GPU upgrade or CPU upgrade?

[chazus]

I've come across a bit of a treat. In a couple months I'll likely be getting a free i7-6700K. My current setup is a 3570K @ 4.6ghz, nvidia 660 (long in the tooth now), 16gb ram.

I'm happy with my 3570K, honestly, it's perfectly fine and I've had no intentions to change it out. I have been wanting to upgrade my GPU though, likely before the end of the year. I've been eyeing a 1060.

That said, I have two options.

1) Sell my 3570K, board, DDR3 ram, to pay for a Z170+DDR4 to support the new CPU
2) Sell the i7, use the money to buy a new GPU, likely a 1060 and then pocket the rest. (My PSU is fine)

I feel like the 6700K is just not a performance upgrade worth it, but at the same time new hardware is always nice. I'm leaning towards #2.

[Lathais]

I would go for 2 as well.

[Thunderball]

That depends on the usage obviously. You're looking at 15-25% increase in tasks that can actually utilize the i7 effectively, although most games will be bottlenecked by a videocard or single core performance. Skylake is also about 7-10C cooler than Ivy Bridge.

For gaming selling 6700K and getting a GTX 1060 is optimal: your processor likely wont be able to get the full juice out of GTX 1070 and 6700K+GTX 1060 is suboptimal aswell.

[chazus]

I don't really do anything that would benefit from the i7, merely the IPC upgrade of going from 3rd to 6th gen

[Aurimas]

Depends. If "wanting a 1060, likely by the end of the year" means that you've been saving your nickels... I'd go with #1 and buy the new GPU as planned, having a mostly new system at the end.

If buying the 1060 was a pipe-dream, or you'd be spending a chunk of your free cash for the board (in option 1), then I'd go with option #2.

[chazus]

Depends. If "wanting a 1060, likely by the end of the year" means that you've been saving your nickels... I'd go with #1 and buy the new GPU as planned, having a mostly new system at the end.

Honestly, I was planning to get a 1060 regardless soon-ish. It basically just makes that upgrade free for me, and I'd be saving the money on it, money that, while I have, could be likely better spent elsewhere on non-computer stuff.

I guess my real question is, when it gets down to it, should I get a free CPU upgrade, or just pocket $300 in cash.

[Lathais]

That depends on the usage obviously. You're looking at 15-25% increase in tasks that can actually utilize the i7 effectively, although most games will be bottlenecked by a videocard or single core performance. Skylake is also about 7-10C cooler than Ivy Bridge.

For gaming selling 6700K and getting a GTX 1060 is optimal: your processor likely wont be able to get the full juice out of GTX 1070 and 6700K+GTX 1060 is suboptimal aswell.

A 3570K can't get full juice out of a 1070? WTF are you talking about?

[Droodid]

A 3570K can't get full juice out of a 1070? WTF are you talking about?

Thunderball likes to think things needs an abnormally large amount of power that they actually dont. Like telling people they need an i7 6700k because the i5 6600k isn't enough for the 1080.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

Option 2. We're only now seeing games take advantage of processors which are several generations old and, even then, they're generally overkill especially if you overclock. The next leap for Intel will be Kaby Lake which is, from what I've heard, another incremental leap so it's not like you're missing out by not being on a 1151 unless there's some secret break through technology which has yet to reveal itself.

Put that 300$ towards the 1060 and display that 660 in a museum.

[Doomislav]

If I were in your position, I'd use the 6700. The new motherboards use ddr4 which is actually a surprisingly noticeable increase in overall performance, as well as being pretty inexpensive. I mean, your going to have to upgrade your mb and cpu sometime, might as well use the opportunity to do it now...

[Triggered Fridgekin]

If I were in your position, I'd use the 6700. The new motherboards use ddr4 which is actually a surprisingly noticeable increase in overall performance, as well as being pretty inexpensive. I mean, your going to have to upgrade your mb and cpu sometime, might as well use the opportunity to do it now...

i3s have positive memory scaling where faster memory essentially functions as an overclock but other than that you won't see much difference to use as a strong bullet point to sell the 1151 platform in my books. There are exceptions to this rule but more times than not you likely won't be hindered by the difference.

I do like the idea of not being on a dead socket though and under warranty but sometimes the cost to performance just isn't enough especially when it comes to gaming and if he'll be pairing that 6700k with a 660 for an undetermined amount of time.

[Warrax]

Option #2, enough said.

[Fascinate]

Another vote for 2, i have a 2500k and id still do that.

[Lathais]

If I were in your position, I'd use the 6700. The new motherboards use ddr4 which is actually a surprisingly noticeable increase in overall performance, as well as being pretty inexpensive. I mean, your going to have to upgrade your mb and cpu sometime, might as well use the opportunity to do it now...

By the same token, he's going to have to upgrade his GPU sometime and can do it right now for no additional cost and it will be a bigger upgrade than the CPU currently.

- - - Updated - - -

Thunderball likes to think things needs an abnormally large amount of power that they actually dont. Like telling people they need an i7 6700k because the i5 6600k isn't enough for the 1080.

Yeah, I remember last time, I posted benchmarks that proved him wrong, yet here he is spouting the same nonsense again. Aside from saying you need a better processor to "unlock" higher end GPUs, he also frequently recommends way over the top PSUs. The rest of his advice is usually very good, but I'm not sure where this is coming from or why he thinks this, so figured I would ask again, only to get ignored again.

[Arbiter]

A 3570K can't get full juice out of a 1070? WTF are you talking about?

Yea, really. 1070 is about the same as my 980ti and I could easy get the full power of a 980ti even on my 2500K. Only reason I even upgraded CPUs was for the extra threads. My 2500K still sits in my other build rolling like a champ though. Favorite CPU I've ever purchased. It's why I can't get rid of it lol.

I'd go with the GPU upgrade as well though. Either pay for it out of pocket and sell the old CPU/Mobo to pay for a new Mobo and RAM for the free 6700K or just save your money and upgrade the GPU with the 6700K profit.

[Kyocere]

I used to work in retail and still get a new i7 once or twice a year for $100 (Thank you Intel Retail Edge ). I have had every CPU going from the 2600k to 4770k to my new 6700k. There is really not much of a difference unless you do things like encoding and time matters. For gaming you won't notice a difference, I would go with option 2.

[chazus]

I used to work in retail and still get a new i7 once or twice a year for $100 (Thank you Intel Retail Edge ). I have had every CPU going from the 2600k to 4770k to my new 6700k. There is really not much of a difference unless you do things like encoding and time matters. For gaming you won't notice a difference, I would go with option 2.

I loved the Intel Retail Edge program. I still have my P4 3.2 and P4-D 3.0 from that program. We aren't retail so I don't qualify anymore but it was a fantastic system and pretty much the only thing they pulled me away from AMD before the AMD64's came out.

[Xs]

You one of the AAA hipsters Chaz or you tending to stick to WoWs and the multiplayer longer term releases?

[chazus]

Honestly I go for midrange every few years. My last system before the 3570K was a Core2Duo E8400 (Wolfdale 3.0) and GeForce 460. I usually build much better systems than I use myself (I've built about 5 4690K/970 systems just for my friends in the past year T_T).

I'd be completely happy with a 1060. I don't see much point (for me) to spend the money on a 1070 and it would likely better be spent elsewhere.

[Sturmbringe]

Honestly I go for midrange every few years. My last system before the 3570K was a Core2Duo E8400 (Wolfdale 3.0) and GeForce 460. I usually build much better systems than I use myself (I've built about 5 4690K/970 systems just for my friends in the past year T_T).

I'd be completely happy with a 1060. I don't see much point (for me) to spend the money on a 1070 and it would likely better be spent elsewhere.

TBH, I agree. Knowing what I know now about PC's, I feel not very smart for having wasted 360 Euros on a GTX 580 and 440 euros on a GTX 780TI.

I could have bought something midrange Nvidia's *60 series, and be quite happy. Even 3440X1440 gaming on my Acer Predator X34 monitor can be done with a single GTX 1060 6GB.