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Go to a 4790k/Z97 or wait for Broadwell

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I have a 2500k and seriously sick of it now after nearly 4 years with it and in certain CPU intense games like WOW its really struggling when things gets heavy, however I did recently upgrade my gcard from a 7970 to SLI GTX780Ti and pleased with the cards especially in games like Battlefield 4 but was wondering should I wait or go for the 4790k? the chip+board at £350 seems fair deal to me. One more thing would the 4790k be less of a bottleneck for my cards than the 2500k setup?
 
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With two 780ti in SLI, I would say yes a possible bottleneck. The 4790k would give you some improvements in frames both higher and low end.

Do you have a max budget for upgrades ? Maybe we can help more with figures in mind. :)
 
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I have been looking around web about broadwell k version also. It is supposed to be available Q2 2015 but not much about it's specifications except it will have smaller die.
I believe it won't be too far ahead of 4790K performance wise (core to core) as current processor technology does not have that much headroom left - I believe.
Even if you look at Haswell-E, what intel has successfully done is to add more cores and optimize efficiency. Clocks speeds are even lower than 4790k has , probably at expence of having more cores.
Would be interesting anyway to know what clock speeds of broadwell-k gonna have and cache size.

edit: btw if you buy a z97 board with 4790k you have option to replace it(cpu) when broadwell-k will be released. z97 is compatible with broadwell - so they say.
 
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There is no actual budget in mind but maybe around £1000-1200 is what I want to spend, parts I want/need are a cpu and board, new ram (the 8gb 1600mhz I have is doing my head in too), a new 1000w+ psu (my 850w corsair is making weird noises), and finally a custom loop as my H50 is getting on, oh yeah and a new case.

Also are the broadwells really that late? I been waiting for them for a year but just can't wait any longer, I even considered a x99 and 5930k until I realised how overpriced the boards and DDR4 ram are.
 
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Do you need that much wattage PSU? what card(s) do you have? my z97 setup at full load (just processor/memory load while running synthetic stress tests) peaks @ 220-230 watts.

Yes, broadwell has all kinds of processor versions, some are coming later this year , mobile i think?.

And x99 platform makes sense if you actually will utilize all that 16 thread power, in games there is practically no difference at all 8 vs 16 threads.
 
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I probably don't need all that power but its nice to have and less stress on the PSU in the long term, with 780ti in SLI and usually oc'd and with the new chip and a new loop in my mind its not wise to skimp on a psu.
 
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There is no actual budget in mind but maybe around £1000-1200 is what I want to spend, parts I want/need are a cpu and board, new ram (the 8gb 1600mhz I have is doing my head in too), a new 1000w+ psu (my 850w corsair is making weird noises), and finally a custom loop as my H50 is getting on, oh yeah and a new case.

Also are the broadwells really that late? I been waiting for them for a year but just can't wait any longer, I even considered a x99 and 5930k until I realised how overpriced the boards and DDR4 ram are.

Yeah , as mentioned above ^ :) if it were my money I'd be going x99, thats if I had £1000+ to spend. Lol
Not sure if it's worth looking at the 5930x as it has more lanes for your 780ti's , but some have mentioned that even though the 5820 is capped it does not effect until you have more then 2 cards.

But with that budget I would only consider x99
 
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I see an argument in a favour of 4790K if preference is towards single threaded performance/higher clock speed. But if this won't matter much x99 might be more future proof as it has almost twice as much overall processing power.
 

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Would say it all depends on your 2500K and if its overclocked?

Just random looking at some benchmarks and many intel cpus that are overclocked to around 3.6ghz-4ghz seem to be perfectly fine and not much difference compared to 4770k/4790k.

Just found this of interest its an 2500k vs 4790K with 60 games tested:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2389580

Shows no difference really, benchmarker says its GPU limited think he must be right considering he has a Geforce titan GPU.

Ill wait for better knowledgeable guys to answer the above, but if your 2500K is overclocked or not it does not look like you will see much difference in gaming at least.

Broadwell K as one guy said above you should be able to just drop it into the Z97 but I reckon just like the 4770k vs 4790k there won't be any real difference in real world.

Perhaps its better off waiting for next geforce cards due to be announced soon but from the sounds of it an 780gtx is top notch and maybe still faster!
 

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Also are the broadwells really that late? I been waiting for them for a year but just can't wait any longer, I even considered a x99 and 5930k until I realised how overpriced the boards and DDR4 ram are.

Check my post above with that anandtech link you will find it interesting read.

Another option maybe to attempt to sell your 2500K/mobo as a cheap bundle for £150-200 and then just spend a little and do a mini upgrade.

Do agree with above comment X99 platform will hold better resell value and probably last many years again and only £200-300 more over 4790k/z97 platform.

Also to note DDR4 16gig kits can be found around £150-170 so not much more pricey over £130-140 16gig DDR3 kits and X99 mobos @ £150 also so again not too much difference really.

Something to note also skylake will come out fall 2015/early 2016 (intels next gen cpu) and will require a new mainboard making broadwell k less attractive.
 
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I went from a 2500k at 4.6 with sli 780ti to a 4790k at 4.6 with the same.

The difference is well worth it. The 2500k was seriously bottle necking the 780tis and avg fops has increased probably by between 20 to 35% depending on what I run.

I play a lot of wow, and have gone from the 2500k seemingly to run at 85% or thereabouts to the 4790k idling along at 12 to 18% and staying under 40c almost all the time.

The gpu's run at about 50% av in wow running at 1440 maxed out and I run a second screen alongside at the same time with info etc at 1920. They sit at about 60 to 65c during heavy play.

Effectively a silent PC maxing out wow with a lot of headroom.

Best upgrade I made in a long time (SSD's are good too though!)

Hope it helps.

Martin
 
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Martin thanks for the insight into a similar upgrade I am looking into, also thanks to the people suggesting X99, I have weighed things up and as of right now I have decided to get the 4790k and gigabyte board bundle, H100i, superflower 1000w Platinum and a corsair Graphite 780T. Resale values are not important to me and I am no longer a fan of keeping PC's for 4+years, I don't know why it just winds me up after having computer stuff for a long time, as for the 2500k well I am selling it along with the board, H50, case, 850W PSU, 8GB Ram and a 120GB SSD, someone seems interested for all that for £200 I'll agree if he came and took the lot, I know its a giveaway but its to the point I'm thinking of smashing it up for some twisted reason so any money is welcome. Just so sick of Intel mugging everyone off with these small increments, what we really need is a i7 i920 style leap but I fear we'll never see a jump like that again.
 
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There's Skylake from Intel in 2015/2016 and Zen from AMD in 2016.

Both are new architectures but Zen may be a Conroe/920 D0/Athlon XP etc. Anyway I hope when the foundries get over this finfet/new materials hump smaller nm's will come more frequently again and unlock the fun stuff that's being held back atm.
 
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There's Skylake from Intel in 2015/2016 and Zen from AMD in 2016.

Both are new architectures but Zen may be a Conroe/920 D0/Athlon XP etc. Anyway I hope when the foundries get over this finfet/new materials hump smaller nm's will come more frequently again and unlock the fun stuff that's being held back atm.

Zen may also be the steaming turd that Bulldozer was.
 

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Martin thanks for the insight into a similar upgrade I am looking into, also thanks to the people suggesting X99, I have weighed things up and as of right now I have decided to get the 4790k and gigabyte board bundle, H100i, superflower 1000w Platinum and a corsair Graphite 780T. Resale values are not important to me and I am no longer a fan of keeping PC's for 4+years, I don't know why it just winds me up after having computer stuff for a long time, as for the 2500k well I am selling it along with the board, H50, case, 850W PSU, 8GB Ram and a 120GB SSD, someone seems interested for all that for £200 I'll agree if he came and took the lot, I know its a giveaway but its to the point I'm thinking of smashing it up for some twisted reason so any money is welcome. Just so sick of Intel mugging everyone off with these small increments, what we really need is a i7 i920 style leap but I fear we'll never see a jump like that again.


Cant go wrong X99 platform or Z97/4790k platform and if its all true about higher average fps in games then certainly why not.

By the way Ocuk have been sneaky yesterday and today, prices on bundles have increased!
 
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