i7 920 -> 4790k?

[Perfect_Chaos]

Been thinking again and don't know whether to buy a 4790k and board which is all i'd need, as i have a good psu and ram. Or keep my setup until Skylake-e comes out.

First i was going to go Haswell-e.. now i don't know whether to just wait for Skylake-e.

For games would upgrading to 4790k be worth it or would the difference be largely negligable?

Or would the 920 hold out long enough if i bought a high end gpu? Only thing is skylake-e isn't likely to come till 2016.. hmmm, not sure what the best path is here.

 

[smilertoo]

if your i920 is stock then you're looking at 50-80% faster for cpu speed, if you have a crazy overclock then its probably not worth it.

 

[mickyflinn]

Get a new Gpu and overclock your 920, so may need a new cpu cooler

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

Get a new Gpu and overclock your 920, so may need a new cpu cooler

3.6 ghz is the max i can get, will that handle new (and upcoming) cards fine?

I see you can check for bottlenecks by checking GPU usage, i did that with L4D2 and it was for the most part above 90% but it also had dips to around 70%.. That's probably not a good indicator though and i'm guessing it varies from game to game? Can't be a bottleneck with that game either considering its age.

 

[Dave2150]

Been thinking again and don't know whether to buy a 4790k and board which is all i'd need, as i have a good psu and ram. Or keep my setup until Skylake-e comes out.

First i was going to go Haswell-e.. now i don't know whether to just wait for Skylake-e.

For games would upgrading to 4790k be worth it or would the difference be largely negligable?

Or would the 920 hold out long enough if i bought a high end gpu? Only thing is skylake-e isn't likely to come till 2016.. hmmm, not sure what the best path is here.

I'm in a very similar situation to you. My 920 only clocks to 3.5Ghz (under a Corsair H50) and I've had it since 2008.

I've decided to wait for a DDR4 system, whether that be Haswell-E or skylake, I'm undecided yet. I don't want to have to buy faster DDR3 at this stage to make the upgrade worth it, when DDR3 will soon be old generation garbage.

 

[Qitarah]

Well considering memory isn't limiting any system performance is 99% of all tasks, the jump from ddr3 to ddr4 really wont make much difference for most of us for a good few years yet.

It depends how long you like to keep your PCs I suppose. If you keep them for ages just update your graphics card overclock if you aren't already doing so and it will last you another year easily.

 

[Xplo]

i7 920's are abit long in the tooth today and if your upgrading to one of the latest top range gfx card(s) its going to hold you back. Now is a good time to make the jump, you could sell your existing bundle for around 50-80 and put that towards just a cpu and mobo bundle.

Personally i would get a 4790k, cheapish mobo and half decent cooler for around 400. 4790k turbos to 4.4ghz out of the box, and most peoples best efforts to overclock are only getting 4.7ghz. So i would save the money going all out on coolers and mobos and just get a budget/good value that will do the trick. Make sure you get a Z97 board, which will see you being able to upgrade to Broadwell in the future. If going multiple GPU (3+) i would look into X99

 

[Atom]

I got a 920 and even at stock it isn't bottle necking my 7950.. Had it a 4ghz but no noticable difference in gaming so left it at stock.

Playing BF3 my 7950 is hovering about 98% usage..

 

[Dave2150]

I got a 920 and even at stock it isn't bottle necking my 7950.. Had it a 4ghz but no noticable difference in gaming so left it at stock.

Playing BF3 my 7950 is hovering about 98% usage..

Yep exactly. No point spending money on 4790k imo unless you have to have new stuff.

Much wiser decision to save up for 16/32gb ddr4 and haswell-E when it comes out

 

[LambChop]

It's not only about speed when changing CPU's, you're also getting all the bells and whistles a new motherboard/chipset brings, i.e PCI-E, more SATA ports, sata3, sata express, m.2, USB 3 etc.

I have an i7 920 too, I was all for the Z97, but now will wait for the X99 and Haswell-E.

 

[~>Dg<~]

at end of day its what you do with your pc.

if it handles what you do that is all you need.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

Well i'm hesitating with doing a bigger upgrade to x99 because some say Skylake with PCIE4 will make a big difference with future graphics cards, but considering the small % gains from 2.0->3.0 i'm finding it hard to believe.