3570K to 3930K or 2700K

[mookial]

I'm currently on my first gaming rig and I couldn't be happier.

Specs:
Corsair 500R
ASRock Extreme 4 LGA 1155
Intel i5-3570K
8GB Corsair LP 1600 Memory
Hyper 212 EVO
EVGA GTX 670 FTW
Corsair 750W HX

Every game I run is pretty fine, but I also enjoy streaming as well. The problem is when streaming my games, League of Legends for example or other more GPU intensive MMO's, my CPU usage tends to sky rocket. I'm at a stable OC @ 4.2GHz with 1.2V but still I can feel a difference in gameplay with the streaming programs open as opposed to when they're not.

Now I know there's no way to fully rid the issue but I would like to upgrade since I have a few dollars coming my way.

My question is: How much would I benefit from upgrading my CPU? My two options were too get a new motherboard (probably an Asus X79 Saber) with the 3930K chip or stick with my current mobo and get the 2700K.

I just want to get the best bang for my buck in terms of upgrading and not get the 3930K over the 2700K for about $300 more and get only about a 5% performance increase.

P.S I will also be adding two more sticks of memory for a total of 16GB as well as swapping out my 212 EVO for the Noctua NH-D14 or H100. Also, how much of an upgrade from 1600 to, lets say, 1800~2133 memory would get me?

 

[ihsaan96]

Hi mate , to be honest the 2700K will do fine and will obviously give you more frames than an i7. But it's 100% up to your personal choice , do you want to pay more for more frames? If you do then get the 3930K

For the ram , you won't see much of a difference between ram speeds , ram speed is mostly dependent on rendering such as 3D Objects , HD Videos etc. But obviously there will be a small difference but not worth the change in my opinion. My RAM is running at 1866Mhz but it's actual speed should be 2000Mhz and I only got fast ram cause need it for my work.

Hope I helped

 

[twelve25]

2700K has the same (but slightly slower cored) just with hyperthreading turned on. I don't know how confident I am that just HT could pick up the difference. Two real cores, would though, for sure, but it's going to cost you big for a new Mobo and $500 CPU.

How bad do you really want to stream? $750 bad?

 

[mookial]

2700K has the same (but slightly slower cored) just with hyperthreading turned on. I don't know how confident I am that just HT could pick up the difference. Two real cores, would though, for sure, but it's going to cost you big for a new Mobo and $500 CPU.

How bad do you really want to stream? $750 bad?

Not worth $750 bad =P. But I do wanna upgrade my processor. I'm just stuck between the 2700K and 3770K. Any opinions on which is better in terms of overall performance and OC'ing. Also what is some fast, high quality memory?

 

[redeemer]

i7 2700k is the best i7, most of them do 5.0Ghz on air with HT enabled. I would stick with your current setup and just pop in the 2700k. The 3930k is insanely fast and will definitely add E-Peen, but its cost is not worth it over the 2700k. The 3930k really exceeds in the rest in productivity.

The 2700k will give your higher clocks and 4 more threads over your current i5 3570k. Thats should be quite a significant processing boost. Oh I forgot to mention that I had 2 i7 3770k both of them overclocked poorly and produced a ton of heat, so I went back to my good old i5 Sandy bridge.

 

[darksparten]

2700k bottlenecks you to 2.0 PCie interfaces, doesn't matter much now but in the future cards will start to push 2.0 boundaries and you will get a big bottleneck. A 3770k is a better choice. However if needed a 2700k is good too, but if you have the money i7 3930k is great for multitasking.

Asus X79 Sabertooth is a mediocre board, I don't get why people are so obsessed with it, mediocre overclocking, and there's 2 board fans, TWO, meaning you will need to clean them, and in case you didn't know, it's VERY hard to clean motherboard fans, and not cleaning them can result in disgusting noises/overheating. A GA-X79-UP4 or Asus P9X79 WS/Pro will be much better for the price.

The difference between 2700k and 3930k for your purposes isn't that large, Overall I'd reccomend a 3770k if possible or 2700k if not.

NH-D14 will easily beat the H100 in most tests, especially once you factor in noise output and the temperature of the PCB around the CPU area(Closed loop ONLY cools CPU whereas with air coolers you get air blown onto not only the CPU but the surrounding PCB). Make sure your case is big enough though, the minimum width requirement I think is 7.98".

In terms of memory there isn't that much difference, definitely not enough to warrant an extra 50 bucks for an upgrade, just OC your memory if you really want higher clocks.

BTW If upgrading your heatsink you will need thermal paste, because once the seal is broken(removal of old heatsink) the paste will no longer function to it's maximum potential. Good ones are TX-2, IC Diamond 24 carat, and NT-H1.

Good luck!

 

[hapkido]

A 2700K or 3770K is going to give four additional logic cores, but I don't think you'd be satisfied spending over $300 for what you'd gain. You'd be nearly in the territory what it would cost to build a second PC, so...

Why not build a separate PC with a capture card to stream from? You can output the video from your gaming PC to the second PC. That way your gaming PC doesn't take any performance hit. You'd get the results you're looking for, for less than it would cost upgrading to 3930k.

 

[geofelt]

I do not think changing out your 3570K is likely to do what you want.
Unless you games and streaming are very cpu bound and multi core enabled, The extra hyperthreads may not come into play.


It makes no sense to me to buy a solution before you have identified the problem.
See if you can't do some testing to identify where your slowdowns occur.

1. I might suspect that 8gb of ram may not be enough for a high level of multitasking.

No game, by itself will use more than 2-3gb. You could remove one stick of ram, and see how your performance is impacted.
If you see a severe impact while streaming, then add 8 more gb.

2. To see how cpu power impacts things, back off your OC from 4.2 to a lesser number, and see what happens.


3. Can you turn on the windows task manager and see what resources are most heavily used under load?
Can you borrow a second monitor to have the display visible while all your work is going on?
If you look at the resource monitor, you can see how much resource each task is using.

4. If your cpu usage increases with more graphics intensive games, that is a bit strange, but possible.
See what happens if you turn down your resolution or eye candy. I might expect the cpu to work harder then so it can drive the graphics card to higher fps.

 

[redeemer]

2700k bottlenecks you to 2.0 PCie interfaces, doesn't matter much now but in the future cards will start to push 2.0 boundaries and you will get a big bottleneck. A 3770k is a better choice. However if needed a 2700k is good too, but if you have the money i7 3930k is great for multitasking.

Asus X79 Sabertooth is a mediocre board, I don't get why people are so obsessed with it, mediocre overclocking, and there's 2 board fans, TWO, meaning you will need to clean them, and in case you didn't know, it's VERY hard to clean motherboard fans, and not cleaning them can result in disgusting noises/overheating. A GA-X79-UP4 or Asus P9X79 WS/Pro will be much better for the price.

The difference between 2700k and 3930k for your purposes isn't that large, Overall I'd reccomend a 3770k if possible or 2700k if not.

NH-D14 will easily beat the H100 in most tests, especially once you factor in noise output and the temperature of the PCB around the CPU area(Closed loop ONLY cools CPU whereas with air coolers you get air blown onto not only the CPU but the surrounding PCB). Make sure your case is big enough though, the minimum width requirement I think is 7.98".

In terms of memory there isn't that much difference, definitely not enough to warrant an extra 50 bucks for an upgrade, just OC your memory if you really want higher clocks.

BTW If upgrading your heatsink you will need thermal paste, because once the seal is broken(removal of old heatsink) the paste will no longer function to it's maximum potential. Good ones are TX-2, IC Diamond 24 carat, and NT-H1.

Good luck!

The problem is nothing on this panet is even close to bottlenecking current PCIe 2.1 lanes expect for quad SLI. From what I have seen the D14 does not outperform the H100 and definitely not the H100i. These massive air heatsinks cover up half your motherboard which is kind of ridiculous, further more the H100 is much more easier to unmount.

As far as thermal paste goes the exotic stuff suck as Indigo Extreme and IC will only get you 2c cooler over the MX-4 compound which is probably the best stuff your can buy.

Now the i7 3770k vs the i7 2700k? Most overclockers are hitting 4.4Ghz with the 3770k, temps go crazy after 1.27v. Some are able to hit 4.8Ghz at 1.35 but very few and the temps are insane. Watercooling loop with a de-lid would be necessary for anything over 4.8ghz. The i7 2700k is good old Sandy bridge easy 5.0Ghz low temps.

 

[mookial]

I do not think changing out your 3570K is likely to do what you want.
Unless you games and streaming are very cpu bound and multi core enabled, The extra hyperthreads may not come into play.


It makes no sense to me to buy a solution before you have identified the problem.
See if you can't do some testing to identify where your slowdowns occur.

1. I might suspect that 8gb of ram may not be enough for a high level of multitasking.

No game, by itself will use more than 2-3gb. You could remove one stick of ram, and see how your performance is impacted.
If you see a severe impact while streaming, then add 8 more gb.

2. To see how cpu power impacts things, back off your OC from 4.2 to a lesser number, and see what happens.


3. Can you turn on the windows task manager and see what resources are most heavily used under load?
Can you borrow a second monitor to have the display visible while all your work is going on?
If you look at the resource monitor, you can see how much resource each task is using.

4. If your cpu usage increases with more graphics intensive games, that is a bit strange, but possible.
See what happens if you turn down your resolution or eye candy. I might expect the cpu to work harder then so it can drive the graphics card to higher fps.

1. I was planning on upgrading to 16GB regardless of minimal performance hike, since it will only cost about $50. So I wont bother taking one stick out, but the idea is neat

2. There was a difference from stock to 4.2. It was quite a drastic increase but not as fluent as I would like it too. (Bit of OCD), lol.

3. I am on a dual monitor setup, and when streaming / gaming. The game client, streaming program and browser top the list when sorted by highest usage.

 

[mookial]

2700k bottlenecks you to 2.0 PCie interfaces, doesn't matter much now but in the future cards will start to push 2.0 boundaries and you will get a big bottleneck. A 3770k is a better choice. However if needed a 2700k is good too, but if you have the money i7 3930k is great for multitasking.

Asus X79 Sabertooth is a mediocre board, I don't get why people are so obsessed with it, mediocre overclocking, and there's 2 board fans, TWO, meaning you will need to clean them, and in case you didn't know, it's VERY hard to clean motherboard fans, and not cleaning them can result in disgusting noises/overheating. A GA-X79-UP4 or Asus P9X79 WS/Pro will be much better for the price.

The difference between 2700k and 3930k for your purposes isn't that large, Overall I'd reccomend a 3770k if possible or 2700k if not.

NH-D14 will easily beat the H100 in most tests, especially once you factor in noise output and the temperature of the PCB around the CPU area(Closed loop ONLY cools CPU whereas with air coolers you get air blown onto not only the CPU but the surrounding PCB). Make sure your case is big enough though, the minimum width requirement I think is 7.98".

In terms of memory there isn't that much difference, definitely not enough to warrant an extra 50 bucks for an upgrade, just OC your memory if you really want higher clocks.

BTW If upgrading your heatsink you will need thermal paste, because once the seal is broken(removal of old heatsink) the paste will no longer function to it's maximum potential. Good ones are TX-2, IC Diamond 24 carat, and NT-H1.

Good luck!

I was leaning more towards the 3770K as I research more. As far as the coolers, will the Noctua fit in my case (Corsair 500R)? And will it allow me to install 4 stick of LP memory on my ASRock Extreme 4?

 

[darksparten]

I was leaning more towards the 3770K as I research more. As far as the coolers, will the Noctua fit in my case (Corsair 500R)? And will it allow me to install 4 stick of LP memory on my ASRock Extreme 4?

Yes I believe all Corsair R and D series cases fit, it fits in my Corsair 200R which is smaller than your 500R, so.
Yes Noctua is compatible with LP memory, it's max memory/near CPU component tolerance is 44mm, LP vengeance is 23.18mm tall.

 

[yamahahornist]

Try Overclocking your i5 3570k higher. I have a Hyper 212 Evo + and I have my i5 3507k @4.5ghz stable with 1.32v Its a BOSS!

 

[redeemer]

Try Overclocking your i5 3570k higher. I have a Hyper 212 Evo + and I have my i5 3507k @4.5ghz stable with 1.32v Its a BOSS!

your temps must be north of 90c on 100% load

 

[yamahahornist]

your temps must be north of 90c on 100% load

Ran a 12 hours Prime95 test never got hotter then 75 C, I have a push pull set up on the Hyper 212 and I also used the line technique for the thermal paste! I am just a boss lol

Never hotter then 65 C when gaming!

 

[darksparten]

your temps must be north of 90c on 100% load

4.5GHz is actually not hard with a Hyper Evo especially if you use decent paste and apply it right.

It only gets hot around 4.8-5GHz and that's the point where you need to get either high end air like Thermalright/Noctua or water cooling like a custom loop or H100i, etc.

 

[mookial]

Yes I believe all Corsair R and D series cases fit, it fits in my Corsair 200R which is smaller than your 500R, so.
Yes Noctua is compatible with LP memory, it's max memory/near CPU component tolerance is 44mm, LP vengeance is 23.18mm tall.

Thanks. Any good memory out there or is the Corsair LP good enough? Also at the guy above, I had my 3570 @ 4.5 earlier but temps were hitting 90C @ 1.28! Did not like so I reverted back to 4.2

 

[redeemer]

Ran a 12 hours Prime95 test never got hotter then 75 C, I have a push pull set up on the Hyper 212 and I also used the line technique for the thermal paste! I am just a boss lol

Never hotter then 65 C when gaming!

Thats amazing considering your @ 1.32v, expecially on an Evo! Yeah you just got a great chip!

 

[geofelt]

1. I was planning on upgrading to 16GB regardless of minimal performance hike, since it will only cost about $50. So I wont bother taking one stick out, but the idea is neat

2. There was a difference from stock to 4.2. It was quite a drastic increase but not as fluent as I would like it too. (Bit of OCD), lol.

3. I am on a dual monitor setup, and when streaming / gaming. The game client, streaming program and browser top the list when sorted by highest usage.

1. If price is not a big problem, consider using a 16gb kit of 2 x 8gb. You will insure compatibility, and 2 sticks are easier for the motherboard to manage when overclocking. Repurpose or sell the 8gb kit. There would be very little difference in performance with ram faster than 1600. Read this report:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3

2. Not all 3570K chips will OC to a very high level. It depends somewhat on the luck of the binning. It seems that each chip has an upper limit, regardless of the cooling solution. I think yours may go a bit higher. Yes. you can do a bit better with a top air cooler like the Noctua NH-D14, or Phanteks. Particularly in a well ventilated case like yours.
Those coolers are not unusually tall, so they will fit.

3. When you look at the task manager, are all 4 threads pegged at 100% ? If so, then more threads might be good. But, I doubt that you will see that.
Still, once all threads are above some level, perhaps 75%, then the cpu is likely to be a restrictive part of the performance equation.
Hyperthreading uses residual cycles of the main core to dispatch a second thread. The second thread is perhaps the power of 25% of a full core.
One possible issue is how hyperthread aware your apps are. If an important task is dispatched on a hyperthread, and not a full thread, performance for that app will suffer. That is not so important for your streaming app, but it might be for your game. A 3770K should OC to about the same high point as a 3570K, so the higher stock multiplier is of no consequence. I have yet to see any benchmarks demonstrating the value or lack thereof of the extra cache on the 3770K.
For what it is worth, I changed my 2600K for a 3570K( both with a conservative OC) some time back, and felt that I did much better. But, I know I was not pushing many tasks either then or now.

 

[mookial]

1. If price is not a big problem, consider using a 16gb kit of 2 x 8gb. You will insure compatibility, and 2 sticks are easier for the motherboard to manage when overclocking. Repurpose or sell the 8gb kit. There would be very little difference in performance with ram faster than 1600. Read this report:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3

2. Not all 3570K chips will OC to a very high level. It depends somewhat on the luck of the binning. It seems that each chip has an upper limit, regardless of the cooling solution. I think yours may go a bit higher. Yes. you can do a bit better with a top air cooler like the Noctua NH-D14, or Phanteks. Particularly in a well ventilated case like yours.
Those coolers are not unusually tall, so they will fit.

3. When you look at the task manager, are all 4 threads pegged at 100% ? If so, then more threads might be good. But, I doubt that you will see that.
Still, once all threads are above some level, perhaps 75%, then the cpu is likely to be a restrictive part of the performance equation.
Hyperthreading uses residual cycles of the main core to dispatch a second thread. The second thread is perhaps the power of 25% of a full core.
One possible issue is how hyperthread aware your apps are. If an important task is dispatched on a hyperthread, and not a full thread, performance for that app will suffer. That is not so important for your streaming app, but it might be for your game. A 3770K should OC to about the same high point as a 3570K, so the higher stock multiplier is of no consequence. I have yet to see any benchmarks demonstrating the value or lack thereof of the extra cache on the 3770K.
For what it is worth, I changed my 2600K for a 3570K( both with a conservative OC) some time back, and felt that I did much better. But, I know I was not pushing many tasks either then or now.

So all in all, what you are saying is the best plan would be to invest in a better air cooler (Noctua in my case) and go for a higher clock, maybe 4.6 or higher. As well as buying two 8GB sticks of memory. The amount of money spent on a 3770K will not benefit me as much as I would hope. And the only other option for actual noticeable performance would be the 3930K, but still it will not be worth it as I will not be using it to it's full potential and the price is about $750.

 

[geofelt]

So all in all, what you are saying is the best plan would be to invest in a better air cooler (Noctua in my case) and go for a higher clock, maybe 4.6 or higher. As well as buying two 8GB sticks of memory. The amount of money spent on a 3770K will not benefit me as much as I would hope. And the only other option for actual noticeable performance would be the 3930K, but still it will not be worth it as I will not be using it to it's full potential and the price is about $750.

Worth is something only YOU can determine.
You already have a very strong PC.
The question is, will you do significantly better if you change something?
And... will it be worth it?

If money Is not a big problem, 16gb could be good; there is no negative with lots of ram.

Yes, a top air cooler can get you .1 or .2 more on your OC. Is it worth $80 to you?

You could buy a 3770K for $320, and you will fetch $180 or so for the 3570K on e-bay.
You should improve in performance, but it is uncertain just how much the delta of $140 will buy you.

If money is no object a 3930K 6 core and a socket 2011 motherboard will set you back $700. Is that worth it?

One way to test how much an increase in cpu power might benefit you would be to try reducing your current overclock by 10% and see how much performance suffers.

 

[razr125]

the difference between render times of a 3770k and a 3930 are HUGE from my experience. Gaming, i would definitely say that the 3930 is overkill though.

 

[ihsaan96]

3930K is better for rendering. It's an absolute BEAST. But 3770K is more affordable and better for just gaming.