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Birthday present coming up help 2600k

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Hi Forum,

First of all my specs are:
- CPU is currently a i7-950 at 3.9Ghz with Arctic Freezer 13 Pro CO
- GPU is a MSI 7970 at 1190 core clock.
- PSU is a Corsair 850W TX Power supply
- 6 GB of RAM
- 1920x1080p gaming
- Computer used solely for gaming (Battlefield 3, upcoming Guild Wars 2, Skyrim, Dragon age 2, COD etc).

Now my birthday is coming up and my girlfriend has agreed to buy me some computer parts.
Based on my gaming needs (i prefer max settings, and generally focus alot more on FPS competitively), so i wanted to ask,

Sp my options for the present are:

1. CPU
Would there be any real advantage FPS wise of significant magnitude to upgrade from my I7-950 @ 3.9Ghz to a I7-2600K (new motherboard and ram of course) to clock it to 4.5-4.8Ghz?

Or,

2. GPU
Another 7970 graphics card (i intend to go 120hz for FPS gaming soon anyway).

Any advice/recommendations etc is appreciated.


Thanks.

More about : birthday present coming 2600k

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CPUs Master

Overall the CPU will be a bit better but not enough to really push BF3. Another HD7970 would be the best way to go but make sure to get the same one you currently have for best stability and results.
CPUs Authority

If you can get both, why the hell not? :) 

I will agree, 950 @ 3.9ghz is still badass, however the 2600k is significantly better.

Maybe start with 7970 crossfire and hold off until Haswell (new Intel arch)?

Btw, unless you're on a ~2500x1600 monitor, a single 7970 + i7-950 should have zero trouble running anything on all high.

Maybe your present could be a 2500x1600 monitor. :)  That's what I'd do TBH.

Raidur said:
If you can get both, why the hell not? :) 

I will agree, 950 @ 3.9ghz is still badass, however the 2600k is significantly better.

Maybe start with 7970 crossfire and hold off until Haswell (new Intel arch)?

Btw, unless you're on a ~2500x1600 monitor, a single 7970 + i7-950 should have zero trouble running anything on all high.

Maybe your present could be a 2500x1600 monitor. :)  That's what I'd do TBH.


Why is the 2600k significantly better than the i7-950 @ 3.9ghz (for gaming of course)?

Yea i think 7970 crossfire with 120hz monitor might be the way to go until Haswell CPU.

7970 + i7-950 certainly has no problems running anything at the moment. But since its a birthday present, i figured why not get a new piece for my computer. lol.

Still looking for opinions though.
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By the way does anyone have any comparisons between equally clocked i7-950 and a i7-2600K (for gaming - not encoding or other stuff that i don't do).

I attempted to track some down, but it is proving hard to find a direct comparison. So far the results kind of show the i7-2600k would "appear" to be around 10% faster than the i7-950 if they both were at the same clock.

CPUs Master

your gf is gonna spend a lot of money and get you 0 fps boost from the cpu, you would be better off waiting till haswell for the cpu upgrade and buying an ssd rather than the gfx card...
CPUs Authority

expensivecomputer said:
Why is the 2600k significantly better than the i7-950 @ 3.9ghz (for gaming of course)?

Yea i think 7970 crossfire with 120hz monitor might be the way to go until Haswell CPU.

7970 + i7-950 certainly has no problems running anything at the moment. But since its a birthday present, i figured why not get a new piece for my computer. lol.

Still looking for opinions though.


With a single 7970 you won't see much of a difference between the 950 @ 3.9 and an i5-2500k OCd in anything but CPU bound games.

7970 crossfire will show a greater leap in performance due to the CPU having a much higher workload.

The i5-2500k will overclock easily to 4.4-4.6, 4.6-5.0 with high quality air, and 4.8-5.2 with proper water cooling. Add another 10% IPC and you have a significant increase. :)  Where as Nehalem CPUs (like the 950) get 3.8-4.0 with air and 4.0-4.4 (if lucky) with liquid.

Having a high-resolution monitor (2500x1600) changes this due to putting massive amounts of stress on the GPU(s) lowering the FPS, making the CPU work less.

I do agree, possibly go with something other than CPU at this time. Nehalem is still badass by today's standards and overclocked has no problem putting out massive FPS on any game.

Wait for Haswell.

I had a look at the benchmarks and it appears for gaming (which is my sole purpose), spending $500 on mobo/cpu/ram would yield around 5-10 fps, which is a joke lol.

So i guess it is evident that investing in the second 7970, which probably will yield another 60-100 fps is the answer and complement my future desire to go 120hz gaming for first person shooters.

Appears leaving the CPU out for now will be fine.
CPUs Authority

There's more than that, most reviews don't have multi GPU setups.

However I agree, you'll have no trouble running anything with your current CPU.

Are you unhappy with your performance btw? Is a single 7970 not cutting it in any games you play?

Raidur said:
There's more than that, most reviews don't have multi GPU setups.

However I agree, you'll have no trouble running anything with your current CPU.

Are you unhappy with your performance btw? Is a single 7970 not cutting it in any games you play?



Firstly i play first person shooters competitively when i do have time to play it, and i know 120hz gaming is the way to go for that.

Secondly, i am happy with the performance, but since its a birthday gift lol i'm trying to determine which choice, CPU or GPU would make me even moooore happy.
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