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2500k or 2600k?

mpl330

mpl330

mpl330

Associate
Joined
5 Nov 2005
Posts
52
Hi,
So the SB chips are now out so I am speccing my new build...
Rig will be used only for Flight Sim which is very CPU intensive plus I also need to run about 6 or 7 other programs at the same time so which SB chip would be more appropriate?
I notice a lot of posts saying only bother with I5 if you are gaming (I guess thats because of the graphics card doing more of the work) but with the CPU load for FS I wondered if the I7 would be better?

Thanks
 
Even if your flight sim plus addons fully benefits from the i7's hyperthreading, you're only looking at 25% absolute performance gain over i5. In reality gain from hyperthreading is usually much less than 25%, particularly in games - actually usually pretty much nothing in games, although a CPU heavy sim may gain more than most games. That gain could be further reduced if indications seen in at least one review I've read are true that the i7 wont clock quite as high as the i5. All that for a CPU that is around 60% more cash - almost £100 more I think. Totally not worth it imho, but you might want every ounce of performance you can possibly get and be prepared to pay a premium for that. If so go for the i7.
 
If Flight Sim and these seven or eight other programs you need to run really use all that much CPU, then perhaps the 2600k might be the way to go. Having said that, I'm sure the 2500K would still be pretty great.
 
am also looking to get either 2500k or 2600k but can't decide :|

I'm leaning towards 2600k as i'm hoping it would be slightly more future proof maybe? or am I just being stupid.

which would be better for mostly gaming and possibly video editing?
 
that was my thinking. if only the price difference wasn't so much. :(

I will probably still go with the 2600 though, it's too tempting :p
 
Does anyone know if Lightroom speeds up on the either new SB or old i3/5/7 family with more threads?
With my C2D I had to for example convert in batches (set half of files to start converting and then other half a few seconds later) and then it would use two cores...
 
mpl330 said:
Hi,
So the SB chips are now out so I am speccing my new build...
Rig will be used only for Flight Sim which is very CPU intensive plus I also need to run about 6 or 7 other programs at the same time so which SB chip would be more appropriate?
I notice a lot of posts saying only bother with I5 if you are gaming (I guess thats because of the graphics card doing more of the work) but with the CPU load for FS I wondered if the I7 would be better?

Thanks
Click to expand...

You would be better to wait. A number of members of various flight sim forums are toying with the idea of upgrading to sandy bridge from i7 procs and if I were you I would let them do the experiments.

If the flight sim you are talking about is FSX then I would definitely wait.
Most benchmarks for the sandy bridge platform have used programs which are designed to address modern hardware correctly.

FSX does not address modern hardware correctly (that's to say does not leverage the power that modern hardware is capable of) and my feeling is that FSX will just swallow this processor maybe giving just an incremental increase in frames.

Just my opinion of course, but I am waiting for Intel's next release or maybe bulldozer from AMD.


Bryan.
 
I'd like to know what differences games like supreme commander show when comparing the 2500k and 2600k.

I could get a 2500k or a 2600k as the price difference doesn't really bother me that much but I wonder if I will see the benefits of taking the 2600k over the 2500k any time soon.

I guess my plan is to skip the next gen and I wonder if a 2600k might be needed for this. Depends how games go really. It seems to me that the gpu's are taking over the world now that they are used for things like physics too and folding at home etc.
 
Anandtech Review.

According to their tests the 2500k is on par, if not 1 or 2 frames higher than the 2600k in some games, which is pretty awsome considering the price of i5 is ~£80 less. Therefore, 2500k is what I will be buying, thus skipping ivybridge, and upgrading again in 2012.

Anyway, I highly recommend you check out the Anandtech, it highlights the differences In performance between the 2 chips.

EDIT: Found the link.
www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20
 
Last edited:
8igdave said:
I'd like to know what differences games like supreme commander show when comparing the 2500k and 2600k.

I could get a 2500k or a 2600k as the price difference doesn't really bother me that much but I wonder if I will see the benefits of taking the 2600k over the 2500k any time soon.

I guess my plan is to skip the next gen and I wonder if a 2600k might be needed for this. Depends how games go really. It seems to me that the gpu's are taking over the world now that they are used for things like physics too and folding at home etc.
Click to expand...

I'll be testing this very game on Wednesday to compare against my 3.0ghz Q6600 so I'll let you know. If i forget to post or post it elsewhere and you don't see it poke me with a stick or something to remind me lol.
 
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