Upgrade from i3 6100

Drake5 · 26 Aug 2016 at 18:56

I bought an i3 6100 only a couple weeks a go and I want to upgrade it just for a bit more performance in games really

With a budget of about £180 what options do I have

pastymuncher · 26 Aug 2016 at 19:14

What chipset motherboard do you have? If it's Z170 then the most sensible upgrade would be a 6600k/6700k so that you can overclock and get the most out of them. If it's one of the other chipsets that you can't overclock on then you could go with a i5 6400/6500 but they have lower clockspeeds than your i3 6100 so will be slower in games that can't use all the cores. You could still get a 6600k/6700k with their clockspeeds of 3.9Ghz and 4.0Ghz respectively but you won't get the best out of them due to not being able to overclock.

Drake5 · 26 Aug 2016 at 19:19

The motherboard is a H110M-K Intel H110 I think you can overclock on it

6600k looks to be about £220 new so I think I'll try and get one from the MM

mickyflinn · 26 Aug 2016 at 19:21

Are you strugling in game play with the i-3 ?

Drake5 · 26 Aug 2016 at 19:22

mickyflinn said:
Are you strugling in game play with the i-3 ?

I am only when I have other apps open

pastymuncher · 26 Aug 2016 at 19:38

You cannot overclock on anything but a Z170 board with Skylake. In games that only use 1 or 2 cores the 6600k at stock will hardly be any better than your i3 6100.

Drake5 · 26 Aug 2016 at 19:50

Wow so I can't even overclock a 6600k on my current mobo .....

pastymuncher · 26 Aug 2016 at 20:11

Nope. Crap isn't it? I think they really clamped down on it after board manufacturers started putting non Z series boards out in socket 1150 (Haswell) with bios's that could overclock k series cpu's. My wifes Gigabyte B85M-D3H that cost me less than £50 is one of them.

It overclocks my 4670k to exactly the same clockspeeds with exactly the same settings as my vastly more expensive Z87 Hero VI.

Drake5 · 26 Aug 2016 at 20:16

Well that changes things because it's not really worth me buying a 6600k unless I buy a z170 which I wouldn't be able to afford both as the cheapest motherboard is about £90 it seems, kinda ridiculous you need certain motherboard to overclock now

Or what I could do is get the 6600k now and a different motherboard next time, the 6600k would work at stock wouldn't it ?

pastymuncher · 26 Aug 2016 at 20:39

Yes but only 200mhz faster than your i3 6100. In stuff that doesn't use all the cores it's doubtful if you would notice any difference. This is why I said when you posted about building this pc to go in the MM and pick up a second hand Sandybridge/Ivybridge/Haswell bundle. You could have had a Z77/Z87/Z97 board and a 2500k/3570k/4670k/4690k and been able to overclock and it would have costed a hell of a lot less than a Z170/6600k setup.

***Edit*** I got it the wrong way around. Your i3 6100 is 200mhz faster than the 6600k (i3 6100 is 3.7Ghz, 6600k is 3.5Ghz) so in games that don't make use of the extra cores you will actually lose performance.

Drake5 · 26 Aug 2016 at 20:46

200Mhz faster but isn't there 2 more cores? Most modern games use all 4 cores don't they

Martini1991 · 26 Aug 2016 at 20:46

You want a ; Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 SkyLake, that's your best bet.

Drake5 · 26 Aug 2016 at 23:27

Never heard of that CPU before tbh, not really sure how to go about this

As I said before I know the 6600k is only 200Mhz faster but the other 2 cores will help won't they

pastymuncher · 27 Aug 2016 at 15:11

Drake5 said:
200Mhz faster but isn't there 2 more cores? Most modern games use all 4 cores don't they

There are still loads that don't though. A lot of simulators only use a single core and they are the sort of games that could really do with 4 cores or more. Like I said before, in games that use the extra cores the 6600k would be a bit better. Don't forget your i3 has hyperthreading as well. Try playing some games and monitoring your cpu usage while playing. Afterburner can do that through it's on screen display. There are no Xeons on your motherboards support list. A Xeon is basically a i7 with no igpu. The Xeon E3-1230 v5 is a 4 cores with HT 3.4Ghz stock/3.8Ghz boost cpu so basically a i7 6700 (non-k) with no igpu.

***Edit*** I got it the wrong way around. Your i3 6100 is 200mhz faster than the 6600k (i3 6100 is 3.7Ghz, 6600k is 3.5Ghz) so in games that don't make use of the extra cores you will actually lose performance.

Martini1991 · 27 Aug 2016 at 16:40

The Xeons are rarely on compatability lists, should work anyway.

And the i3/i5 situation is a fallacy, there will be absolute minimum games where an i5 will perform worse, especially when you consider boost.

Drake5 · 27 Aug 2016 at 17:18

Martini1991 said:
The Xeons are rarely on compatability lists, should work anyway.

And the i3/i5 situation is a fallacy, there will be absolute minimum games where an i5 will perform worse, especially when you consider boost.

Ok so kinda confusing really, 2 people saying different things....

I need to decide wether to go for a 6600k K or a xeon.... Or I need to decide to go for faster 16GB ram first

RavenXXX2 · 27 Aug 2016 at 17:31

You are limited to 2133Mhz on your mobo. Z170 is the way to go.

Drake5 · 27 Aug 2016 at 17:54

Guess I need to figure out which upgrade path to take then, as I only have a certain budget.... Could go for the CPU first then mobo and then ram after

I'm not really sure how much faster ram effects performance, seems to be as much as 10fps on some websites though

pandem0nium · 27 Aug 2016 at 19:00

I'd grab a Z board and flash a non-k overclocking bios.

http://overclocking.guide/gigabyte-z170-non-k-overclocking-guide/

Drake5 · 27 Aug 2016 at 19:04

Sounds like a good idea I think. I should be able to overclock my i3 on that for the time being ?