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Upgrading from a 2500k to a 2600k

ToejaM

ToejaM

ToejaM

Soldato
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12 Jul 2011
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I don't really do video encoding, only a few clips here and there. So I mostly use it for gaming.

Is it worth upgrading my 2500k to a 2600k?

Are any games likely to use all the cores/threads or do any use them already?

I have a 7970 if thats relevant at all.
 
Theres a few games that make use of ht, crysis 3 and the bf games are ones of note. But they only really benefit from it with sli/xfire. If your gonna stick with one gpu just keep the 2500k tbh.
 
I don't really know a lot about the newer gen of CPUs here, I just know that a second hand 2600k is around £140 and I know it has 8 threads / cores which I thought would be good and the cheapest way to future proof.

Can you get a second hand 3770k for around that and is it the same socket?

Are there any motherboard requirements for it? I have a pretty basic mobo (never done me wrong, had my 2500k @ 4.7Ghz stable on it)

Looks around the same price on the MM

Mobo:

http://uk.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-C45.html
 
I personally never noticed any difference in the games i listed with an i5 and a single card, it was only when moving to sli that the limitations of the i5 became apparent. Hence i upgraded to an i7.
 
might need latest bios to support the ib,ive seen few ocing issues due to poor bios support idk what its like on msi

either would do you 2600k/3770k

they tend to clock better/use less voltage than the non threaded chips
 
2nd hand 3770k are about £190 but are sort after. I had to buy new.

Im going from i5 2500k & HD6950 to 3770k & R9 290. I need to update my BIOS for it to work with Ivy bridge.
 
Yeah it seems 2600's arent in abundance either!

Would be nice to see some benches for 2500k's and 2600k's with a 7970 to really see if its worth it!
 
If your seriously considering it then the 3770K gets my vote. Guessing you can make back a good % from selling you i5 after.

BTW have you clocked your 2500K ?
 
Not much to gain even for games like Crysis 3 which is multithreaded. I don't know why BF is always mentioned because there are benchmarks showing lower fps with HT. Clock that 2500k or buy new gpu for gains.
 
My CPU is @ 4.4Ghz at the moment, did have it on 4.7Ghz but turned it down due to the heat output during the summer in this small room :)

I guess the real question is, is having an 8core/thread CPU going to be needed in the future and is it worth upgrading now ready for it?

Other than a single dual gpu card, there isnt much more I can go for graphics card wise here for more performance but I'm looking really to future proof the machine and I thought doubling the threads would help that

I should see how much if at all my CPU maxes out in the games I play would be a good start?
 
Personally i would bother..

You'd get better performance in newer games (AAA titles). And will see better FPS for SLI cards.. But that doesn't apply to you..

Personally, i'd wait until the next generation (it will be a year atleast until the 2500k starts to properly struggle) Of CPU's (whether its AMD or intel) then grab the i7(top end AMD) CPU then..

Or if you really want to, get the 3770k, the 2600k just isn't worth the Doh (see what i did there) in your current situation.
 
2500k's still sell for a good £100+ so the 2600k is a cheap upgrade.

Go for it.... I paid £189 for my 2600k and that was BRAND new... But because I old my 2500k for £130 it didn't cost a lot and from a performance point of view it was well worth it.
 
Such mixed responses really doesn't make this easy at all!

OCUK only sell the 2700k now @ 249, quick google shows the 2600k @ 249ish aswell. They go for around 140 on the MM and the 2500k's go for about 95.

It's going to be a birthday/xmas present from my brother so I really want to get the best out of it.

As a twist to this, I'm actually torn between getting a new HDD for video recording in games or the CPU as my current 1TB storage fills up pretty quickly.

BF4 maxes out my CPU btw. 100% usage and 100% usage on the GPU aswell most of the time. Though I don't play a lot of BF4 I'll be honest.

I don't have any other games that would max it out but I can see games only getting more intensive CPU wise, its just dependant on whether they properly support HT
 
ToejaM said:
Such mixed responses really doesn't make this easy at all!

OCUK only sell the 2700k now @ 249, quick google shows the 2600k @ 249ish aswell. They go for around 140 on the MM and the 2500k's go for about 95.

It's going to be a birthday/xmas present from my brother so I really want to get the best out of it.

As a twist to this, I'm actually torn between getting a new HDD for video recording in games or the CPU as my current 1TB storage fills up pretty quickly.

BF4 maxes out my CPU btw. 100% usage and 100% usage on the GPU aswell most of the time. Though I don't play a lot of BF4 I'll be honest.

I don't have any other games that would max it out but I can see games only getting more intensive CPU wise, its just dependant on whether they properly support HT
Click to expand...

You can get them for £189 brand new from a certain auction site...
 
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