Is the I7-3930K still a solid chip?

Vidar · 13 May 2016 at 03:36

Currently using a system that has one of these in it, and am still more than happy with its performance despite its age. But how does it stack up against more modern chips in the real world?

There doesn't seem to be much difference between the 3930K and 5820K on CPU boss so would it be worth it to upgrade?

abui1806 · 13 May 2016 at 04:07

Not worth upgrading. Unless you use the AVX2.0 or need M.2 SSD. Otherwise, I would suggest just clock it to 4.5Ghz then you would get a couple of years more with it.

pandem0nium · 13 May 2016 at 10:33

Still a very good cpu and will probably be more than capable for years to come.

HazardO · 13 May 2016 at 10:56

It's still a great CPU with a 4GHz+ clock. It's only downside is no gen 3 PCIe, but on an x79 platform you can afford to give GPUs 16 lanes of gen2 which has the same bandwidth as 8 lanes of gen3 from a skylake platform.

I toyed with the idea of getting a 4930k at some point to get gen3, but they're not easy to get hold of and not cheap.

Also remember that while a newer desktop board might have 3000MHz+ DDR4, unless it's an x99 board it's only dual channel memory. Even at 1600MHz, quad channel, the x79 has more memory bandwidth than dual channel 3000MHz

Vidar · 13 May 2016 at 11:49

Can you guys recommend any bulletproof overclocking guides for beginners? I have absolutely zero clues about that stuff?

Dark Light · 13 May 2016 at 13:12

HazardO said:
It's still a great CPU with a 4GHz+ clock. It's only downside is no gen 3 PCIe, but on an x79 platform you can afford to give GPUs 16 lanes of gen2 which has the same bandwidth as 8 lanes of gen3 from a skylake platform.

I toyed with the idea of getting a 4930k at some point to get gen3, but they're not easy to get hold of and not cheap.

Also remember that while a newer desktop board might have 3000MHz+ DDR4, unless it's an x99 board it's only dual channel memory. Even at 1600MHz, quad channel, the x79 has more memory bandwidth than dual channel 3000MHz

X79 does have Pci-e 3.

HazardO · 13 May 2016 at 13:42

Dark Light said:
X79 does have Pci-e 3.

I didn't say it didn't, I said the 3930k doesn't support it, the x79 only has gen 3 with a 49xx (Ivybridge-E) CPU not 39xx (Sandybridge-E). Although a sandybridge-e Xeon would also possibly support gen3.

As I said I toyed with the idea of upgrading to a 4930K but didn't think it worthwhile.

Dark Light · 13 May 2016 at 14:01

HazardO said:
I didn't say it didn't, I said the 3930k doesn't support it, the x79 only has gen 3 with a 49xx (Ivybridge-E) CPU not 39xx (Sandybridge-E). Although a sandybridge-e Xeon would also possibly support gen3.

As I said I toyed with the idea of upgrading to a 4930K but didn't think it worthwhile.

You can get gen 3 with the 3930k, from doing a bit of research it seems it is easier if you have C2 stepping, if you have AMD or if you have an older NVidia card.

HazardO · 13 May 2016 at 14:19

Dark Light said:
You can get gen 3 with the 3930k, from doing a bit of research it seems it is easier if you have C2 stepping, if you have AMD or if you have an older NVidia card.

With certain BIOSs and certain driver versions perhaps, but it wasn't stable so it was disabled IIRC.

Dark Light · 13 May 2016 at 15:16

HazardO said:
With certain BIOSs and certain driver versions perhaps, but it wasn't stable so it was disabled IIRC.

Which motherboard and stepping do you have?

HazardO · 13 May 2016 at 15:24

Dark Light said:
Which motherboard and stepping do you have?

I don't know off the top of my head. TBH I'm not really interested in trying to hack my 3930k to run at gen3, it's stable and quick as it is, and I might not be able to sustain the current OC if I put more stress on the uncore. I was also under the impression that those who had tried it had had stability issues.

I doubt I'll lose much more than a couple of percent points of performance even with the upcoming pascal GPUs. Like I said 16 lanes of gen 2 to each of my cards is as good as 8 lanes of gen3 on a skylake system.

Dark Light · 13 May 2016 at 15:29

HazardO said:
I don't know off the top of my head. TBH I'm not really interested in trying to hack my 3930k to run at gen3, it's stable and quick as it is, and I might not be able to sustain the current OC if I put more stress on the uncore. I was also under the impression that those who had tried it had had stability issues.

I doubt I'll lose much more than a couple of percent points of performance even with the upcoming pascal GPUs. Like I said 16 lanes of gen 2 to each of my cards is as good as 8 lanes of gen3 on a skylake system.

I'm might be getting a GTX 1070, just thinking if I will lose any performance in running it at 2.0 if I had to.

HazardO · 13 May 2016 at 15:40

Dark Light said:
I'm might be getting a GTX 1070, just thinking if I will lose any performance in running it at 2.0 if I had to.

Are you on sandybridge-e too?

For a single card compared to a skylake setup, you might lose as much as 10% performance, I guess.
But I got my x79 setup for SLI not for a single card, and a gen 3 skylake setup would be restricted to a maximum of 8 lanes per card at that point.

Dark Light · 13 May 2016 at 15:56

HazardO said:
Are you on sandybridge-e too?

For a single card compared to a skylake setup, you might lose as much as 10% performance, I guess.
But I got my x79 setup for SLI not for a single card, and a gen 3 skylake setup would be restricted to a maximum of 8 lanes per card at that point.

Yes, 3930k on a P9X79 Pro, but a single card though. Although I don't see any reason why I couldn't get gen 3.

HazardO · 13 May 2016 at 16:10

Dark Light said:
Yes, 3930k on a P9X79 Pro, but a single card though. Although I don't see any reason why I couldn't get gen 3.

Give it a go if you want, if it's unstable, undo it I guess. I wouldn't recommend trying to source a 4930k just for gen3 unless you know you can get a good second hand price for your 3930.

Dark Light · 13 May 2016 at 16:17

HazardO said:
Give it a go if you want, if it's unstable, undo it I guess. I wouldn't recommend trying to source a 4930k just for gen3 unless you know you can get a good second hand price for your 3930.

I am not that interested in a massive OC like you have, more interested in silence, so I shouldn't have a problem though. However, there does seems to be a noticeable difference from 2.0 to 3.0 with a GTX 980, so if a 980 is losing performance then a 1070 will lose a meaningful amount: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=395861

HazardO · 13 May 2016 at 16:58

Dark Light said:
I am not that interested in a massive OC like you have, more interested in silence, so I shouldn't have a problem though. However, there does seems to be a noticeable difference from 2.0 to 3.0 with a GTX 980, so if a 980 is losing performance then a 1070 will lose a meaningful amount: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=395861

If I can get a solid 144 fps on BF1 when it comes out, I don't care if my cards are slightly bottle necked

I'll still get a massive boost switching from 970s to 1070s or 1080s.

faceman123 · 13 May 2016 at 18:45

Amazing chip, Don't even bother upgrading.

Vidar · 13 May 2016 at 19:31

So hold on with my 3930K and Asus Sabertooth x79 board would I get a bottleneck with gpu performance if I went above the 970 I've currently got with a 1070 or 1080 when they get released?

If I could get my hands on a 4930k cheaply, would that work in my current mobo? Would that solve any bottleneck?

Griffildur · 13 May 2016 at 20:08

Vidar said:
So hold on with my 3930K and Asus Sabertooth x79 board would I get a bottleneck with gpu performance if I went above the 970 I've currently got with a 1070 or 1080 when they get released?

If I could get my hands on a 4930k cheaply, would that work in my current mobo? Would that solve any bottleneck?

you've got the same setup as me. solid processor, solid board. Still running at normal speed, no OC and performance is still very high.
I was thinking about doubling my memory from 32 to 64 but even that feels pointless at this point in time. Waiting for a newer generation processor, maybe then it'll be worth upgrading.