i5 2500k pcie 2.0 vs 3470 pcie 3.0 for 760 Sli?

rufusdared · May 7, 2014

Hello,
I have recently got a few PC components and am teying to figure out the better build.

I have a Asrock z68 Extreme3 Gen3 MB and 2 Gtx 760 for Sli. What I'm trying to decide is if it would be better to use the 2500k and be limited to pcie 2.0, or would the 3470 be better as I would be able to use pcie 3.0.

Thank you!

dottorrent · May 7, 2014

Keep the 2500K. It's faster and still excellent for gaming. Plus, you can overclock the hell out of that CPU with a good cooler.

And just for pointers, the Z68 chipset doesn't support PCI-e 2.0. That's the Z77 chipset.

Rationale · May 7, 2014

2500k + 2.0 is better, but only by a few fps.
Go with whichever option is cheaper.

cdrkf · May 7, 2014

rufusdared :

According to Asrock the z68 Extreme 3 supports dual PCIe 3.0 x 16 lanes so no problem there.

The 2500K should be fine so long as you're not going for insane resolutions (CPU is more of a bottle neck for SLI configs, however overclocking it should help).

Rationale · May 7, 2014

cdrkf :

No idea why you would say something like that. Resolution barely matters at all to the CPU, that's handled by the GPU.

Sakkura · May 7, 2014

dottorrent :

The chipset is irrelevant, the connection is straight from the CPU to the PCIe slot without ever interacting with the chipset.

The only reason you tend to need these "Gen3" motherboards with the Z68 chipset to support PCIe 3.0 is that the motherboard will need a separate switch to split the 16 lanes for x8/x8 SLI/Crossfire. And on the older Z68 boards they would put switches that support PCIe 2.0 since it was unknown whether Intel would add support for PCIe 3.0 with Ivy Bridge (as they ended up doing).

Motherboards without such a switch do no support SLI, but they will automatically support PCIe 3.0 with an Ivy Bridge CPU.

cdrkf · May 7, 2014

Rationale :

Lol true *oops*, what I was trying to say was more that CPU scaling is more of an issue with dual GPU configs than with single (just look at what Mantle can do with dual cards...). The 2500K is fine for any single card, however for a pair of 760s in SLI? I wonder if it might hold them back?

Usually Toms benchmark SLI on the Extreme edition chips with 6 cores / 12 threads to avoid that issue, so perhaps a nice ivy i7 would be worth it in this scenario?

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i5 2500k pcie 2.0 vs 3470 pcie 3.0 for 760 Sli?

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