Looking for a new processor

[Deleted]

Hi all,

I've been systemically upgrading my rig as time goes by, upgrading what ever I feel to be the biggest bottle neck, I now feel that the time has come to upgrade my processor!

I'm currently using the Sandybridge i5 2500k 3.3Ghz OC'ed to 4.3Ghz, the issue that I'm currently having is that I don't really have a clue where to start with what processor to get so any help would be great.

My other specs are as follows

Motherboard - ASUS P8Z68-V
Graphics card - Nvidia GTX 680
Ram - 16 GB Corsair 1800 Mhz (I just ran HWinfo and it's saying the ram is currently at 933.33 Mhz, any idea why that may be? - Just googled this, noticed that I have to double the value to get what it's actually running at, I'm an idiot!)
And a 750W PSU can't remember the make/model of it

If you notice anything wrong with my current set up please let me know on where you think I could improve it, as to the price range for upgrades I'm not to restricted on the budget but I'd prefer not to spend over 400GBP on a processor or on any other component for that matter.

Thanks for any help in advance!

Shikoki!

[blackeagle]

You're not going to get much of a upgrade compared to a 2500k overclocked. Not enough to give you a real boost in gaming. It's simply still powerful enough to run everything.

Do you ever see the CPU going up to 100% while playing?

[Deleted]

You're not going to get much of a upgrade compared to a 2500k overclocked. Not enough to give you a real boost in gaming. It's simply still powerful enough to run everything.

Oh really? I'm surprised it's still comparable to some of the newer ones even though it's getting close to three years old (I think!) I know WoW is CPU intensive and I like to try and run everything on Ultra, but on one or two fights (Iron Qon springs to mind) my FPS massively dips, is this just how WoW is, or is there something I could do to improve that?

[noteworthynerd]

I'm just going to echo blackeagle, you're not gonna find an upgrade to the 2500K that is worth the money (for gaming purposes). An overclocked 2500K is within 5-10% of the performance of the 4670K according to benchmarks.

[Deleted]

I'm just going to echo blackeagle, you're not gonna find an upgrade to the 2500K that is worth the money (for gaming purposes). An overclocked 2500K is within 5-10% of the performance of the 4670K according to benchmarks.

Okay thanks for clearing that up, if you were to upgrade something on my rig, what would you suggest would be the biggest upgrade, or is it just simply not worth upgrading anything right now? I've read that the GTX 770 is better than the 680, but I don't think I'd notice any upgrade in doing so.

[n0cturnal]

Oh really? I'm surprised it's still comparable to some of the newer ones even though it's getting close to three years old (I think!) I know WoW is CPU intensive and I like to try and run everything on Ultra, but on one or two fights (Iron Qon springs to mind) my FPS massively dips, is this just how WoW is, or is there something I could do to improve that?

This is how WoW is and you might get some more performance in those situations but it depends on how lucky you get while overclocking as well. Are you willing to pay £350 or so for a new motherboard and CPU to only get a 10-15% increase in FPS?

[Deleted]

Okay thanks for clearing that up, if you were to upgrade something on my rig, what would you suggest would be the biggest upgrade, or is it just simply not worth upgrading anything right now? I've read that the GTX 770 is better than the 680, but I don't think I'd notice any upgrade in doing so.

If you don't have an SSD, get one. Otherwise there's no reasonable upgrades. Even throwing out big cash for GTX 690/Titan or HD 7990 would only be noticeable if you ran a 3-monitor setup.

As said, the Haswell is at best 10-20% faster at same clocks than 2500k and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference without logging FPS, and it certainly wouldn't be worth the cost of cpu and new mobo.

[Deleted]

This is how WoW is and you might get some more performance in those situations but it depends on how lucky you get while overclocking as well. Are you willing to pay £350 or so for a new motherboard and CPU to only get a 10-15% increase in FPS?

In all honesty yes, that's only with the knowledge of it being future proof for another 2 years or so though, with the amount of time I spend using this thing I'd consider it well spent! Although in saying that, I've read that I can OC this up to 5.2Ghz but to me that seems really risky, but I'd imagine in doing that I'd get around that 10% increase in FPS still?

samthing - Yeah I've got an SSD, it's getting pretty close to full though, I am currently toying with the idea of buying another and running it in a RAID setup, not too sure how much that would help me performance wise though, if at all.

[noteworthynerd]

In all honesty yes, that's only with the knowledge of it being future proof for another 2 years or so though, with the amount of time I spend using this thing I'd consider it well spent!

A 4670K would hardly be any more "future proof" than a 2500K, they are too close in architecture and performance for one to last significantly longer than the other.

[blackeagle]

In all honesty yes, that's only with the knowledge of it being future proof for another 2 years or so though, with the amount of time I spend using this thing I'd consider it well spent! Although in saying that, I've read that I can OC this up to 5.2Ghz but to me that seems really risky, but I'd imagine in doing that I'd get around that 10% increase in FPS still?

samthing - Yeah I've got an SSD, it's getting pretty close to full though, I am currently toying with the idea of buying another and running it in a RAID setup, not too sure how much that would help me performance wise though, if at all.

Raiding SSDs is just for benchmarking. You'd be better off just having it plugged in without raid. A single SSD already has enough parallell read/write units so you don't need more, you just get the downsides like higher risk of crashing the whole raid if one of the units go bad.

I would probably get more SSD space in your case and be satisfied for now, since even if you just have the itch to upgrade, it's not worth that much money for such a small difference. Save the money or spend it on other things than the computer.

[Deleted]

A 4670K would hardly be any more "future proof" than a 2500K, they are too close in architecture and performance for one to last significantly longer than the other.

Ahh okay, thanks a lot, I'll save my money then! Cheers for the information all

[yurano]

A 4670K would hardly be any more "future proof" than a 2500K, they are too close in architecture and performance for one to last significantly longer than the other.

Z87 is more future proof than Z68 though, albeit marginally. PCIe 3.0 and whatnot.

[Idrinkwhiterussians]

I would say that if you really have an itch to scratch by spending more money, why not get some peripherals for the computer? New keyboard, mouse, audio stuff?

[mojo6912]

Overclock that sucker to 4.5+ or 4.8+

You were just gonna replace it anyway amirite?

[Deleted]

I would say that if you really have an itch to scratch by spending more money, why not get some peripherals for the computer? New keyboard, mouse, audio stuff?

You would be right! I'm really happy with my monitors, mice and keyboard I don't think I will change them for a while, I was thinking about the Epic Naga but I really really like my Logitech G700, it's possibly the best mouse I've ever owned! As for Audio I use the Logitech G930, awesome headset too, again the best I've ever owned! And my keyboard is the Razer Blackwidow stealth ultimate 2013 edition, again one of the best keyboards I've owned.

I've thought about the Orbweaver etc but really don't see a need, any other suggestions?

[Idrinkwhiterussians]

I was thinking more like studio monitors and a DAC/Soundcard (since you can also carry these to the next build).

KRK Rokit 5 G2 £249.99
Audioengine D1 DAC £140.00

as an example of speakers/DAC. For soundcard, you could do something like the ASUS Xonar STX £143.00.

Again, these are just examples if you have the itch. If you cant do speakers, you could go with a pair of REALLY nice headphones and a DAC/Amp type of setup.