3930k or 3770k?

[BronzeApples]

Sup Guys! I am currently working on upgrading my CPU and Motherboard. I am just about to purchase a second 7970 and I need another expansion slot, also to either get a Z77 or X79. Keeping in mind the R7970 is PCI Gen 3, both boards i'm looking at are capable. I'm looking at a Rampage IV LGA 2011 or a Maximus V Gene Z77, keep in mind i'm upgrading from an i7-960 X58 chipset so i'm happy with either or. I just want your guys' opinion on which I should upgrade to, i'm willing to pay the money I just want the most of it (I also don't know too much about ivybridge as it isn't released yet and I don't care too much for projected specs or anything.)

 

[amuffin]

Why not just overclock your 960? There really is not that much difference between upgrading from a 960 to a 3770k or 3930k in gaming. All I say is overclock and you should be perfectly fine for a few more years.

 

[Pinhedd]

Hi BronzeApples,

I have a Rampage IV Extreme, a 3960x and 2 7970s so my current system is very similar to the one you are thinking of.

The x79 platform is terrific at solving the bandwidth problems inherent to the Intel 6 series chipset but its biggest advantage is the six core processor compatibility and quad channel memory. The Rampage IV Extreme has so far proven to be a damn good overclocker. By default it will run all cores at their max turbo bin, outside of Intel's turbo spec which is very nice. Memory timings for quad channel memory are also very tight. I'm currently running 32GB of Mushkin Redline DDR3-2133 DRAM using only the XMP profile and no other tweaks.

If you're buying a platform purely for gaming you probably won't notice the added cores, PCIe lanes or memory bandwidth. However, if you're into professional design work, run lots of virtual machines or just want bragging rights it is now a very solid platform. As a word of caution though, the Rampage IV Extreme needs a firmware update out of the box and the Intel RAID drivers don't like SSDs.