I5-2500K time to upgrade??

hulari · 12 Mar 2017 at 12:52

I'm still using my 2500k, albeit at stock 3.3GHz but with a 980ti. I play at 1440p and it's handling everything I throw at it. I've had the upgrade itch on it a while but I'm still waiting. I should really overclock it and see how much performance I gain.

jay0906 · 12 Mar 2017 at 13:44

hulari said:
I'm still using my 2500k, albeit at stock 3.3GHz but with a 980ti. I play at 1440p and it's handling everything I throw at it. I've had the upgrade itch on it a while but I'm still waiting. I should really overclock it and see how much performance I gain.

Sandry bridge are great overclockers assuming you have good cooling 4.5-4.7 should be quite easily attainable. Will give a nice boost to those minimums and just make the whole experience smoother in general.

hulari · 12 Mar 2017 at 13:51

jay0906 said:
Sandry bridge are great overclockers assuming you have good cooling 4.5-4.7 should be quite easily attainable. Will give a nice boost to those minimums and just make the whole experience smoother in general.

Yeah, I have a H100i hooked up to it with the intention to overclock. I ended up going through one of my phases where I didn't play much and never got around to it. So I should easily be able to hit 4.5+ hopefully.

jay0906 · 12 Mar 2017 at 13:54

hulari said:
Yeah, I have a H100i hooked up to it with the intention to overclock. I ended up going through one of my phases where I didn't play much and never got around to it. So I should easily be able to hit 4.5+ hopefully.

Go as high as you can while remaining under 1.4v. It can be intimidating overclocking the first time round but it's a lot easier than you'd think.

hulari · 12 Mar 2017 at 14:20

jay0906 said:
Go as high as you can while remaining under 1.4v. It can be intimidating overclocking the first time round but it's a lot easier than you'd think.

thanks for the tip. I will have a look later today perhaps and see how high I can get it!

eclap · 13 Mar 2017 at 01:31

I just upgraded from a 2500k @4.5ghz to a binned 5ghz 7700k from OcUK this week.

Also got Asus ROG Maximus IX Hero, 2x8gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200mhz and Noctua NH-D15.

The 7700k indeed is running at 5ghz as we speak, peaks out in mid 70s under P95 Blend. In games it's in 50s. One game in particular I struggled in with the 2500k was Black Desert Online (BDO). My 2500k ran at 100% CPU usage on all cores and in towns I was getting from mid 20s to mid 40s fps. Now with the 7700k I'm getting 60fps in towns, with drops to low 50s sometimes (depends on the situation, weather, population etc). CPU usage is anywhere between 30%-55% across all of the threads. It feels a lot smoother.

Also tried The Division and I went from around 60fps to 80+fps with the same settings. Haven't had time to try many more games. I am really happy with my upgrade.

Oh, Qnix710 (1440p/120hz/PLS/27"), Zotac AMP! 980ti.

Threepwood · 13 Mar 2017 at 01:50

jay0906 said:
Go as high as you can while remaining under 1.4v.

I'ld go as high as temps allow @ 1.4v.

Mine does 4.7 @ 1.4v with temps below 80c with maximum stress/load.

Edit: Dark Rock 3 cooler.

sityeuropa · 14 Mar 2017 at 16:06

Upgraded my 2500k @4.2ghz as I finally felt there was a big enough upgrade now instead of these yearly 5% clock for clocks.

For comparison on Cinebench 15

2500K @4.2ghz
Multicore - 561
Single - 147

1700 @4ghz
Multicore - 1731
Single - 160

Crockett · 14 Mar 2017 at 20:54

sityeuropa said:
Upgraded my 2500k @4.2ghz as I finally felt there was a big enough upgrade now instead of these yearly 5% clock for clocks.

For comparison on Cinebench 15

2500K @4.2ghz
Multicore - 561
Single - 147

1700 @4ghz
Multicore - 1731
Single - 160

Thanks for sharing results.

Sitting on a 2500k and considering 7700k and 1700 as I mainly game but extra grunt for handbrake and the like would be handy.

Doppleganger · 15 Mar 2017 at 18:40

I took the plunge and upgraded to a Ryzen 1700 as I really didn't want to move to another quad core and it seems like the time was right to finally retire the trusty ole 2500k, long may she rest in eternity.

I would encourage anyone on the fence to check out adoredtv's Ryzen review on Youtube. It's quite compelling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0fgy4rKWhk

Cheers
D

Puzzled · 15 Mar 2017 at 21:27

Interesting video that. I'm trying to find a new motherboard to overclock my 2500k but second hand prices seem silly. Might just put the money towards a ryzen upgrade later in the year instead.

zipp0r · 15 Mar 2017 at 22:47

MonkeyMan said:
Any recommendations for a good motherboard to keep an eye out for second hand to give some new life to my i5-2500k?

asus P8P67 PRO B3

AiiR · 15 Mar 2017 at 23:04

MonkeyMan said:
Interesting video that. I'm trying to find a new motherboard to overclock my 2500k but second hand prices seem silly. Might just put the money towards a ryzen upgrade later in the year instead.

Thats the wisest move, don't overpay for ancient tech.

Doppleganger · 15 Mar 2017 at 23:09

AiiR said:
Thats the wisest move, don't overpay for ancient tech.

Which is one reason I upgraded to Ryzen. I needed hyperthreading (it's the one flaw re the 2500k) but didn't see the point of dropping potentially a couple of hundred on a SB/IB i7.

andy_mk3 · 15 Mar 2017 at 23:37

Of you already have a 2500k then a 2600k is a very cheap upgrade if you sell your old cpu.

I'm not denying there's a lot of good upgrades from a 2600k,but right now it's not doing me any harm and working very well.

Psycho Sonny · 16 Mar 2017 at 09:01

strumpusplunket said:
I've had a 2500k sitting comfortably at 4.4GHz for nearly five and a half years. A great life for what was a really inexpensive CPU at the time (£155 I bought if for!). For it to have held up so long for such an initial outlay shows what an outstanding chip it's been.

CPU's last pretty much forever don't they?

it's PSU's and motherboards that tend to fail first within a system.

hard drives is the main consumable that you tend to go through. in fact I'm sure I've only ever had 1 PC die on me and the motherboard in that was around 10 years old and they didn't make those types of mobos anymore. oh and I had a cheap PSU melt on me and all I had to do was replace that. It was in a pre-built machine.

I don't think I've had any PC i've built myself die on me all been pre-built PC's that have had issues. Only hard drives. I usually end up giving old PC's away to family and I reckon the one I built 13 years ago is still working too.

I never overclock though and I always go overkill on cooling.

strumpusplunket · 16 Mar 2017 at 09:30

Psycho Sonny said:
CPU's last pretty much forever don't they?

it's PSU's and motherboards that tend to fail first within a system.

hard drives is the main consumable that you tend to go through. in fact I'm sure I've only ever had 1 PC die on me and the motherboard in that was around 10 years old and they didn't make those types of mobos anymore. oh and I had a cheap PSU melt on me and all I had to do was replace that. It was in a pre-built machine.

I don't think I've had any PC i've built myself die on me all been pre-built PC's that have had issues. Only hard drives. I usually end up giving old PC's away to family and I reckon the one I built 13 years ago is still working too.

I never overclock though and I always go overkill on cooling.

Oh yeah, I wasn't referring to it still being functional. I wouldn't have expected it to die by now. I've never had a CPU die either. I meant it's held up in terms of performance - still chewing its way through high-end games admirably and hasn't given me a reason to seek to upgrade until now, when I'm just starting to notice the odd situation where I wonder if the CPU is bottleneckig my new GPU (not absoluely sure it is, either, just guessing from what I'm seeing).

Psycho Sonny · 16 Mar 2017 at 09:43

It's going to cost a lot of money for a big upgrade from your current system. i'd say it's still good for another 3 years easy.

Try and upgrade on the cheap and you won't see the improvement to make the money spent worthwhile. You would need to be going for a high end CPU and you would need new RAM which isn't cheap atm and prices are only going to go up for the next year or two.

When Brexit actually happens prices will go up again.

So it's either a buy big and buy now or wait at least 3 years situation your in.

IvanDobskey · 16 Mar 2017 at 10:36

Yes, i can see prices going up again when brexit (ugh i hate that naff made up word) actually happens.

One of the reasons i deceided to do my upgrade before xmas.

Very pleased with my 6700k setup, despite not not really needing to upgrade.

Puzzled · 16 Mar 2017 at 12:51

andy_mk3 said:
Of you already have a 2500k then a 2600k is a very cheap upgrade if you sell your old cpu.

I'm not denying there's a lot of good upgrades from a 2600k,but right now it's not doing me any harm and working very well.

Yeah was thinking about that but then I'm still not sure if modern games are actually making use of HT or extra cores (most threads on this subject are a few years old). Been offered a pretty good price on a 3930k setup which is a 6 core, would that have any real gaming performance increase over an overclocked 2500k?

Tbh at stock the only game I've struggled a bit with is Forza Horizon 3 but that just seems to be poorly optimised for everyone.