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Ok same question nearly 3 years on! Time to upgrade my i7 920?
- Thread starter Blackhorse
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Thanks for all the input guys
Whilst I'm comfortably clocked at 4.1ghz
Maybe I should leave things for another 6 months
X99 does look appealing however! :|
Whilst I'm comfortably clocked at 4.1ghz
Maybe I should leave things for another 6 months
X99 does look appealing however! :|
Personal experience.
Replaced i7 930 @4ghz with x5650 @ 4.2.
Gaming negligible. Streaming better. Encoding huge.
Upgrading monitors to above 60hz, I notice lots of cpu limitation now I have 3 980tis, but if I was either on 60hz monitors, or one card, I dont think I would notice tbh.
So for me, I am now beginning to look into a cpu/mobo/ram upgrade, but before getting the 144hz monitors, and noticing that on one 1440p screen I often get cpu limited around 85-120fps (depending on game etc), I feel I need a cpu/mobo (pci e 3 bandwidth, usb 3 for oculus rift etc) over the next several months.
Replaced i7 930 @4ghz with x5650 @ 4.2.
Gaming negligible. Streaming better. Encoding huge.
Upgrading monitors to above 60hz, I notice lots of cpu limitation now I have 3 980tis, but if I was either on 60hz monitors, or one card, I dont think I would notice tbh.
So for me, I am now beginning to look into a cpu/mobo/ram upgrade, but before getting the 144hz monitors, and noticing that on one 1440p screen I often get cpu limited around 85-120fps (depending on game etc), I feel I need a cpu/mobo (pci e 3 bandwidth, usb 3 for oculus rift etc) over the next several months.
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I'd probably hold on. Maybe grab an m.2 drive and pci-e adapter for it, which you can then move to your shiny new setup once broadwell-e and maybe zen launch. And perhaps a GPU upgrade, though the 7970 is no slouch.
Hi Guys
First of all thanks for helping an idiot over the years, its very much appreciated, to be honest its the sole reason I wont shop anywhere else (obviously no direct link to the store, but the its down to their forum so figure its only just to keep the money going to an area where im helped!)
Following on from the thread I posted in March 2013
Motherboard and processor remain the same, tweaked a few quick fire wins i.e. graphics card and memory
This computer seems to be doing well but I seem to have this itch to upgrade what is an 6.5 year old processor and motherboard!
My primary use is gaming, seems to still perform well barring the odd hiccup with tearing in certain games
Currently running:
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66GHz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) (Clocked at 4.1GHz)
Asus P6T Deluxe v2 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 850W ATX2.2 Modular SLi Compliant Power Supply
Corsair CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9 12GB DDR3
Graphics card is obviously a more recent purchase and is fine
ASUS Radeon HD 7970 ROG MATRIX Platinum 3GB
I run games on a single monitor at 1080 resolution (reason for this as its a
Samsung S27A750D 27" 120Hz 3D Widescreen Ultra Thin LED Monitor
So same question if i could
Am i actually going to notice any improvements? Or just hang fire again?!
Absolutely. Nehalem is an old CPU, Haswell and Skylake offer huge upgrades in performance as well as all the new nice technologies.
I upgraded from a 920 to a 6700k and wish I'd upgraded sooner, minimum fps increased drastically in games.
My 920 was clocked at 3.8Ghz (C0 stepping, max mine could do).
My 6700k's 24/7 overclock is 4.8Ghz on it's default 1.3v. It runs far cooler (and thus quieter) than my 920 did.
Soldato
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I just upgraded from amd 8320 to an i7 5820k and my minimum fps has more that doubled eg 30fps to 65fps in project cars. So i would look at your minimums first before deciding. Your gfx card is quite old too to it might be better to upgrade that first. What fps do you currently get in games?
Last edited:
Soldato
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I went from a i7 920 to an i5 4690k both stock and noticed a jump in fps with the same gfx card on Valley benchmark. Seems I was bottlenecked. Its also a big jump in term of energy efficiency the old chip really pumped out the heat when it cranked up the newest one you barely seem to notice.
Yea but you can't compare Intel with AMD chips. Even an i3 is quicker than the "high end" AMD cpus.
Soldato
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True, but it does show what a cpu bottleneck looks like which is why I asked op to look at his minimums, if hes getting big drops then he could be cpu limited.
I'm in exactly the same position...
I have an 920 and a 7970 card. For years now I've been saying 'I will upgrade my CPU'.
Started with Ivybridge- disappointed because no solder. I'll wait to ivy-e. Oh, no solder. OK. I'll wait for haswell.
haswell- no solder. haswell-e underwhelming.
It's been a long time coming, but broadwell-e seems to be the one. As long as it's soldered and decently priced. New cores, die shrink. Same with next gen graphics. Now is the time to upgrade. People saying wait til skylake. Why? Seems like a meme to me.
I have an 920 and a 7970 card. For years now I've been saying 'I will upgrade my CPU'.
Started with Ivybridge- disappointed because no solder. I'll wait to ivy-e. Oh, no solder. OK. I'll wait for haswell.
haswell- no solder. haswell-e underwhelming.
It's been a long time coming, but broadwell-e seems to be the one. As long as it's soldered and decently priced. New cores, die shrink. Same with next gen graphics. Now is the time to upgrade. People saying wait til skylake. Why? Seems like a meme to me.
Why the need for solder?
My skylake runs much cooler than my I7 920 ever did, and it's currently clocked at 4.8Ghz.
Soldato
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You will be waiting forever for the perfect cpu. New cpus = expensive.
Same advice, get an x5650 and a new gpu like a fury nano. Would be a solid upgrade.
It seems to be a theme here to recommend out of date technology...
No thanks, I'll actually use my brain! Next gen graphics will be a huge leap in performance and worth the price. 920 was fine, but broadwell-e is definitely the time to upgrade.
The benefits of an X5650 over an i7-920/930 have been explained numerous times in this thread. Yes of course you can upgrade your entire system instead but it costs way more and not everyone wants or needs the extra benefits that comes with such an upgrade.
Alright, don't have an extra 2 cores for a 20 quid outlay to tide you over.
It's a theme because its sound advice.
Thats because I know what I'm talking about... I've done the upgrade or so call upgrade myself from x5650 clocked at 4.4ghz and a 5820k
The former cost 65 quid the latter was 600 quid from MM and it was so disappointing for the outlay I sold the 5820k and x99 combo and stuck with the Xeon
If you are in x58 now it's the logical upgrade for very little cost.