Possibly upgrading motherboard, few questions.

[tjosborne]

ok i currently have a asrock p67 extreme 4. it only supports dual sli or quad through use of sli 690s. i was going to go that route but realized the 4gb vram is shared and thats less than i have with my 570s so whats the point. so im thinking of 3 4gb 680s instead which isnt supported, which brings me to my questions. should i wait till 790 comes out and hope it has 8gb, which i dont see happen. or i could get another 1155 socket mobo that will support quad sli, but im wondering if that would be a waste of time since the 2500k is getting old. and lastly i could just get 3930k but i read its not too big of a performance leap over what i already have. so any help, comments and suggestions would be appriciated. ive been thinking about this for months now, and have no idea what to do. just to let you know, my pc is used for 80% gaming, and at 5912x1080.

 

[suteck]

If those are the choices you like then I would say go for the 3930K. The 2500K is a good chip but you are comparing 6 cores to 4, and then you add the hyper-threading to that mix and you now have 12 cores where as the 2500K doesn't have it. Now we all know that you will never use those cores for gaming but it gives you the advantage of the 2011 socket that adds multitudes to the pcie lanes and quad channel memory.

 

[tjosborne]

the extra cores will come in handy when the next gen consoles come out wont they? i mean the games will be more demanding and all that and id hope that consoles have at least 4 core processors. i dont know, i just dont wana waste money needlessly. i should have spent more on my motherboard when i first got it, but it being my first pc i had no idea what too look for.

 

[suteck]

The extra cores might come in handy as games progress but who can say for sure? Some of them rely more on the video card and some on the cpu so whoever and how they make the games will determine that one. And I pretty sure you will get some of each as game play evolves. As for the consoles?? are you talking like ps3 and Xbox? I don't think you can compare those to computers.

There is always the dilemma of how much should I spend on what, but I've found that if you buy the best parts you can afford when you make the build you don't have as many regrets. Figuring out what the best part are then becomes the hard part. And the first one is always the hardest.

 

[tjosborne]

as for the consoles i mean nextbox and ps4. and my mentioning them was just in consideration of a bump in how demanding games may get then if they do come with quad core cpus. but ive been reading online and i think im going to wait till haswell comes out and see if i want to upgrade then. i think ill keep what i have until nvidia releases their next cards and pick up them since they should be just around the corner and if im not happy then ill make my decision on a new motherboard or chipset. i think thats what ill do, i have a hard time making up my mind though.

 

[suteck]

That sounds like a plan. The new Haswell leaks give something like this
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/rumor_leaked_chart_details_desktop_haswell_cpu%E2%80%99s_slated_q2_2013_release - (Thanks for maximum PC for this info)
Not for much on the pcie lanes and only 2 channel memory. Although the chips will be less power consuming than ivy bridge and just as powerful, the biggest leap seems to be in the gpu area, maybe almost twice as powerful. But I also hear that they are planning them to be an especially important roll in tomorrow's Ultrabooks. Towards that end, an Intel rep told TechRadar that Haswell will be the first chip "built from the ground up with the Ultrabook in mind, and tomorrow, we're saying that it's going better than expected." So if you are looking for a powerful, upgradable cpu in a desktop I would still stick with the enthusiast's cpu - the 3930K and the 3960X, and all the extras that come with them.