Advice on changing my i5 2550k to an i5 3570k

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viKierannx

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Jul 8, 2012
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Hello everyone,

I have been searching the interweb, browising forums, benchmarks etc; and I'm thinking around the Christmas period to change my i5 2550k to an i5 3570k. I have a few questions about this and wondering if all you guys can help me out if you don't mind.

Now I've read that the i5 3570k supports PCIe 3.0 and is more power efficient, and this is why I'm thinking of changing, but I've also read that they run hotter then the SB chips.

My setup is listed below;

-i5 2550k @ 3.4GHz
-8GB G.Skill RipJawsX @ 1600MHz
-Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Rev.2 (PCIe 3.0)
-XFX 1GB HD6850
-Corsair HX520W PSU
-Gelid Tranquillo Rev.2 CPU Cooler

So is it worth the change to this IB chip? Because I would like to upgrade my graphics card and I've been looking at the PCIe 3.0 cards.

I also don't care about overclocking that much (Because I don't know where I would start ) but if I was to think about OC'ing the i5 3570k, would I be able to overclock to 4.0GHz safely? Without the temps being too high? I am thinking of going water cooled by either getting a Corsair H80 or a custom watercooling kit anyway to help cooling.

So basically guys long story short is, is the swap from my i5 2550k to an i5 3570k worth it? I would like a PCIe 3.0 card and lower power consumption is always a bonus. But if I was to buy this before my new card will my current GPU be compatible with the i5 3570k as it supports PCIe 3.0 and my card is PCIe 2.0.

Many regards,

Kieran :)
 
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unksol

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It is absolutely 100% in no way, shape, or form worth it and would be a total waste of money giving you right around zero benefit. And if you are going to overclock your current CPU will go past 4GHz on air cooling

PCIE is backwards compatible. Any available pcie 3.0 card except MAYBE a 690 will run in a pcie 2 x16 slot with NO performance loss
 
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viKierannx

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Jul 8, 2012
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Thanks for you reply, so if it wouldn't benefit me then I guess I won't do it, it's just I want to make myself a little but futureproof (I know with PC's you really never can be) and thought PCIe 3.0 would help me in that.

Okay, I was just watching this video here (Listed below) and he is running a HD7970 on a SB chip, which is PCIe 3.0 so wouldn't it just ruin the performance of the card?
 
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unksol

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Nope. PCIE 3 just doubles the bandwidth per lane doesn't mean the card needs it. Standards come out way ahead of time and take years to get adopted. a 7970/680 doesn't max out the the bandwidth of a PCIE 2 x16 slot so there's no performance impact/benefit. It might make a little difference in a SLI/crossfire setup if you were forced to run them as x8 slots. or with an SLI card with 2 GPUs on one board like a 690. But any current single GPU will be fine in a normal 2.0 x16 slot.

You'll want to wait till Haswell at least, and probably another generation after that
 
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viKierannx

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Jul 8, 2012
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Thanks so much for you help unksol :) I'll just leave my PC as it is for now then and just focus on upgrading my other parts like GPU and my PSU. At least now I know I can look at the bigger cards :) Thanks again!
 
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bwrlane

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Yes, just wanted to add, you will see no benefit whatsoever. At a given clockspeed, the IB chips are maybe 5% faster. This difference is too small to be noticeable and would only materialise in CPU limited applications. With a 2550K you will not be CPU limited in games, so your performance benefit from upgrading to IB will be zero.

As for the PCIe 3 issue, as others have said, this is also irrelevant. It offers more bandwidth than PCIe 2 but this only matters if your card needs more bandwidth than PCIe 2 can provide. There is no card on the market in this category. A GTX 690 or a SLI 680 would perhaps see marginal benefit but only marginal.

I'm in the same boat as you. I have a 2700K. It's in a late edition Z68 motherboard that can support an IB chip and PCIe 3. No reason for me to upgrade either...

Btw you should overclock. It's easy and will give you tangible rewards for only a little investment in time and a decent cooler.
 
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viKierannx

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Jul 8, 2012
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Thankyou for your reply too, very helpful information for me there indeed. Like I said I would overclock but I don't know how to do it safely and scared of blowing up my CPU.

So I'm looking at this graphics card here;
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/amdhd7950series/gv-r795wf3-3gd.html

This is a Gigabyte HD7950 and would this still perform as normal even though it's PCIe 3.0?

Regards,

Kieran
 
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bwrlane

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Yes that graphics card would be great. Indeed, it will perform as normal on a PCIe 2 connection. There is no benefit from PCIe 3 because this card cannot even use the bandwidth that a PCIe 2 connection offers. This also goes for two of them in crossfire, if you want to add another one later.

Think of it like a motorway. If a 3 lane motorway is only half full and flowing freely, upgrading it to 6 lanes won't make the cars go any faster! So it is with PCIe 2 and 3. One day, we'll start to see cards that are powerful enough that they actually need PCIe 3, but that day is some way off yet.

Once again, re overclocking, it's so simple that "I don't know how" doesn't really make sense! I'd just do a quick google on overclocking a 2550K, read the basics and in no time you'll have earned yourself a worthwhile free speed boost. It's possible, but not easy to fry your CPU - you'll have to do something really stupid.
 
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viKierannx

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Also regarding OC'ing all I can find on Google is people saying how high they got it and not really any tutorials or how-to guides. I would like to do it, but with my PSU being 520W (Corsair HX520W) while powering my current GPU and everything, I'm not sure how many voltages I have left to overclock.
 
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bwrlane

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Basically just go into your bios and adjust the turbo ratios of your CPU. For voltage the best thing to do is set VCORE to offset (as opposed to manual) and leave the offset to Auto. Keep an eye on the temps and if they get too high under load, then try a small negative offset to vcore. If this results in blue screens then back off your overclock slightly. That really is all. It won't make a major difference to your overall system power consumption.
 
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viKierannx

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Okay now thanks for that information but it is still confusing for me, I'm quite dumb when it comes to OC'ing, sorry about this :)

I might make a thread in the OC'ing section as my original question got answered, but thankyou so much for all your help! :)
 
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viKierannx

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Lol, looks like I'm not a very good searcher ;) But it's finding all that stuff in my BIOS as I use a Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 it's layout is completely different.
 
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bwrlane

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Yes, but it's not hard to figure out the comparable settings.
 
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viKierannx

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That is true as I've now done an overclock, I think it's safe as I've rendered out a few videos using Sony Vegas Pro putting load at about 95%, and played a few games. If you check this thread here I posted my results, so do you think I've done the overclock correctly? And do the results look okay?

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/278522-11-overclocking-2550k-safe-0ghz

Regards,

Kieran
 
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