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Worth paying extra for the i7-2600K?

Swifty123

Swifty123

Swifty123

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Joined
13 Feb 2010
Posts
944
As title says, is it worth paying extra as opposed to the i5-2500k, and I'm going to use it for gaming, so video rendering etc... isnt an issue. If it makes a difference I will be overclocking it :)

Thanks,
 
Apparently not, is the usual response. i7 uses Hyper-threading which no game utilizes apparently.
 
Hyper-threading will help video rendering/editing but only 'if' the software is mulithreaded.

If your doing lots of intensive rendering/editing and you have the software that will make use of HT - then the 2600K may be worth considering.

However, if it's just occassional editing and the focus is more on gaming and genral apps use i would save your money and get the 2500K as it's a great alrounder and will still power its way through your editing software.
 
Football manager shows as using all 8 threads when you play that.
That is only a Google desktop gadget though where I get that from.
It quite often shows more than 4 threads going.

Probably just broken.
 
Windows will spread out the load between cores even if not all of them are used. For example, a program maxing out 4 cores will probably show as using all 8 cores at an average of 50% because of the way Windows sorts it all out.
 
DragonQ said:
Windows will spread out the load between cores even if not all of them are used. For example, a program maxing out 4 cores will probably show as using all 8 cores at an average of 50% because of the way Windows sorts it all out.
Click to expand...

DragonQ, there are very few games which use more than three cores.

Ergo, for the moment, the amount of games that would benefit from 8-threads is small.
 
depends on what games you will be playing aswel as more and more games are supporting hyperthreading/multithreading
 
I dont get why people are so quick to say "No" .

What if down the line newer games do support hyperthreading? Most people dont upgrade every year so surely it would be best to be as future proof as possible?

I think it is worth paying the extra.
 
Kraven said:
I dont get why people are so quick to say "No" .
Click to expand...

I think most peoples answers will have been a considered response - it's just the answer is brief given the question.

And you virtually answered your own question:

Kraven said:
What if down the line newer games do support hyperthreading?
Click to expand...

It's that (if) unknown that makes spending the extra ~£80 on a processor, for gaming, relatively pointless. Even with the few games that will/do ustilise HT the gains 'may' be minimal comapered to the £80 saved going towards a better gfx card.

When people post 'is it worth it?' threads i assume that money is factor and my answer will always reflect best bang for buck - and in swifty's case, given the current gaming market, the 2500K would give superior value for money for his intended use.
 
Agree with Plec
But going a bit further, if they were the same price, then it would be worth getting the 2600 over the 2500, but as theres such a price premium, its not, its not worth paying an extra 50% for something that "may" be of help in the future
 
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