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Upgrade choices from i5-2500K

~Mike~

~Mike~

~Mike~

Soldato
Joined
17 Jan 2011
Posts
9,033
Location
the King's city
Thinking it's time I upgraded my 2500K and trying to decide which is my best option. No budget as yet. Currently gaming at 1440p with a 7970 and might add a second or get a better GPU sometime next year. The 2500k will be a bottleneck.

1. i7-2700K - should be able to keep my existing motherboard {MSI Z68A-GD80 (B3)} ???
2. i5-4670K but will need a new mobo as well
3. i7-4770K again need a new mobo
4. Wait for nextgen, next year?

Thoughts?
 
The 2700K will mean you're stuck on PCI-E 2.0 even with a newer board. The 4670K wouldn't be worth bothering with. The 4770K and a new board is expensive. So a second hand 3770K is ideal.
 
Is it overclocked? if not, OC'ing it to a reasonable level may be a nice cheap way to prevent it becoming a bottleneck. Mine is at 4.5 comfortably. Could have gone a bit higher but I wasn't prepared to spend the time needed to get it stable!
 
teppic said:
The 2700K will mean you're stuck on PCI-E 2.0 even with a newer board. The 4670K wouldn't be worth bothering with. The 4770K and a new board is expensive. So a second hand 3770K is ideal.
Click to expand...
This. Definitely the most cost effective option.
 
make sure that your MB is compatible with a 3770k. They normally need a bios update to work with a Z68.
 
id wait a bit tbh unless you struggling. reason why nothing much else taxxing for 6-12 months min. so if you fine now you may aswell wait.

also with the new console tearing up the gaming market there will be mega deals on pc parts as you may of noticed recently on cards and cpu ;)

this will get tighter and tighter for retailers and well have a bargin time from january onwards ;)

so wait until jan min before thinking of upgrading .
 
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I agree with that Dodgy looking DG character....

I'd get your CPU overclocked to 4.5 (its easy) if its not already and tweak your GPU a little..

If you do end up getting a second GPU it won't be a HUGE bottleneck..
 
I concur
Keep your existing board and replace the 2500K with a 3770K.
The GD80 should have IVY and PCI e 3 support. {Check This}
Do a BIOS update before changing chips.
 
Thanks for the replies. I've already got the 2500k at 4.4 and could go higher.

Thinking about this more I'm going to leave this now until Jan/Feb and look again at my options. I will also see if I can update my bios on my mobo to see if it will allow me to use a 3770K.
 
Pushing the 2500K higher won't really help with multi-threaded games, and games that aren't well threaded won't gain anything from an i7 anyway.

All Z68 boards can take a 3770K with an updated BIOS.
 
teppic said:
The 2700K will mean you're stuck on PCI-E 2.0 even with a newer board. The 4670K wouldn't be worth bothering with. The 4770K and a new board is expensive. So a second hand 3770K is ideal.
Click to expand...

In gaming your talking not even 1-2 frames per seconds difference between PCI-E 2.0 and 3.0. Look at some benches it actually makes little to no dfference so don't base buying a new mobo and CPU on that as it wouldn't be very cost effective.
 
I keep thinking I would like an upgrade from the 2500K, but whichever route I look at I can't justify the cost-to-improvement ratio.

If I was to upgrade my CPU it seems to me that the best upgrade would be a 3770K, instead I am going to upgrade my case and get some watercooling ready for when the gains from a new CPU would be more noticeable.
 
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