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Haswell-E upgrade

cogrady84

cogrady84

cogrady84

Associate
Joined
18 Jul 2007
Posts
102
I asked a few months back about upgrade advice and was told I might aswell hold off for the Haswell-E. I'm a gamer primarily, is it still worth upgrading to 5820K, X99, 16Gb DDR4 from my current setup.

Silverstone SST-FT02-RWI Fortress FT02 Midi Tower
Corsair 850W HX Modular
Asus P8Z68-V PRO Z68 Socket 1155
Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4GHz @ 4.4Ghz Socket 1155 8MB Cache
G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V
Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X OC 4GB GDDR5
250GB Samsung 840 EVO

Money isn't really an issue, I was looking at this upgrade and dropping an additional R9 290 in for crossfire for just over a grand, but I don't really want to bother with the hassle if I am not going to see any serious improvements?
 
You will not see any perceptible improvement in any game. You will see slightly better benchmark numbers if that's your bag. Biggest improvement would be simply dropping in a 2nd graphics card into your current setup and add another 8gb ram (mostly to help along the 2x4gb graphics cards)
 
^ This.

I would try to overclock your CPU more. You should be able to reach 4.6-4.8 GHz reasonably easily. Clocking your CPU more will help prevent bottlenecks if you add a second 290. Otherwise, you will notice virtually no difference as even in games that support multiple threads (e.g. BF4) your 2600k's 8 threads will do just fine.

Edit, I have a 2700k system (@4.8 GHz) paired with a 780 and comparing it to my 4770k system with a 780, there is virtually no difference at 1080p. In Wow there is a 2-3 fps gain in the 4770k system due to the latter's better IPC but really negligible.
 
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Appreciate the feedback guys, will stick with what i've got, maybe go for another 290 at some point.

I seem to remember trying to go higher with my overclock but it needed some serious volts, wasn't too happy with the temps, so stuck at 4.4

Might give it a fresh look now though :) thanks!
 
Good choice m8. Having another couple of hundred mhz onto your overlock will make hardly any difference in games anyhow (presuming that you run with a res of at least 1920x1080).

Add another 290 and it'll do you proud for another couple of years at least :cool:

If you're REALLY itching for an upgrade then pickup a nicely-priced Z97+4790K setup in the MM in 6 months or so, then it won't be too much of an outlay
 
cogrady84 said:
I'm using a Dell U2713HM, so 2560x1440 at the moment, not sure if that changes the goalposts at all :confused:
Click to expand...

Get a second graphics card. See how that improves your FPS. Then, if still want to upgrade, do the rest.

I feel for you on the O/C, I've hit the wall at 4.6, even under water. Pretty stinking!

I'm getting to the stage with my set up that a whole new rig is tempting, I'm just waiting on the 980 reviews.
 
If I were you I would try and hold off another generation and upgrade to the next mainstream (so Broadwell). Unless you are struggling to power that 1440p monitor in which case I would echo what others said and just throw in a second 290.
 
For gaming purposes does it not depend on what games were talking about?

Games like star citizen and other games using cryengine 3 will be supporting 6 and 8 core cpus. And now that intel have these cores the gaming industry will start to utilise them also. So Haswell e might be worth considering for that factor.

but it all depends on what games you are looking to play.
 
HairyC said:
For gaming purposes does it not depend on what games were talking about?

Games like star citizen and other games using cryengine 3 will be supporting 6 and 8 core cpus. And now that intel have these cores the gaming industry will start to utilise them also. So Haswell e might be worth considering for that factor.

but it all depends on what games you are looking to play.
Click to expand...

Irrelevent, Quad core is perfect for ANY game right now, i7 quad is 8 thread anyway, in no way is x99 going to make any game now, or one released in the next 3 years any faster, infact as per benches *some* games are a tad slower and where its faster were on about 1-2fps......... lol, 2fps is not worth silly money.
 
100% agree if you look at any of the haswell e benchies none of the current top games even BF4 are remotely using those 2 or 4 extra cores.

Perhaps its my daft way of thinking am not expecting an 4770k with 4 cores to get 100fps in BF4 while an 5820K with 6 cores to get 130fps, its not even getting 5fps its same speeds or slower! Perhaps due 4770/4790k clock speeds or mature process.

If they released a game tomorrow which used those 2 extra cpu cores that got an extra 30-40fps more then Id upgrade so far I have not seen it happen.
 
They aren't using them now perhaps.

How long are you going to keep the chip/machine?

I've a 2600k now and had a Q6660 before it. The arguments against 6/8 cores in this thread are exactly the same as the arguments against quad cores and HT that came when those chips were released.

If you go for the 12/16 threaded CPU yes you are overspecced vs. the software, for now. If you're keeping it for four years++ then I've no doubt you will see usage within that lifetime.

If you're a serial upgrader though that argument falls flat, because it might be two years before anything happens in that regard (the maturing of multi-threaded console development for example) so you've wasted two years overspec.
 
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