i7 3770k or gtx 670 sli

setter

setter

setter

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armoy, n. ireland
Currently got a few quid to spare and pondering what way to go. Spec in sig, with a gtx 670 with a pretty hefty oc on it. I play a lot of bf3, a game that benefits from ht that the i7 can offer. But im also looking forward to the release of bf4 in the autumn. Sli will offer a very good frame rate in bf3 for quite a while, tbh i cant see the new nv cards being anything more than a slight refresh of current stuff. Very tempted by the i7 as i would use ht for video encoding, and it does benefit sli/xfire should i go that way. And they seem to clock higher and run cooler than the ib i5 chips.
 
squarehead94 said:
Id wait for haswell. maybe sell your board and ram after that comes down. who knows what the upcoming hardware will bring.
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Don't wait for Haswell setter, it's nothing important to you over Ivy Bridge. In fact from leaked benchmarks it performs worse than IB in some cases. IPC on average is about 3% or so faster?

Intel put their efforts into the iGPU & power consumption, they're lacking to AMD in the onboard graphics department whilst ahead in raw performance; hence they're putting more focus into those departments.

setter said:
Currently got a few quid to spare and pondering what way to go. Spec in sig, with a gtx 670 with a pretty hefty oc on it. I play a lot of bf3, a game that benefits from ht that the i7 can offer. But im also looking forward to the release of bf4 in the autumn. Sli will offer a very good frame rate in bf3 for quite a while, tbh i cant see the new nv cards being anything more than a slight refresh of current stuff. Very tempted by the i7 as i would use ht for video encoding, and it does benefit sli/xfire should i go that way. And they seem to clock higher and run cooler than the ib i5 chips.
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Go with the 670 for now, although I would wait out for the 7xx series to drop (only 6 days) so that the price of 670s drops even further. You'll probably be able to find another WF for about £200 or even less then.

You'll notice that upgrade more than the 3770k too, get that next though.

1. 2nd 670
2. ???
3. ???
4. Postman comes
5. WIN
6. ???
7. Crysis 3 ;)

:D
 
I'd go with another 670 if I was in your shoes, Going by what has been seen. Haswell will be like going from Sandybridge to Ivybridge and the 7xxx series will be just a stop gap filler until the 8xx series.
Bulk up your current system :)
 
670 first does seem more appealing, id love to find another wf that clocks as well as my current card, +130/+770. But tbh id be happy with any decent clocking wf.
 
Depends where your priorities lie and how you get on with current titles. If you do a lot of encoding then an i7 could be a good timesaving improvement. If not that if it was me I'd hold onto that cash. While you'd no doubt see improvements from a second GTX670 it isn't a great time to buy a nVidia GPU to be honest. Regardless of how the next gen cards perform you'll see reduced prices for cards like the GTX670 2nd hand and new. Hold off until then imho.
 
Power draw isnt a major concern, current setup only draws 340w when gaming. I used to run an i7 920 at 4.2ghz with oc'd gtx 470's in sli, 630w in games with that setup. And an awful amount of noise and heat. But with that multi gpu setup and the hyperthreaded i7 920, my minimum fps in bf3 was a lot better, even with the single 670 in the 920 as well. I do find minimums a bit lower with the 3570k despite it's higher clockspeed.
 
I would upgrade your screen to a 27" IPS either a quality 1080P (Viewsonic / Dell £200+ UK) or Korean 1440P import (£220+). Your screen came out in 2007? That needs an upgrade more than your rig, your PC spec looks good, you would be blown away by a quality IPS screen, bigger screen adds more depth / scale to games, IPS, adds better color / clarity / viewing angles.

When you're already running a failry decent PC, the two best PC upgrades you can do circa 2013 are, (1) SSD 'Hard Drive' (2) Decent 27"+ Monitor.

Either of those would be far better an upgrade than just a slightly better CPU or GPU.
 
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Boomstick777 said:
I would upgrade your screen to a 27" IPS either a quality 1080P (Viewsonic £200 UK) or Korean 1440P (£220).

The two best PC upgrades you can do are, (1) SSD 'Hard Drive' (2) Decent 27"+ Monitor.

Either of those would be far better an upgrade than just a slightly better CPU or GPU.
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Good point, I got the Asus MX279H 27" recently, It may only be 1080p but anything over that and it tends to make my eyes go loopy :p
Anyway it was a brilliant purchase, Picture quality is fantastic.
Also about 3 months ago I got the Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB SSD, Again, Awesome performance.
Totally agree with Boomstick, 2 of the best upgrades has to be a Monitor and SSD :)
 
A new monitor would be nice, undecided on 27" IPS OR 24" 120Hz. Main hdd is a samsung 840 250gb ssd, just bought last week so im good on that front.
 
setter said:
A new monitor would be nice, undecided on 27" IPS OR 24" 120Hz. Main hdd is a samsung 840 250gb ssd, just bought last week so im good on that front.
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Well then it's either a monitor or 670, Personally I would get the one that gave me the most satisfaction in my dad to day computing :)
 
I would focus on a sweet monitor.
Your current 670 will love being pushed on sweet monitor.

1 card solution everytime in my opinion.
 
If you do go for a new monitor just remember that an increase in resolution or refresh rate could well exasperate the problem. Maybe look at that 27" Dell IPS 1080p monitor.

Baron C said:
1 card solution everytime in my opinion.
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That is all well and good in theory but doesn't work for everyone. Higher than 1080p resolution and even a Titan would struggle with certain titles. Hence why I have GTX680 SLi and not one Titan for more money.
 
Well if you want the i7-3770K now would be the time to get it whilst on offer and let's be honest you won't struggle to find a taker for your 3570K on the MM to recoup some cash back.

If you miss the offer on the 3770K by pondering even the 2700K can't be sniffed at. Infact it's normally a fair bit cheaper which means you have cash to go towards some more RAM bringing your total to 16GB

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £224.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £64.99
Total : £299.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).



I don't envy your choices buddy ;)
 
old gamer said:
I would go for a 3770k then sell the 3570 and put the money towards a secondhand 670
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better than this..... see if you can pick up a secondhand 670 to check exactly how much you're being held back by the 3570.... I suspect it to be negligable.

Sit tight setter. You're just suffering from the upgrade itch, the symptoms will pass soon ;)
 
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