6700k Skylake worth the upgrade from Sandybridge 2600k?

[UKMach]

Usually every 5 years Ill upgrade my CPU/Mobo/RAM to higher end components of that time. GPUs are every 2/3 years for me.

Last upgrade in 2011 was:

Intel i7 2600k O/C to 4.6ghz
ASUS P8P67 deluxe (has USB issues now)
I plan to upgrade my GTX980 to the pascal equivalent when released and that this machine will be running HTC Vive when also released of which I would like a decent experience from when gaming. Also needs to be relatively future proof for the next five years.

My question is, is it really worth upgrading my 2600k to a skylake i7 6700k? As to me the 2600k still seems like a really good chip which can handle a lot thrown at it and the difference of this upgrade seems a lot smaller than when I previously upgraded 5 years ago.

Also, I know there are always other product lines around the corner which I could wait for, but are there any major developments including any next generation upgrades such as inputs/outputs on the mobo that I really should wait for:

USB 3.1 is out now
DDR4 is out now
What about SATA IV?
Any next gen PCIe out soon?
Anything else Im over looking?

Also been reading other threads and notice a bug within the skylake fixed by a BIOS update but still is a little off putting.

 

[UKMach]

Stick with what you have. Or go the X99 route if you feel you need to upgrade.

I did consider the X99 route and like the look of more bandwidth, particularly when it comes to SLI and using a M2 SSD but would 4 faster cores not be better than 6 slower cores for gaming? I still dont think the gaming industry has caught up multi core cpus and havnt really gone past 4 cores yet. I could be making a mistake here and not future proofing myself with this as I bet at some point the industry will catch up with this.

 

[UKMach]

Its not as simple as updating just the CPU, my motherboard is having issues with its USB and Im feeling it is coming to the end of its life which is pushing me towards upgrading. Im also thinking about buying a Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e NVMe SSD which is another driver. Then there is the amount of RAM, currently 8gb from my research is more than enough but I swear I have seen a couple of games recently recommend 8gb RAM which bring me back to my future proof question of will 8gb be tehe recommended standard required soon in 3/4/5 years time and that 16gb will allow a buffer in the most highly demanding games

 

[UKMach]

Also for gaming these x99 cpus will make hardly any difference to gaming again, when games don't use all the cores and they rely on IPC and clock speed on the first 2-4 cores.

Thats the issue I have with the X99, although the extra PCIe lanes are tempting but then I dont want a tri SLI/Crossfire setup.

I fell for all the fake benchmarks too on the internet and intel must be paying off a lot of the tech sites to go on about how sandybridge is dead and skylake kills it off... What a load of rubbish really.

Seems a bit far fetched that all these benchmarks are better and the conclusion is that Intel paid them off?

If you have a 2500k and up don't waste your time, invest in a new graphics card and higher resolution monitor and you will enjoy your pc more. If your pc dies for any reason then of course skylake will be your only new option for the latest 4 core system or if you want the new features on the motherboard like m.2, usb 3.1 etc. all of which you can add to your board with a expansion card anyways..

Waiting for pascal, have a decent monitor and I need to sort my USB out. just out of interest what motherboard do you have with your 2600k? Might be the cheapest option that Im happy with

 

[UKMach]

Absolutely. Skylake is a big jump from Sandybridge in CPU bound games, of which there are many.

Here's a comparison video comparing a 6700k to a 4790k. They even clocked the 4790k (Haswell) 300Mhz higher than the 6700k just to show how good the increased IPC is:

That does make an interesting video and following watching several, if I was to upgrade I feel it would be the 6700k. I cant even say for absolute sure that 6 cores will be required for gaming in several years time. I dont feel that since 4 cores have been out that the gaming industry has even taken full advantage of this technology alone. Could it be that they are limited by the fact that 6/8 cores are not mainstream and there is no point for them to do this yet?

 

[UKMach]

My motherboard for the 2600k is this one here (Asrock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3):-

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3/



The benchmarks on a lot of the sites are done in such a way that they hand pick the software and settings to make it show any difference. Like I said I was so mad when I realised the reality, I only updated as I love FSX and FSX loves IPC and high clock speeds, skylake has these "supposedly" when I compared my 2600k at 4ghz and the skylake at 4ghz.. I saw hardly any difference to the games I play and FSX, then I tried a 4.8ghz overclock on the skylake, which it hardly would stay stable at but gave me enough time to benchmark and again 2600k vs 6700k hardly any difference just a few synthetics showed a good few gains, but real world apps/games didn't.. maybe 1-5% was what I was seeing for a huge investment in a 4 core system.. just the asus motherboard I got for it cost £325, then the cpu £335 and ddr4 £275 it came to like £955 with delivery.. for a 1-5% increase from what I had.

Bad joke from intel.. We really do need AMD back in the game to stop this silliness.

Havnt even considered AMD since the days of the athlon 64

 

[UKMach]

We need AMD to raise the quality of their CPU's and that will make intel compete again and provide better CPU's again and not minor updates and in most cases they are only speed bumps and they are playing them off as IPC improvements. Basically overclocking the cpu's and making them look slightly better than the previous versions that basically had a lower clock speed at stock.


AMD is not for me either but they stir up intel and make them behave a bit too and create a price war per performance as we had in the past. The consumer wins then, we get better priced, better specifications cpus then. When their is no competition in the market it becomes a monopoly as with intel and nvidia right now, they don't have to make their products too much faster every generation and sell them for higher prices than their competitor. Sadly and their competitor is only AMD in both markets.

Yeah completely agree, but then if we consumers are not buying their products it goings to be harder and harder for them to get back in the game and seems like a slippy slope

 

[UKMach]

So I got really close to buying a 6700k, had it all sat in my basket but the mobo was out of stock. Then my house mate talked me down as it is a lot of money which is all based currently on a want and not so much on a need. My mobo is on its way out, which if it goes completely turns it into a need buy. Until then and also until VR is properly out Im putting buying anything on hold. He also made the point that prices for DDR4 is really high currently and the longer I wait the cheaper that will become.

Thank you all for your input! It has been really appreciated

 

[UKMach]

You might say 5820k owners are hedging their dx12 bets on extra cores, whereas the 6700k owners are still gambling that the extra IPC will hold sway. My own gut feeling is that by the time we know for sure, we'll all be looking at newer shinier products.

I think the wisest thing to do currently it is wait. Save money and then buy the shinest product out when its needed