any doubt, lemme check Magic Eight Ball

... yep - just as I suspected

"Outlook Good"

That is what I consult to make all of my life changing decisions. +1 for you.
 
My other option was to add another 6970 when I get back or just upgrade the video card and power supply

This. Will there be something faster then? There already is. Will the core of your system need upgrading then? I doubt it.
 
I would just crossfire or tri-fire the 6970s like what I did (except I did quadfire) and considering how well crossfire scales, you'll be fine with that CPU for 3+ years or more. I'll only be upgrading to the 7xxx series if the 7970 at least comes close to 6970 crossfire because of it's power consumption savings and scaling considerations vs crossfire. If that is the case I will probably replace my quadfire 6970s with crossfire 7970s and call it a day for the next couple years. I doubt I'll upgrade my CPU unless ivy bridge shows marked improvement in GAMING over my 4.4-4.7ghz sandy 2500k...
 
You are going to have tons of power. Unless suddenly all of the freaking out of the blue type of thing happens where consoles DIE (DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE PLEASE DIE) and 100% of gaming development is hardcore PC first then ported to crap ass 10 year old console whack job machines.

Anyways bring it on 7990!
 
2500k is a great chip for gaming, Ivy Bridge might be significantly faster in some respects, but the 2500k will still be more than enough.

We might have the 7000 series available before the end of the year, and it may be a lot faster, but given the troubles they're having getting 28nm out the door, good luck getting one at a decent price. 6970 has that nice 2GB of VRAM, and if you want to upgrade to a 7XXX card, Bitcoin miners will take your 6970 off you for a good price, maybe even what you paid for it.

Either way, you'll be in good shape. Now's a good time to buy, prices are reasonable and the tech is very mature.
 
I've pretty much settled on jumping from the nvidia ship to the AMD ship GPU wise.

The fact that AMD cards run so so so much faster on tasks I need like the Elcomsoft wireless security auditor, and it can't hurt to take a stab at bitcoining... I think the absolute best thing is to wait till the 7000 series hits. That way either you can jump on the bandwagon OR enjoy some (im going to assume fair to awesome) price decreases on the 6000 series.

I've been reading up on the "issues" people seems to have with AMD drivers, AMD micro studder (real or not) and while I think nvidia is a great company and has great driver/support, there is no getting around the fact that wither with a high end 6000 or mid level 7000 I'm going to have a great experience with Battlefield3 and be able to crank out some wicked performance on a few GPU computing apps that I use.
 
If you're not going to be using your rig at all while you're away, I say sell your 6970 now while it still has good resale value and once you're back get one of the new gen GPUs (i.e 7970 or 680..etc).

Your CPU should be more than enough for gaming for a very long time.

I know I plan to sell my 6970 sometime before the new gen GPUs will come out, I only use 1080p and still see myself needing more power in certain games.
 
Definately. I'm selling my 4 6970s, 2 GTX 560 TIs, 2 5770s, 1 6950 flashed to a 6970, and a 5870 just because I have too much stuff and bitcoin sucks these days.

I'm going to be using 1 GTX 560 TI OC'd to 1ghz in place of my quadfire setup until the 7xxx series hits, in which time I'll be going with crossfire 7970s...
 
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