Upgrading from i5 2500k?

raydeon · May 23, 2017

Thinking about upgrading the processor speed without spending hundreds of dollars on upgrading the motherboard and memory.

I'm currently running a i5 2500k overclocked to 4.2ghz. Is it really worth upgrading ? If so, which one to upgrade to without breaking my bank and with obvious improvement?

Thanks a lot for any answer.

sizzling · May 23, 2017

Is it worth it? Well what do you use the pc for? Is the CPU limiting performance?

Any decent upgrade will need a new motherboard and RAM so is going to cost

derekullo · May 23, 2017

The processor is perfectly fine.

It would cost several hundred dollars to upgrade to the latest.

New motherboard, new ram(ddr4), a new cpu (obviously lol)

why_wolf · May 23, 2017

well if you want to be cheap get a used i7-2700k a i7-3770k will also probably work.

After that you really are looking at getting a new motherboard and RAM to go with a new current gen CPU.

derekullo · May 23, 2017

I booted up an old computer with a geforce 970 and an i7-950 and it still runs like a champ.

Upgrading the graphics card is going to improve fps more than upgrading the cpu and is a much simpler upgrade as I did in the above sentence.

teknobug · May 23, 2017

Depending on what you use your rig for, if it's for gaming then yes you'll need to upgrade due to newer games being very demanding.

Zerk2012 · May 23, 2017

I have a system with a 2500K overclocked to 4.9 and it still has good gaming performance.
Those chips usually will get in the 5.0 area easy with a decent cooler.
For just gaming the performance should still be decent.
The cheapest decent upgrade would be a used i7 4790K and Z97 board reusing your memory.

derekullo · May 23, 2017

Zerk2012 :

If all he was going to reuse was the memory then he might as well just upgrade to the latest motherboard/cpu and buy new ram (ram is relatively cheap)

Or for that matter just buy a new case and build a whole new computer.

Personally I would stay with what he has and just upgrade his graphics card if he has a 2500k era graphics card, probably something like a Geforce 770.

Is that close to your graphics card?

raydeon · May 23, 2017

I'm using it for gaming with a gfx 1060 3gb

Zerk2012 · May 23, 2017

derekullo :

100 bucks for a 2x8 set and the price of a new board and processor compaired to just the price of a used CPU and board is not cheap for a small performance increase over the 4xxx chips.
Notice I said cheapest and the video card is nowhere in his question.

derekullo · May 23, 2017

Are your games not fluid enough?
Yours is at least on par with my i7-950(stock) and Geforce 970.

Are you getting 100% cpu in games?

jowen3400 · May 23, 2017

Ebay a 3770k i7

derekullo · May 23, 2017

Ebay does have a i7-3770k for $230 preowned.

https://www.ebay.com/p/Intel-Core-i7-3770K-3-5GHz-Quad-Core-BX80637I73770K-Processor/115945079

For comparison, a brand new i7-7700k costs $339 on newegg*, only costs $109 more for vastly superior performance.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117726

Now you can't use an i7-7700k with your current motherboard or ram, but I have a hard time recommending a $230 cpu from 5 years ago when a top of the line only costs $109 more.

jowen3400 · May 23, 2017

3770k cost me like 100 bucks on ebay. if you just wait you will find one.

it costs 700 bucks for 7700K You need a z270 chipset and DDR 4 ram... 340+160+130= 660 ish + shipping and tax 700.

jowen3400 · May 23, 2017

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-3770K/3647vs1317

It is 33% faster and costs 7x as much.

The 2500k is 5% for single thread and 15% for muilt threaded for a 150ish upgrade. .10 for 150 or .33 for 700 .. it is a easy choice.

jowen3400 · May 23, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-i5-3570K-3-4GHz-Quad-Core-BX80637I53570K-Processor-USED-HS-Fan-/112416855559?hash=item1a2c911607:g:QA0AAOSwGJlZJE1Z This is just BEARLY slower than a 3770k 100 bucks ...

teknobug · May 23, 2017

I had an i7 3770K and it was a phenomenal CPU, I had to sell the rig to pay for moving truck. It should be able to hold up well.

Zerk2012 · May 24, 2017

jowen3400 :

More like 18% better performance when clocked to the same speed.
The 4xxx was about a 10% increase and the 6xxx was about a 8% increase in actuall performance.
The 6xxx and 7xxx have the same performance when clocked to the same speed.

Zerk2012 · May 24, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-4GHz-Quad-Core-BX80646I74790K-Processor-/182589174720?hash=item2a8329b3c0:g:CxUAAOSwDiBZJO75

https://www.ebay.com/p/asus-z97-a-lga-1150-intel-motherboard/216050153?iid=182590338893#UserReviews

Cheapest and best option. 260 for the CPU 60 to 100 for the board.

Upgrading from i5 2500k?

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