Upgrade from 2500k?

strumpusplunket

strumpusplunket

strumpusplunket

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I currently have an i5 2500k rig with a GTX780 (full specs in sig). Had this rig for five years now (graphics card was upgraded two years ago) and I've not up to now felt much impetus to upgrade.

It still runs most things well enough at 1080p but I find I'm starting to have to turn a few things down even at that res, and seeing the requirements for the new Deus Ex makes me wonder if it is time to stump up for an upgrade.

I only really research CPU and motherboard chipset information when I'm looking at upgrading so I've been out the loop on this for ages and I notice now there are bloody *loads* of CPUs around now and several chipsets too.

I'm completely lost! Really no idea what's what!

A couple of questions for the more knowledgeable OcUKers:
1. Can I get a worthwhile upgrade for around £500-600 or is that unrealistic?
2. If not, how much would I need to look at spending to make an upgrade worthwhile?

I only need CPU, RAM (16GB ideally), and GFX card. Though happy to defer GFX card to later if that will help with budget.

(I am presuming my Prolimatech Megahelams will still cut it for cooling the latest CPUs?)

My criteria for "worthwhile":
  • Offers a nice increase in general performance and in framerates in demanding games
  • Ideally plays at 1080p maxed out for newest games, and also cheaply/easily upgradeable to game at 1440p
  • Will keep me gaming at 1440p for the foreseeable (with a GFX upgrade here and there)
  • Needs an Nvidia card as I have a Gsync monitor

Cheers!
 
I don't see an issue with the setup you currently have, but I do see why you would want to upgrade. Have you considered upgrading the GPU only?

The CPU won't really make that much of a difference as the increase in performance isn't great between generations, but there is still an increase to be had - if you'd notice is a different question.

980Ti/1070 would do you @ 1440p for some time.
 
snips86x said:
I don't see an issue with the setup you currently have, but I do see why you would want to upgrade. Have you considered upgrading the GPU only?

The CPU won't really make that much of a difference as the increase in performance isn't great between generations, but there is still an increase to be had - if you'd notice is a different question.

980Ti/1070 would do you @ 1440p for some time.
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I did consider that, yeah. The thing that got me thinking about a whole upgrade was the specs for Mankind Divided making my rig seem old and decrepit and a few posts on here indicating that chips of the 2500k's ilk bottleneck better GPUs.

If that's not the case and I can get squeeze another year or more out of this system then all the better!

Is there anything to choose between a 980Ti or 1070, or is just a matter of finding the cheapest deal on either?
 
Overclock your cpu and get a gtx 1080 will be a solid upgrade. I am running a 2600k and yes it may be 5-6 FPS behind in games but that to me is not worth £600 to buy a new platform entirely. It really does not make all that much of a difference really.
 
harry5522 said:
Overclock your cpu and get a gtx 1080 will be a solid upgrade. I am running a 2600k and yes it may be 5-6 FPS behind in games but that to me is not worth £600 to buy a new platform entirely. It really does not make all that much of a difference really.
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I currently have it at 4.4GHz, which it's been at since about a week after I got it. It will do a couple of hundred more MHz but it's a bit of a jump it voltage for not much gain.

Good to hear Sandybridge still going well with the newest GPUs though. Although you have hyperhreading as well which the 2500k lacks. Don't know if that makes a difference these days. It never used to, but there was always the idea that someday soon games would start taking better advantage of extra threads.

jigger said:
You have a 1440 monitor?
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Not yet. I have an AOC 1080p GSync monitor. Pleased with it for the time being, but I know thinking I'll get a 1440p GSync/Freesync/whatever when prices drop and choice increases.
 
Yeah, it needs to be an Nvidia card. I am totally taken with GSync and not planning on changing my monitor for another year or two.

But £600 is way too much for a gfx card! I mean, yeah, that's what I'd thought of as an upgrade budget and I do have the cash for it, but I just couldn't justify that outlay on a single component!

I've always had £200 as my max spend on a gfx card, although I guess with inflation I could stand to up this to £250 or so. :)

And looking at the prices that leaves me choosing between a 980 or 1060 - or trying to find a 980Ti on the MM.

Or waiting until the 1070s drop in price to the region of £250. Which of course I've no idea about. I'm quite shocked at how expensive they are tbh for the sub-top tier cards.
 
Keep the cpu and get a 1070. I have just upgraded from a EVGA GTX 780 FTW to a Inno3D Ichill x3 GTX 1070 and it is a big upgrade. Some games are seeing almost double the fps at 1920x1200 and my next move is to buy a Gsync 2560x1440 monitor.
 
I went from a 2500K to a 6700K, a nice jump but a newer graphics card would probably have been a more sensible upgrade.
 
strumpusplunket said:
Yeah, it needs to be an Nvidia card. I am totally taken with GSync and not planning on changing my monitor for another year or two.

But £600 is way too much for a gfx card! I mean, yeah, that's what I'd thought of as an upgrade budget and I do have the cash for it, but I just couldn't justify that outlay on a single component!

I've always had £200 as my max spend on a gfx card, although I guess with inflation I could stand to up this to £250 or so. :)

And looking at the prices that leaves me choosing between a 980 or 1060 - or trying to find a 980Ti on the MM.

Or waiting until the 1070s drop in price to the region of £250. Which of course I've no idea about. I'm quite shocked at how expensive they are tbh for the sub-top tier cards.
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I don't get this at all. You're happy to spend £600 on a group of components that will give you a decent upgrade, but not one component :confused:

Surely the one component is better. Less to go wrong and simplest to install.
 
A 980ti/1070 will more than double your performance at 1440p.

I went from a 780ti to a 980tiboth OCd to the max and saw around 55% increase.
 
1070 and keep the CPU. The CPU is no slouch and as others have said, you'll not see a huge difference in CPU tasks but if you get a 1070 you'll see a huge difference in frames ingame.

Total outlay £350-400ish - Your 4.4 CPU is still a cracking chip.
 
robfosters said:
I don't get this at all. You're happy to spend £600 on a group of components that will give you a decent upgrade, but not one component :confused:

Surely the one component is better. Less to go wrong and simplest to install.
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It's probably because like most of us what we are looking for is a decent system or monitor upgrade.

We have graphics performance coming out of our ears and £500-600 for a graphics card to power a 2-4 MP monitor is ridiculous when you can do it for half the price.
 
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robfosters said:
I don't get this at all. You're happy to spend £600 on a group of components that will give you a decent upgrade, but not one component :confused:

Surely the one component is better. Less to go wrong and simplest to install.
Click to expand...

Well, apart from the subjective feeling that it's a lot for single component, there's the issue of not wanting to blow my whole upgrade budget on one component. Just because I may not upgrade my whole system now doesn't mean I won't feel the need in a year or so.

I'd expect a whole system upgrade to last me five years or so, so the £600 spread over it all feels like good value. Sinking the whole lot on a GPU would mean I'd have to start saving a PC upgrade fund all over again and possibly not be in a position to upgrade it all when I might want to.

Also there's the sense that yeah the 1080 is clearly better than the 1070 or 980Ti, but £150-250 better? I dunno, probably not for my purposes really.

It seems gfx cards are really expensive right now in general though. Looking at £350-400 for a card that's not even top of the range isn't something I think I've seen before.

Will keep an eye on prices and on the MM, I think.
 
I have a 2500k at 4.2 and I've gone 460-670-780-980 and seen a significant performance increase each time, although less so from 780-980 as it was an RMA replacement for the 780. Upgrade the card and overclock IMO.
 
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