Phenom II 720 upgrade to 2500k?

[omega21xx]

Currently I have a Phenom II 720 BE unlocked to a quad @3.5ghz (lapped)
Mobo: ASRock 970 extreme 4
Ram: G.Skill Ripjaw 1333 8gb (4gbx2)
Case: Sentey optimus extreme
HSF: Corsair A70 (lapped)
GPU: (6870 primary + 6790 as a gift for crossfire) i know it's a weird combo
PSU: OCZ ZX 850 80+ Gold
SSD: OCZ Solid 3

I orginally bought this in anticipation of BD which we know how that went. i'm basically bottlenecked in crossfire situations (and skyrim which of course drops below 30fps) 3.5ghz is the best this chip can do without going higher than 1.475 and going higher than 54c (damn c2 stepping)

I'm thinking my best bet would be to switch to a 2500k. i have a friend who will buy my cpu/mobo/and 6790 for ~300 making me close enough to buy i5 and asrock E3G3 (~350 newegg). suggestions? i would wait for PD but... even with a 15% increase in performance (i think this is what they expect from it) it still wouldn't really compete with SB (probably beats the previous gen i3/i5/i7 though)

anyone think this is a good idea? bad idea? think i could do better some how?

 

[esrever]

you'd be upgrading to play 1 game. you have to ask yourself if its worth it.

skyrim is poorly coded for the cpu and thus doesn't run well on anything but OC'ed sandy bridge.

 

[omega21xx]

I mainly used it as an example. Since I don't play in 3D or resolutions beyond 1080p 120hz, crossfire won't help on a phenom ii. Getting smoother minimum frame rates is what I'm really after. Paying 30-50 to increase this and have better overclocking I think is worth it seeing as i will upgrade to a 7950 when they are out.

 

[esrever]

crossfire does help on a phenom II, you'd get a lot more fps with a gpu upgrade in anything but skyrim. Crossfirex is also not that great and has issues giving good minimal fps so that might be your problem.

 

[omega21xx]

Yeah, especially with 6790+6870 (6790 tends to have driver problems), i know well enough to which games i need to disable crossfire for. I know it helps but getting a 25% boost in most games at 1080p isn't much (i know there are quite a few games that have better scaling but my experience shows most only have a marginal benefit unless playing at higher res) i also do transcoding/encoding and remote desktop some gimp ect so it seems like keeping similar game performance and having a better processor and better power phase (8+2 on the intel board i picked vs 4+1 on my current board) for just 50 bucks isn't too bad.

 

[randomkid]

Yeah, especially with 6790+6870 (6790 tends to have driver problems), i know well enough to which games i need to disable crossfire for. I know it helps but getting a 25% boost in most games at 1080p isn't much (i know there are quite a few games that have better scaling but my experience shows most only have a marginal benefit unless playing at higher res) i also do transcoding/encoding and remote desktop some gimp ect so it seems like keeping similar game performance and having a better processor and better power phase (8+2 on the intel board i picked vs 4+1 on my current board) for just 50 bucks isn't too bad.

Your 6870 scales down to 6790 specifications when crossfire is activated. So gift or no gift, the 6790 holds you down. So if you can sell the 6790 ( or give it as a gift in return ) & buy a 2nd 6870 (they should go down in price when the 7XXX goes out, then you can maximize crossfire. If you can not imagine selling or giving away a gift, then just put the 6790 on the shelf on display.
But of course, you can do as you say & get the 7950 but I doubt it will be good $/performance at launch price.

 

[omega21xx]

A 6790 in crossfire on average performs better than a 6970. When i have a game that works well with it its great. My major problem I guess is I get the itch to upgrade constantly. So eventually I'll have either an eyefinity setup or 3D and I'll want it to be as good as possible. My current build was supposed to be just a place holder for a future build like I said before. I guess I just see selling the 6790 in a platform change wouldn't affect me performance wise and I'd have a better pc for future upgrades.

 

[omega21xx]

Best answer selected by Omega21XX.

 

[omega21xx]

Thanks, decided to just go with what you two suggested, i'll keep my current build and probably just sell the GPU's. Probably going to get a 6970 instead and use the saved money to get a nice rasa kit.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey