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x79 or Haswell for multi monitor gaming?

sn0w8

sn0w8

sn0w8

Associate
Joined
14 Nov 2010
Posts
139
Hello all.

I am going to be upgrading my gaming rig this month. I have been a multi monitor gamer for the past 3 years and its now time to retire my trusty old I7 920 (3.8ghz)

here is my current spec PC. This PC is used 70% gaming 20% web design 10% video editing.

I7 920 Bloomfield overclocked to 3.8ghz
6GB Ram
SLI GTX 670's
Gaming at 5760/1080

After many hours of research I am still a little split on what to go for so I thought I would ask you guys for some help.

This is the best article I could find on the net

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6985/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-at-1440p-adding-in-haswell-

Being a multi monitor gamer I will be retiring my SLI GTX 670s next month as well. At the moment its likely going to be 2 GTX 780 Lightnings. I am waiting to see what the red team come up with.

To give this upgrade some longevity I want to be able to have the flexibility to add a 3rd graphics card if needed due to gaming at 5760/1080.

So do I go x79 or Haswell with a PLX motherboard?

X79 gives me the PCI lanes I need, but the benches have been disappointing for Ivy-E. Clock for clock Haswell is faster.
paying all that extra for 6 cores doesn't make a huge difference in gaming with 2-3 cards it appears

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6985/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-at-1440p-adding-in-haswell-/5

Haswell gives me the modern architecture, and is faster clock for clock. But once I have factored in a PLX motherboard I'm paying almost the same money for a x79 platform with a 4930K

The person who wrote the article I have been using as reference concluded that Haswell would be best for my requirements as I'm not going to go quad SLI.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6985/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-at-1440p-adding-in-haswell-/9

The only difference is the benchmarks in this test are not at multi monitor resolutions

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.
 
Last edited:
"Cheap option"

4760K and Asus Z87-WS.

Haswell now. Or wait for the next gen 2011 style platform in a year or so to avoid plx(?)
 
Thanks for the suggestions so far. The quad core 2011 might be a good idea. If I wanted to do this build on a budget I could pick up a second hand i7 980x. That would give me a good boost... But I will be missing out on pcie3!

I'm still leaning toward x79 though. And if I decide to shell out the cash for that platform the way I see it... I might as well get the real benefit and get a 4930k!
 
For SLI gaming I would still go Haswell. 2011 only makes sense if you are definitely going to be using programs that are fully mulitthreaded and will use the extra cores.

You might have more upgrade options with 2011 but lets face it, if you get Haswell and with the recent and proposed increases in CPU performance you're not going to need to change your system any time soon.
 
wam7 said:
For SLI gaming I would still go Haswell. 2011 only makes sense if you are definitely going to be using programs that are fully mulitthreaded and will use the extra cores.

You might have more upgrade options with 2011 but lets face it, if you get Haswell and with the recent and proposed increases in CPU performance you're not going to need to change your system any time soon.
Click to expand...

I wanted to have the flexibility to go tri sli at some point in the future. If I went Haswell I would have to get a plx motherboard. Add that in to the total price and your only about 150 off getting a equivalent x79 system with 6 cores.

Its a bit of a conundrum!
 
sn0w8 said:
I wanted to have the flexibility to go tri sli at some point in the future. If I went Haswell I would have to get a plx motherboard. Add that in to the total price and your only about 150 off getting a equivalent x79 system with 6 cores.

Its a bit of a conundrum!
Click to expand...

Get your self any x79,, you know you want too.

I've just started putting together my one, have to say the boards do look good with the memory slots either side of the CPU...:)
 
Go x79.

Might be slightly slower, but who cares....

I'm scouting around for another 680 to accompany a new 6 core and PSU.
 
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