Phenom ii x4 955 to i5 2500k a good upgrade?

[fcdwn777]

Hello everyone. My birthday is coming up and I am able to upgrade something in my computer. My ram is good (8gb ddr3 @1600) and my gpu is god (gtx 560 ti) but I believe my current weakest link is my cpu, a phenom ii x4 that I have oc'd to 3.9 mhz. So I want to upgrade that, but before I spend any money I want to make sure I am making the correct decision.

So, in the expert opinion of Tom's Hardware, is going from the phenom to a i5 2500k a reasonable upgrade? I will be using it mainly for gaming, and I really cant afford to spend any more than what the i5 currently costs since I will have to get a new mobo also. I also think I heard that, for gaming, the i5 is better than the i7? Just wondering. Thanks for your answers!

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

For gaming the Intel® Core™ i5-2500K is about the best processor on the market. The reason why is that there are very few games that can take advantage of more than 4 threads and those that do give so little performance increase that it doesn't matter much. So extra cores or hyper-threading end up having minimal value in a gaming system.

This should give you an idea on how these processor would stack up against each other http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=288

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[fcdwn777]

For gaming the Intel® Core™ i5-2500K is about the best processor on the market. The reason why is that there are very few games that can take advantage of more than 4 threads and those that do give so little performance increase that it doesn't matter much. So extra cores or hyper-threading end up having minimal value in a gaming system.

This should give you an idea on how these processor would stack up against each other http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=288

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

Thanks a lot, seems like it would be a solid upgrade.

 

[fcdwn777]

wait for Ivy and not Sandy but it's a good upgrade.

Any idea when the Ivys will be coming out? I heard march or april but I am not sure if that is out dated info. Also, do you have any guess if the price point will be around what the 2500k is now? I ask because if they are more expensive, then I might as well get the sandy bridge since I can't afford to pay any more right now.

 

[fcdwn777]

Well, I guess I will wait to see if the ivys are ready for release next month, if not I may go for the sandy bridge. My cpu is the only thing I am interested in upgrading at the moment.

 

[fcdwn777]

It's not so much that the money is burning a hole in my pocket, but the main game I play, WoW, is very cpu dependent, so while, overall, it may not be a huge upgrde over the phenom, in WoW it probably will be since the cpu is your biggest factor in fps there. My goal is to have better fps during raids, which are probably the most cpu intensive activity you can do in WoW.

 

[SinisterSalad]

I'm selling my 945 rig and building a 2500k one. Next I just have to sell off my pair of 6870s for a 680 Kepler! Woooo hooo! lol

 

[fcdwn777]

understood...
rest of the system specs.?

Gtx 560 ti
8 gigs ddr3 ripjaws @ 1600
1tb hdd
750w antec psu

I am thinking about getting a ssd, but that is next after the cpu upgrade.

 

[Guest]

Gtx 560 ti
8 gigs ddr3 ripjaws @ 1600
1tb hdd
750w antec psu

I am thinking about getting a ssd, but that is next after the cpu upgrade.

Have you checked the task manager when your playing, is cpu usage at 100%?.