Hi all just trying to decide if its worth moving from my 955BE to an i5 2500k. I know the i5 will probably be faster at stock than my 955 is at 3.6 and the i5 will clock to at least 4.5GHz normally but will I notice the difference in performance in the real world outside of benchmarks? and is it £300 worth of difference?
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955BE to 2500k worth it?
- Thread starter johnno93
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Yeah, you should notice quite a difference 
Caporegime
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What graphics card do you have and what games do you play??
TBH,I would stick with you have for the time being and look at the CPUs being launched next year like Ivy Bridge.
Caporegime
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TBH,I would only consider a new CPU for a gaming PC when it comes to the point I actually find a game which the CPU is causing unplayable framerates.
Out of interest have you overclocked the CPU-NB of your Phenom II X4??
At least with the Phenom II X6 this leads to large improvements in framerates:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3877/...investigation-of-thuban-performance-scaling/7
This article is about CPU-NB overclocking with the Phenom II X4:
http://www.overclockers.com/the-importance-of-northbridge-overclocking-with-the-phenom-ii/
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Upgrading to a 2500k would be future proofing, but I'd consider waiting till Ivy.
Depends on your usage, for probably 60-70% of games you won't notice a difference unless your using a fairly high end multi GPU setup. For some games tho there is a big difference.
General desktop tasks probably very little difference a few things might feel a little more snappy, but again some things like unzipping files, media encoding, etc. will be vastly faster.
General desktop tasks probably very little difference a few things might feel a little more snappy, but again some things like unzipping files, media encoding, etc. will be vastly faster.
I went from 955 @ 3.4GHz to 2500k and although the 2500k is completely at stock speeds so far, I have noticed a very positive difference.
Frame rates are noticeably smoother and more consistent but with a single 6950 it may be less obvious.
Frame rates are noticeably smoother and more consistent but with a single 6950 it may be less obvious.
there is gonna be a much bigger difference.
Caporegime
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For gaming as always, any half decent quad(any phenom 2, anything from Q6600 upwards) is "enough" for gaming, not at stock. with a Q6600 and Phenoms really to unlimit yourself as some games have heavy single threads even if they can use multiple threads, you really want 3.2-3.4Ghz as a baseline, once you pass that theres really very very few games that you'd see a difference in.
Even more importantly most of the games that it would make a difference in, the extra performance is rather irrelevant. 25fps or 60fps in Supreme commander, its such a slow paced game, top down view, that 25fps is basically completely smooth. Most of the situations where you become cpu limited, just don't matter to performance.
Sli/xfire included, either you've moved from say a single 6950/570gtx on a single 1080p display to xfire/sli and 2-3 screens or a much higher res..... in which case that reinforces the gpu limit, or, take an fps, single 1080p screen, single gpu can get you 80fps, xfire can get you 145fps, but the cpu limits you at 130fps, you're "cpu limited" but at such a high frame rate again it doesn't matter. The main reason for xfire/sli is to get similarly good framerates at vastly higher res or settings.
Now, a 2500k will be significantly faster than a Phenom 2 in things other than gaming, they can still be a very good upgrade.
Unfortunately cost wise, Sandybridges really can't compete, £80 for a quad core AMD chip, £160 for a 2500k, they aren't twice as fast, even at their best they aren't twice as fast(couple cases they are, many they aren't even 20-30% ahead).
If you have a bit of extra money, they are faster, theres no doubt, nothing wrong with getting them, but for gaming alone I wouldn't bother at all.
Even more importantly most of the games that it would make a difference in, the extra performance is rather irrelevant. 25fps or 60fps in Supreme commander, its such a slow paced game, top down view, that 25fps is basically completely smooth. Most of the situations where you become cpu limited, just don't matter to performance.
Sli/xfire included, either you've moved from say a single 6950/570gtx on a single 1080p display to xfire/sli and 2-3 screens or a much higher res..... in which case that reinforces the gpu limit, or, take an fps, single 1080p screen, single gpu can get you 80fps, xfire can get you 145fps, but the cpu limits you at 130fps, you're "cpu limited" but at such a high frame rate again it doesn't matter. The main reason for xfire/sli is to get similarly good framerates at vastly higher res or settings.
Now, a 2500k will be significantly faster than a Phenom 2 in things other than gaming, they can still be a very good upgrade.
Unfortunately cost wise, Sandybridges really can't compete, £80 for a quad core AMD chip, £160 for a 2500k, they aren't twice as fast, even at their best they aren't twice as fast(couple cases they are, many they aren't even 20-30% ahead).
If you have a bit of extra money, they are faster, theres no doubt, nothing wrong with getting them, but for gaming alone I wouldn't bother at all.
This has been an interesting post for me as i was thinking about going i5,however with a 24" screen an all my games on virtually very high settings @60 fps i think i will save my money and stay with my unlocked 720,everygame i play runs very smooth
