Need advice on what CPU to buy this week end.

[zoots]

Hello there!

I am planning on upgrading my CPU/Motherboard this week end.
My current rig is:
i5 760 2.8ghz
Asus Maximus III Gene
8GB 1333mhz
MSI GTX 660Ti 2GB.

You might be wondering why I will change my current first generation i5 to a new one ? Well, a friend would like to buy my i5 760 + Motherboard and I've done some research on the internet and it looks like I will gain a good increase in performance if I switch to a 2nd or 3rd generation i5/i7 CPU.

To be honest, it seems like my CPU bottleneck since I got my new GTX 660Ti. It might just be me.. but there's something wrong with that CPU.

So.. yeah, the i5 760 is on socket LGA1156 which is why I have to switch to a new motherboard 1155.

My question is; Which CPU should I choose for gaming ? I only game on that PC.

Should I go with i5 2500k/i5 3570k or i7 2600k/i3770k.
If I don't plan to overclock, I have heard i should go with the 3rd generation (3570k or 3770k)
If I plan to overclock, I should choose the 2nd generation (2500k/2600k) since the price is better and it runs cooler than the 3rd generation.
Ivy Bridge will probably run a bit higher but it has a higher thermal threshold than the Sandy Bridge.

What would you do ?

I need advice.

Thanks!


PS: I can buy the i7 3770k for $319.

 

[henydiah]

get 3rd generation for gaming + little OC ( ran 4ghz for dailly it's good job) , i5 2500K for game and higher OC .. all oc need big and good cooler minimum hyper 212evo phantex/NHD-14 / or h100

 

[zoots]

So I should go with i5 3570k or i7 3770k ? Knowing that I will only play games.
Will I really see a difference between these 2 CPU when it comes to gaming ?

 

[henydiah]

i7 3770k

 

[deathengine]

Get the 2500k or the 3570k. If you are just gaming, you wont need the 3770k. You wont see a difference.

 

[zoots]

Care to explain why i7 3770k would be better for gaming ?
I keep searching on the internet and people seems to think that i5 is better for your bucks when it comes to gaming.

 

[zoots]

Thanks for your reply deathengine. That pretty much sums up what I keep reading on the internet.
If I plan to OC.. I should go with i5 2500k instead of 3570k ?

 

[henydiah]

i7 3770K also better for game and tranconding http://www.bittech.net/hardware/cpus/2012/05/01/intel-core-i5-3570k-cpu-review/1

 

[robthatguyx]

a thing called diminishing return is what makes the i5 3570k better

 

[zoots]

What is this Diminishing Return ?

 

[robthatguyx]

diminishing return is when the money you pay starts to fall off from the performance you get from something, in gaming terms is it really worth paying so and so much for that tiny bit more of frames

 

[InvalidError]

What is this Diminishing Return ?

Diminishing return is when the extra cost/effort you put into something does not increase the perceived value/usefulness by an equal or greater proportion.

Going from i5-3330 to i5-3470 gives ~15% more performance for ~10% more cost.
Going from i5-3470 to i5-3570 gives ~7% more performance for ~10% more cost
Going from i5-3570 to i5-3570k gives ~3% more performance for ~10% more cost @ stock clock
Going from i5-3570k to i7-3770k gives (-2)-10% more performance for 50% more cost in most games

Once you go beyond the i5-3470, you start paying a lot more per extra FPS.

 

[lilotimz]

Adding to what others have stated already, this is called the Law of Diminishing Returns. It's something that all people should need to know of really. InvalidError gave a good example about it with his cpu examples.

But basically, the Law of Diminishing Returns states there is a point where increased spending of money in acquiring something starts to be wasted.

A basic example would be hiring people for a floor worker position at a super market. Basically, you start off with a skeleton crew of 10 workers. Everyone is constantly busy and can hardly keep everything in stock and help the customers. What do you do? You hire more workers to relief the skeleton crew and provide a better experience and increase the efficiency of the workers. But then you hire the 50th worker. At this point, everything is always done due to a lot of workers being on site. Workers start idling and doing nothing other than just standing around. You are thus paying them to stand around and do nothing which is inefficient and wasting money. Somewhere between 10 workers and 50 workers is the point of diminishing returns where hiring too many workers yield diminishing returns (wasting money) because everything is always done and there's nothing to do.

This is a very basic / off the top of my head explanation of the Law of Diminshing returns and there could be mistakes in it but it gives the point i hope.

In CPU terms, Invalid explains it well. Basically there reaches a point where spending more money on a CPU is useless as the performance increase becomes minuscule while the price becomes enormous. Whereas you can spend $20 more to get 10% boost in performance from one processor to another, you can then spend a $100 more to get another processor that's 5% better. That 5% of a boost in performance is 5 times more expensive than that of the first CPU jump while yielding no major increases in performance. Thus the 2nd cpu of the three is the point where the law of diminishing returns kicks in for any additional cpu after that greatly increases in price compared to the amount of performance you gain. AKA, not worth it.

 

[zoots]

Thanks for all the answer guys!
I went from my i5 760 to a new i5 3570k and there's a big difference in terms of performance.
I am not quite sure what is the % of performance gained.. but I can definitively see it!

+ I also bought a Crucial M4 256GB SSD, this is fast..really fast!

 

[itzwickedhd]

I have the Intel 2700k and i'm very impressed with it.