• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

how much life left in i7 920

I have an i5 750 overclocked to 3.8ghz.
I cannot have Sata 3 or USB 3.0* but there is no way I am upgrading just for that!
Obviously I cannot read a crystal ball but I would confidently say in 12 months time my CPU will not be the 'too slow' for new games.

*My motherboard does have these but they are designed as an add-on and really don't perform much better than Sata 2 and USB 2.0
 
I upgraded this time last year from an i7 920 to an i5 2600K. I gained a faster system all-round, especially noticeable in the loading phases of games - I was faster than all my team (whom I know IRL) and all had i7 CPUs.

I am now looking at picking up an Asus X79 board and 3630K-E CPU as these are around 40% faster than the i5 2600K CPU at most computational tasks.

With my 6990, I feel that the P67 board hinders it, and the CPU bottlenecks sometimes too.

I will gain access to PCI-E 3.0, upto 32x PCI-E Lanes (2x 16 for XF), USB 3.0, more SATA3 ports.
I won't be able to use ivybridge with this setup, but I am hardly concerned since it focuses more on the onCPU GFX and power efficiency than raw CPU power. Which means an i7 3630K-E with a powerful GFX will out-perform and (most likely) out-OC the ivybridge CPUs.

My 2c.
 
Upgraded beginning of last year from an i7 920 to an i5 2500K after the motherboard failed.
Looking at the benefits of the Z68, PCI-E 3.0, USB 3.0, more SATA3 ports was also the main reason in changing.

But, I'm also seriously considering getting the Asrock X79 board and 3630K-E in a few months, if the funds are available.
 
Last edited:
Gashman said:
fair game, wouldn't have your mind set on NVIDIA though, heard they are having tons of problems with Kepler and their roadmap is supposed to be behind by at least one year, plus Kepler has no 'launch' date, not even a hinted one as far as I know at the moment, still by then the 7*** series prices will have settled right down...! :)
Click to expand...

not wanting to sidetrack this thread too much (but I'm going to anyway :p). where is it you've heard they are having tons of problems with Kepler and they lagging behind by a year, and yet you've seen no or even any hint of launch dates for new Nvidia cards.
Isn't that statement rather contradictory?
 
Nightglow said:
It was in the news last July about Kepler will be delayed until 2012.
No idea what the current situation is like with Kepler.

This link explains a few things, & I think Nvidia is going to come unstuck.

http://semiaccurate.com/2011/12/01/can-nvidia-supply-apple/

http://www.4gamer.net/games/120/G012093/20111124085/ (need google translate for this one)
Click to expand...

Nice unofficial sources there, top one being a pure Nvidia hater. Absolutely nothing to say kepler will be a fail or late.
 
Looking at my crystal ball again, I still think Kepler will be late.
And playing with Apple, that will be interesting, time will tell.
 
Last edited:
Gashman said:
fair game, wouldn't have your mind set on NVIDIA though, heard they are having tons of problems with Kepler and their roadmap is supposed to be behind by at least one year, plus Kepler has no 'launch' date, not even a hinted one as far as I know at the moment, still by then the 7*** series prices will have settled right down...! :)
Click to expand...

Can you provide a source of this information(Where you heard it was delayed by a year) as I have not read this anywhere.
 
So still nothing concrete about Nvidia's next set of cards except speculation OK.

Anyway back on track to the i7 920, mine is sitting quite happily @4Ghz and apart from me buggering up the motherboard detailed in this old thread, it doesn't like triple channel memory anymore or it might just be one of my 2Gb sticks is faulty not sure, but Ive got 2x4Gb Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey in there now and it runs sweet as a nut.
No intention of upgrading yet, ill have a look at ivy bridge but there will probably be no need for more CPU grunt for another year at least yet.
 
For gaming, an overclocked 920 should last years yet, even with dual-GPU setups.

For raw CPU power, it'll start lagging behind a bit when Ivy Bridge comes out but should still be fine for most people.
 
To be honest the current cpu's will only start to lag once the new consoles are launched and poorly optimised ports of next gen games start turning up on the pc.
 
f00f1ght0r said:
I upgraded this time last year from an i7 920 to an i5 2600K. I gained a faster system all-round, especially noticeable in the loading phases of games - I was faster than all my team (whom I know IRL) and all had i7 CPUs.

I am now looking at picking up an Asus X79 board and 3630K-E CPU as these are around 40% faster than the i5 2600K CPU at most computational tasks.

With my 6990, I feel that the P67 board hinders it, and the CPU bottlenecks sometimes too.

I will gain access to PCI-E 3.0, upto 32x PCI-E Lanes (2x 16 for XF), USB 3.0, more SATA3 ports.
I won't be able to use ivybridge with this setup, but I am hardly concerned since it focuses more on the onCPU GFX and power efficiency than raw CPU power. Which means an i7 3630K-E with a powerful GFX will out-perform and (most likely) out-OC the ivybridge CPUs.

My 2c.
Click to expand...

you obviously have far too much money

there is no way that a 2600K bottlenecks a 6990

going from an i7 920 to a 3930K the difference would be minimal in games, going from a 2600k even less of a difference

either 920 or 2600k will both last several more years before they become a bottleneck in games

and are you saying that X79 won't be able to use ivybridge? you do realise ivybridge-e will be out not long after and will also be X79 compatible (plus rumours be told that X79 will support one more gen after ivy-e too)
 
I've had my i7 920 for just over two years, and I'll probably keep it for at least another year. Its in a gaming system and it doesn't struggle with anything that I play at the moment. So I'll probably look at kepler when they arrive, and then upgrade the CPU some time next year... I'm thinking maybe Ivy Bridge will be a worthy upgrade, but the closer it gets the more I'm considering skipping it and waiting for the next gen after that.

So anyway, your 920 imo still has plenty of life in it. They were overkill for games systems when they first arrived, which has worked out quite nicely in the long run.
 
Iv only just upgraded to a 920! It's amazingly fast at stock and hasn't had a problem yet with any new game :)

So a few years left in it yet
 
Still using my Q9550 and do not feel the need to upgraqde yet, playing games fine still.

Maybe I will feel the need in another year or so
 
i really can't see the 920 being left behind any time soon... it's a bloody good chip; and at 4GHz isn't struggling at all with current titles.

i shall be holding onto mine for a good few years yet.
 
If you for some reason flat out refuse to overclock a i7 920, it will still last a good couple years, if you take the free 4Ghz(do they go to 4.5Ghz, really no idea) you'll simply get even more years out of it. Realistically you're not going to be limited for a long while. If you overclock a Q6600 to 3.6Ghz you would still not notice a huge amount of difference between that and a 2500k in the vast majority of games... there is no difference in the vast majority of games between a quad core phenom and a 2500k. The simple fact being that while the 2500k is faster than all of those, games don't need that much power and won't for a long time.
 
DragonQ said:
For gaming, an overclocked 920 should last years yet, even with dual-GPU setups.
Click to expand...
Agreed, i have two i7 9** based systems with sli gpu's. The one in sig, and a 3.6ghz 930 with sli gtx 460's. Neither are challenged much by current games that im playing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom