• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Multi-Threading Vs Clock Speed?

Associate
Joined
31 Dec 2012
Posts
7
I've got to the point where it looks like I need a CPU upgrade.

I've been suffering poor frame rates and other glitches while playing Total War Rome 2. After investigating and my old i5 2400 is continuously maxed out across all cores, while my GTX 680 is barely hitting 80% at peak. I've also been having issues with my heavily modded Skyrim install, which I'd been putting down to the volume of mods I was running, but after checking, that too shows the same maxed out CPU with the GPU sitting below 80%

What I'm not sure about is what the most cost effective upgrade will be? I have about £200-£250 to spend realistically so I have two options.

Stick with my existing Z77 Mobo and buy an Ivy Bridge i7
OR
Upgrade to Haswell, but stay with an i5

Any thoughts?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Is Z87 not socket 1150 only, so no Ivybridge support?

I'd stick with your current mobo (whatever chipset it happens to be) & get a 2500k or 3570k, add on a decent cooler & overclock. So... clockspeed over threads but picking neither of your options, sorry!
 
Sorry Guys, typo there! It's a Z77 Mobo. I've updated the post!

Is Z87 not socket 1150 only, so no Ivybridge support?

I'd stick with your current mobo (whatever chipset it happens to be) & get a 2500k or 3570k, add on a decent cooler & overclock. So... clockspeed over threads but picking neither of your options, sorry!

I actually have a Zalman LQ310 Water Cooler. Bought it on a whim in an Amazon flash sale and put it aside for when I upgraded to a K series!
 
Before you spend any money - overclock your CPU. It's easy - you should get 3.6 GHz with no issues, or 3.7-3.8 GHz with BCLK raise (tricky). Obviously turn off EIST at the same time.
I've noticed some games do better when my previous i5-2300 was overclocked (to 3.3 GHz). But it was very few games. Really worth to check before spending 200 pounds for the same result ;-)
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom