I7 3820 upgrade to 3770K

[macharius]

A few months ago I bought a 3820 with a i7 motherboard ASUS SABERTOOTH X79, but I've seen compare against the new 3770K Ivy Bridge and seen that it is much better. The issue is that I have GTX 590 SLI and not that I do keep my i7 3820 for the 40 channels PCI Express, or buy a i7 3770k for the extra performance offered by the processor?

I should have waited for the launch of Ivy Bridge? Now I keep thinking if it would better i7 3770k vs my i7 3820, but gained the platform LGA 2011 with the intention of a future you can upgrade to Ivy Bridge-E ....

All day thinking if my i7 3820 was a waste of money...

 

[HEXiT]

its more of a sideways step , even overclocked there will be little in the way of performance gains in games. it should offer a small improvement in cpu bound apps but not really enough to warrant the change... if your looking to get the e series you should just wait till it arrives and then you should see some improvement but still not a whole lot...

 

[WR2]

Hello macharius;

No need for you to go upgrading the CPU.
Your i7-3820 3.6Ghz Sandy Bridge-E is not yet ready for retirement.
It still has more than enough CPU power to support 2x GTX 590 in SLI.

Ivy Bridge i7 3770K socket 1155 will not fit in your SABERTOOTH X79 socket 2011 motherboard.

 

[macharius]

I know that the socket of my motherboard is not compatible with the new IB but the new Z77 chipset is newer than the X79 obsolete, but actually offers performance improvements?

meaning that benefits could take to upgrade my i7 3820 with motherboard asus sabertooth X79 vs i7 3770k with motherboard asus sabertooth Z77

 

[macharius]

In other words if I had to buy a computer now you should buy:

- i7 3820 + ASUS SABERTOOTH X79

- i7 3770k + ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77

 

[bwrlane]

Your CPU is great and will not bottleneck your GPU setup (even one as powerful as yours) except at frame rates that are already so crazy high that any CPU bottlenecking is of no consequence.

The 3770k is arguably a bit better but not much. In "upgrading" you would gain more overclocking ability, and very slightly IPC performance. In turn you lose the 3820's higher cache per core (admittedly not very relevant for games). You will see no difference whatsoever.

Having said that, I've always thought the 3820 is a bit of a pointless CPU. Performance is a wash compared with the 3770k/2700k, yet with the 3820 you lose quicksync and overclocking ability.

The only reason I can see for getting a 3820 is as a cheap(ish) entry point to the 2011 platform. The 2011 platform offers higher PCIe bandwidth, memory bandwidth and an upgrade path to hex core i7. Only the last of these is relevant to home users and even this is irrelevant for gaming.

But not to worry. Your CPU is absolutely fine and you will gain nothing by getting a 3770k

 

[WR2]

If you have some extra money you might want to look into buying a couple extra monitors for a 3-screen Nvidia Surround setup. Maybe some nice speakers. Things like that.

 

[Kenshin55]

You have a really great system. You should be really happy about that, the X79 the most powerfull chipset right know (is no near obsolete). The SandyBridge-E are the most overclockable CPUs for productivity, a lot more than Ivy Bridge...Just like the X58 was a revolution when it came out, in fact ppl with with a i7 920 or higher know the dont have to upgrade to Ivy bridge, because the gains will be little (5 to 10%)

I totally agree with WR2, you should get SLI with 2nd Nvidia GPU, get a Sound Blaster Recond 3D, 3-monitors for Nvidia Surround and play at 5760x1080 with dual PCIe x16 (you can even do that with 3D monitors), Thats one of the biggest configuration for gamers!
Few people in this world will ever get that chance (including me, i cannot afford an Sandy Bridge-E setup).

An Ivy Bridge Mobo CAN'T do that, Z77 can only play x8x8 or x8x4x4

There are rumors that Ivy Bridge-E (coming at the end of 2013) will be compatible with LGA2011, so imagine you could upgrade to a IB-E in about 15 months, it will be like a GrandSlam!

 

[InvalidError]

An Ivy Bridge Mobo CAN'T do that, Z77 can only play x8x8 or x8x4x4

With a 48 lanes PCIe 3.0 switch IC like PLX's PEX8749, a z77 board should be able to run x8x8x8x8 fine.

But for someone who already has an LGA2011 board, waiting for IB-E might be a better option.

 

[Kenshin55]

Do you even know the price of a PEX 8749?...

 

[dansgas1000]

I'd wait a whole year until the 3820 turns older and then I'd get a 3930k or what ever 6 core intel processor is out then.

 

[InvalidError]

Do you even know the price of a PEX 8749?...

Announced prices go up to $70.

Keep in mind that someone paying for a board that has the PLX chip on it would likely have the intention of tossing over $1200 worth of video cards in that PC so the $70 premium is not that far fetched and going down the LGA2011 route would still be even more expensive than that.