Intel i5 2500k vs Amd Phenom II X4 955

[NachoEmerson]

I currently have a amd phenom II X4 955 overclocked to 3.8ghz. I was wondering if I should upgrade to a 2500k and an intel motherboard? I have a Sabertooth 990FX motherboard right now. I use my pc for gaming mainly battlefield 3, mass effect 3, skyrim etc.

This is the motherboard im looking at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131790


I plan on getting a gtx 680 when I have the cash or 670 when they come out but heres my specs

Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard
AMD Phenom II 955 @ 3.8ghz per core
MSI R6850 Cyclone 1GB 900/1125 OC
DDR3 1333 Ram 4GB G.Skills
Cooler Master HAF 912 case
Hyper 212 plus CPU cooler
Corsair GS600W Powersupply
500GB Western Digital 7200rpm hard drive
HP 2311x 1080p Monitor

 

[wr6133]

I wouldnt. That system will run you for a while. Yes a 2500k will be faster but not in any huge way you will notice. Better off throwing another 4GB RAM in that and running it till at least Ivybridge matures

 

[jsc]

Agreed. Your system is still pretty capable.

 

[Chaz21]

2500k fan that I am, in this case I must agree, painfully, with wr6133. Add 4gbs of ram for now. With the Ivy Bridges' arrival the prices of the Sandys' should come down some. My only concern would be future availability. While the 2500k CPU may be better than the AMD 955, you'll only see a slight increase in FPS at this point by switching. Your real jump will come with the 680.

 

[hellfire24]

better upgrade your gpu to 7870 or similar.

 

[jeffredo]

http://www.techspot.com/review/458-battlefield-3-performance/page7.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/507-mass-effect-3-performance-test/page5.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/467-skyrim-performance/page7.html

In BF3 you'll see very little improvement at 1080p. In ME3 you'll see about 15% and with Skyrim its kind of hard to say. The Intel CPUs are much better, but they did extensive revisions to the game via patches around Dec/Jan that greatly improved performance across the board. I have an X4 980 and paired with just a GTX 460 1GB its smooth as butter on Ultra (with only shadows dropped a notch to High).

These CPU scaling tests I linked were done with a GTX 580, so with your HD 6850 you probably won't see much improvement. I'd go with a better GPU first to see if it gives you the performance you want (and then worry about a new CPU/mobo if it doesn't).

 

[NachoEmerson]

I have 8GBS of ram just one of my ram slots on my motherboard went out so Im only using 2 sticks. My plan here is to higher my lowest fps. I can't even play battlefield 3 at low settings at 1080p without dropping under 60fps at one point

 

[wr6133]

That sounds odd. I play decent frame rates on high at 1080p with a Phenom II and a 550ti.

If you want FPS boost though stick the cash on a decent GPU that CPU will hold up fine with a much better card

*edit* I dont by all means mean never move to Intel but as Ivy is launching soon it would make sense to use that Phenom II for a while till Ivybridge matures/has bugs ironed out and then think of a CPU upgrade

 

[kaizcv]

While the 2500k CPU may be better than the AMD 955, you'll only see a slight increase in FPS at this point by switching. Your real jump will come with the 680.

 

[NachoEmerson]

Alright you guys convinced me haha. I read alot of people sayin they switched from a phenom to an i5 and saw a HUGE increase in there minumum FPS. Any way so my best choice would be just go for the 680?

 

[wr6133]

I would you will see a HUGE increase in FPS ok arguably the CPU may bottleneck the card a bit but the gain you see will be big and tangible. Then in the future if you want to do the CPU and mobo that card can be carried over to next build.

I'd sort that RAM out too sometimes on BF3 I go past 4GB usage. RMA the board if its in the time window for that or grab 2, 4GB sticks and use them to make 8GB.... toss the old ones on Ebay

 

[NachoEmerson]

I would hate the have a bottlenecked 680 lol. But I have had the board for 7 months and just a couple days ago I tested the second set of ram slots and one of them is dead. The motherboard has a 5 year warrenty so I hope I can get a replacement. But Nobody thinks it would be a good idea to get the Intel cpu motherboard combo and sell my amd combo?

 

[NachoEmerson]

I have about 200$ right now for the upgrade. If I sell my Sabertooth 990FX (When or if I RMA the board) with the phenom II 955 and 4gb ram I could get the Intel 2500k combo. Or wait for aftermarket cooler gtx 680s to come out (I will have the money by then)

 

[computernewb]

you'll probably notice the most difference getting a better graphics card.

 

[NachoEmerson]

Best answer selected by NachoEmerson.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey