Is there any point buying new hardware anymore?

drakioned · 7 Apr 2014 at 09:51

Hi all,

Is it just me or has there been no real jump since the i5-2500k/R7950 era?

I'm currently running:
Haswell Xeon (E3-1230v3)
2x 4gb 2400mhz DDR3
3gb GeForce GTX 780
256gb Samsung 830, 2x 250gb Samsung 840, 480gb Seagate 600
27" 1440p monitor

I moved from a i5-2500K and a R7950 and DDR3-1600 and I think I've noticed basically no difference.

I can't see any hardware that's available or upcoming that I would expect to make any giant difference, compared to the old days when 2-3 years meant some significant jump.

badcompany · 7 Apr 2014 at 10:15

Lower power consumption.

snips86x · 7 Apr 2014 at 10:17

Honestly, I would have kept the 2500k setup until the nm change with Skylake. I'm not surprised you've seen no difference - if there was one, it would be minimal.

ExRayTed · 7 Apr 2014 at 10:38

snips86x said:
Honestly, I would have kept the 2500k setup until the nm change with Skylake. I'm not surprised you've seen no difference - if there was one, it would be minimal.

This. Utterly no point in changing.

The real question is: Why didn't you ask here first? We could have saved you money.

snips86x · 7 Apr 2014 at 10:43

ExRayTed said:
This. Utterly no point in changing.

The real question is: Why didn't you ask here first? We could have saved you money.

I'm still running my 2500k @ 4.5 with 8GB RAM & a HD7970. BF3/4 70-100fps with max settings and 60 on Neverwinter & Batman. Cannot ask for anything more. Smooth as butter

stulid · 7 Apr 2014 at 10:45

Epeen.

Idleman · 7 Apr 2014 at 10:56

stulid said:
Epeen.

That about sums it up.

drakioned · 7 Apr 2014 at 11:51

ExRayTed said:
This. Utterly no point in changing.

The real question is: Why didn't you ask here first? We could have saved you money.

I have a compulsive need to purchase computer hardware. Although this current lack of progress in computer hardware is curing me of this.

In some context, this is the extent of my compulsiveness.
Rig 1. Xeon E3-1230v3 / 8gb DDR3-2400 / GTX 780 / 256+250+250+480gb SSD
Rig 2. i5-3330 / 16gb DDR3-1600 / R7950 / 240gb SSD? + some mechanical I can't remember
Rig 3. i5-3470S / 16gb DDR3-1600 / R7950 / 480gb SSD
Shuttle 1. i5-3470S / 16gb DDR3-1600 / 250gb + 3TB HDD
Shuttle 2. i3-3220 / 16gb DDR3-1600 / 2x 3TB HDD
Shuttle 3. i5-3470S / 16gb DDR3-1600 / 750gb + 1TB HDD
Shuttle 4. Celeron G1620 / 2gb DDR3 / 120gb SSD (to be replaced with a 240)
Shuttle 5. Athlon XP 2500+ / 512mb DDR / 120gb HDD (to be replaced SSD from above)
HP Microserver N40L, 2gb DDR3, with 2x2TB + 2x3TB + 480gb SSD
HP Microserver N36L, 4gb DDR3, with 2x2TB + 2x3TB + 480gb SSD
Laptop 1. i7-3630QM, 16gb DDR3-1600, 2x R7970M, 256+256+256+250gb SSD
Laptop 2. i7-3517U, 4gb DDR3, 256gb SSD
Laptop 3. i5-2430M, 8gb DDR3 (I think?), R6490M, 256gb SSD
Laptop 4. Core 2 Duo 2-ish Ghz, 8gb DDR2, some HDD

Edit: I badly need access to MM I think

snips86x · 7 Apr 2014 at 11:53

Would hate to received your lecky bill!!

danclivo · 7 Apr 2014 at 12:54

Another very happy 2500k user here. Only thing I'd even consider upgrading on my rig right now is the GPU (and probably the PSU along with it). I bought my 560Ti along with most of my rig during Summer of 2011 when even back then it was only considered a mid-range card, and by GPU standards it's lasted very well. To this day I've had zero problems with it. I was shocked that it could even max Skyrim with the HD packs, let alone that it's still going faultlessly even now. Granted it won't max the new stuff, but I always knew that when I bought it. Happy to wait for tech that will make a bigger jump performance-wise.

I can see my i5 coping easily at least until Skylake, whenever that may be. I do quite a bit of gaming and video editing and haven't felt in any real need of more juice from the CPU. I even livestream on Twitch occasionally (admittedly not in HD) and the thing doesn't skip a beat. Even if I did upgrade, any time I'd save on rendering videos would just as easily go uploading the sodding things to YouTube....0.9 upload

stulid does have point though

rids57 · 7 Apr 2014 at 15:00

If I was just gaming then I would have stuck with my trusty 2500K but the main reason I upgraded the core (4770K, GA-Z87X-D3H, 16GB 2400MHz) is for 3D rendering and in my case it's lopped at least 30% off the render times. I would like to upgrade the graphics card to either a GTX780 or R9 290 or even better, whatever replaces the GTX780 but because my 7950 still handles games fine at 1080p I'm in no real hurry.

snips86x · 7 Apr 2014 at 15:02

rids57 said:
If I was just gaming then I would have stuck with my trusty 2500K but the main reason I upgraded the core (4770K, GA-Z87X-D3H, 16GB 2400MHz) is for 3D rendering and in my case it's lopped at least 30% off the render times. I would like to upgrade the graphics card to either a GTX780 or R9 290 or even better, whatever replaces the GTX780 but because my 7950 still handles games fine at 1080p I'm in no real hurry.

That does make a difference, but you could have saved by getting a 2700k. Still a strong competitor compared to Haswell, overclock better and cooler in comparison.

rids57 · 7 Apr 2014 at 15:51

I could have saved but wasn't happy with my old motherboard (Asus P8Z68-LVX) as it was too basic and one of my Corsair 1600MHz sticks had died and another one would throw up the occasional Memtest error, so I thought a complete clear out was in order.

IC3 · 7 Apr 2014 at 16:13

To access MM you need to be on the forums for over 1 year and have a post count of 1k+. The spec in my signature is perfectly capable at running games at high (not the highest), the times when the performance jump was so big. That even an 'laik' was capable of noticing it, are a history now...

Grimley · 7 Apr 2014 at 17:13

badcompany said:
Lower power consumption.

This is precisely why I've decided to try out Haswell. I'm fed up with waiting for AMD to release the A8-7600. I was hoping for an Easter release date but I think this is not going to happen. :mad:

drakioned · 8 Apr 2014 at 08:11

IC3 said:
To access MM you need to be on the forums for over 1 year and have a post count of 1k+. The spec in my signature is perfectly capable at running games at high (not the highest), the times when the performance jump was so big. That even an 'laik' was capable of noticing it, are a history now...

I know what the requirements are... I just don't post enough. I've been here long enough

IC3 · 9 Apr 2014 at 13:30

drakioned said:
I know what the requirements are... I just don't post enough. I've been here long enough

Life > GD will get you that 1k post count quickly

nails666 · 9 Apr 2014 at 16:04

For most general PC usage I can understand not much of jump in the upgrade but I'd have thought if you're running modern games at 1440p and high settings the improvement from 7950 to 780 would be fairly large?

drakioned · 10 Apr 2014 at 14:26

Not really?

I mean, I was setting everything on max anyway. If there was a fps difference. I wasn't seeing it (I assume a benchmark would, but if I can't see the difference, I'm not that interested).

Doomedspeed · 10 Apr 2014 at 14:46

drakioned said:
Not really?

I mean, I was setting everything on max anyway. If there was a fps difference. I wasn't seeing it (I assume a benchmark would, but if I can't see the difference, I'm not that interested).

You will start to see the difference.

Where a lower end GPU may stuggle at 1440 in a few months/years time a newer (higher end) GPU wouldn't...

I agree with one of the first posts.

The Xeon isn't the way to go for gaming, yes it has more virtual cores put massively less powerful (per core). Thats why the i5's are gaming chips and not the xeons.