Upgrading 965 to a 2500k worth it for gaming?

[benjanini61]

Hey guys im considering upgrading my OC Phenom II X4 964 4ghz/2800mhz NB to an i5 2500k which i hope to reach around 4.5ghz.
This PC is purely for gaming and i was wondering what kind of performance increase i would see with the i5 2500k?

I was looking at this motherboard.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z77pro3

Will it be safe for high overclocks? I was also wondering will i have problems running ddr3 1600 ram with this CPU as Intel states its made for 1066 and 1333 speeds. But people say aslong as the motherboard support 1600 ill be fine. Is this correct?

Atm im playing Crysis 3, BF3, The witcher, Skyrim (heavily modded)

Ill be using a Coolermaster Evo 212 for cooling.

This is my PC at the moment;
Windows 7 Ultimate 64
Avexir 8gb ddr3 1600
1TB barracuda 7200 64mb
Corsair 600w Builder series
HIS HD 7950 1175/1500
Phenom 965 BE OC 4ghz (do you think the Phenom Bottlenecks the 7950 slightly?)

I also forgot to mention i can get a new i5 2500k for £110

 

[pcperson7]

Yes it is TOTALLY worth it, the 2500k is really safe to oc also; but if you have a little extra to spend get the i5-3500k, but yes, DO upgrade, and your mobo is fine.

Hope its helpful!

 

[amuffin]

Might as well, though I suggest you hold out until Haswell.

 

[biopolar]

Yes it is TOTALLY worth it, the 2500k is really safe to oc also; but if you have a little extra to spend get the i5-3500k, but yes, DO upgrade, and your mobo is fine.

Hope its helpful!

+1

2500k SB, go for it
Nice little benchmark to see if you'll feel an increase in performance or not
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html
You'll notice a good bit, especially if you feel your 965 may be holding you up.

The pro looks like its a 4+1 phase.
I would go ASrockextreme4 which is 8+2, give you some good power for OC'ing, for about 30$ more. But the pro looks decent.
When you overclock, you should be able to manually set the ram speed to your liking.

 

[amuffin]

The CPU can support speeds above 1333mhz.

You can always use XMP profiles and run them at 1600mhz.

 

[benjanini61]

Thanks alot for the comments guys that has made me decide to go for the 2500k, Could anyone list some good motherboards that are great for overclocking but not to pricey. I can only really afford up to £80 for my mobo.

 

[logainofhades]

Might as well, though I suggest you hold out until Haswell.

I agree, Haswell will be out in June. I would wait.

 

[benjanini61]

Wont the Haswell be rather expensive?

 

[benjanini61]

And the only difference i can see from Haswell so far is better inetgrated graphics which is useless for me.

 

[logainofhades]

Wont the Haswell be rather expensive?

That remains to be seen. Even if it is, Intel rarely, if ever, drops the cpu price of older gen chips. Haswell, from what little I looked at the benches, will be a good jump from Sandy Bridge. They will probably release some nicely priced i5's fairly early.

 

[benjanini61]

Maybe your right, maybei should just wait till june and get a better i5. Its also my birthday in June

 

[teemogeek]

Thanks alot for the comments guys that has made me decide to go for the 2500k, Could anyone list some good motherboards that are great for overclocking but not to pricey. I can only really afford up to £80 for my mobo.

you might want to consider an asus P8z77

 

[pcperson7]

Yeah any P8z77 is good or possibly a Asrock extreme3. There may also be gigabyte options in your budget but I would stick w/ asus.

 

[benjanini61]

Will this Asus suit my needs?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-555-AS

 

[pcperson7]

Yeah it's good, the only thing is no wi-fi, you'll have to buy a separate pci-e card for that.

But yes it's great, and Asus has a great Bios too, so good for oc'ing!

 

[benjanini61]

I use a wireless adapter USB, that will work fine wont it?

 

[teemogeek]

I use a wireless adapter USB, that will work fine wont it?

I suggest you stick with those features that you need.

I don't really like the idea of wireless for a desktop. Especially for gaming. the LK version is more than enough for you. if you plan on getting the V version, stick with the asrock. It's cheaper and has a great OC utility too.

 

[benjanini61]

Well ive used Wireless for gaming for over 2 years and i dont have any problems. My PC is a floor above the router so i have to have wireless.
The problem with the Asrock pro3 is its only a 4+1 power phase. Whereas the Asus P8Z77-V LX2 is alot better for only £7 more.

 

[benjanini61]

Think ive decided to go for the 3570k; http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Intel+Core+i5-3570K+3.40GHz+%28Ivy+Bridge%29+Socket+LGA1155+Processor+-+Retail+?productId=49755

And the Asus P8Z77; http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-555-AS

Is that a good looking combo?? Great for overclocking right?
Thought id go for Ivy bridge and take advantage of the PCIE 3.0 at the same time, hopefully in the future PCIE 3 will be utilized better.

 

[pcperson7]

Yeah that's a great combo, especially for gaming, great choice.

 

[benjanini61]

After more research im starting to think the performance gain wont be worth the money to upgrade to a 3570k. Can anyone give me a more detailed response as to what i will see in terms of fps boost. Will i see a large increase in my minimum and avg fps? Especially on BF3, skyrim, crysis 3. Would it be better to wait for Haswell?

 

[benjanini61]

After more research im starting to think the performance gain wont be worth the money to upgrade to a 3570k. Can anyone give me a more detailed response as to what i will see in terms of fps boost. Will i see a large increase in my minimum and avg fps? Especially on BF3, skyrim, crysis 3. Would it be better to wait for Haswell?

 

[ericjohn004]

After more research im starting to think the performance gain wont be worth the money to upgrade to a 3570k. Can anyone give me a more detailed response as to what i will see in terms of fps boost. Will i see a large increase in my minimum and avg fps? Especially on BF3, skyrim, crysis 3. Would it be better to wait for Haswell?

I don't see why anyone would want to go with a 2500k when they could just get a 3570k or even wait for the 4670k and go with Haswell. The 3570k is 8-10% faster in everything. To me that's worth the extra 10 measly dollars you spend for a 3570k over a 2500k. Don't go with old tech, buy the new stuff. Why even consider a 2500k. That's a two year old processor. It still rocks, but that's not the point. Wouldn't you spend 10 extra dollars for 10% better performance? And at the very most, Haswell will only be 20 bucks more than a 3570k. So if you just can't afford that extra 10 dollars, then save up some more and don't make a poor decision.

So if your buying now, get the 3570k, if you can wait get Haswell. But don't get the 2500k, it's simply a bad decision on your part.

 

[biopolar]

It would be wise to save money and invest in Haswell i5.

But either upgrading to a 2500k = easy OC/low temps
3570k = temps on the high side when OC'd/said to be a bit more difficult to OC? Of course a good am hsf can fix that.

Really, the difference in price is low, and they perform very similiarly when benched on games/applications. You can even check thier benches on anandtech.com.
You can compare that your 4.5 OC'd 2500k would equal the 3570k OC'd to 4.3.

Upgrading from your 965 to either the OC'd 2500k/3570k will result in an fps boost with
Skyrim (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html),
but not so much with bf3 (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-8350-vishera-review,3328-13.html),
a good increase in crysis 3(http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crysis-3-performance-benchmark-gaming,3451-8.html).

 

[ericjohn004]

It would be wise to save money and invest in Haswell i5.

But either upgrading to a 2500k = easy OC/low temps
3570k = temps on the high side when OC'd/said to be a bit more difficult to OC? Of course a good am hsf can fix that.

Really, the difference in price is low, and they perform very similiarly when benched on games/applications. You can even check thier benches on anandtech.com.
You can compare that your 4.5 OC'd 2500k would equal the 3570k OC'd to 4.3.

Upgrading from your 965 to either the OC'd 2500k/3570k will result in an fps boost with
Skyrim (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html),
but not so much with bf3 (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-8350-vishera-review,3328-13.html),
a good increase in crysis 3(http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crysis-3-performance-benchmark-gaming,3451-8.html).

Actually the difference is more like 4.5Ghz 2500k=4.2Ghz 3570k. I say this because I met a guy with a 2500k on Tom's Hardware that has his 2500k @5.0Ghz and I had my 3570k at 4.8Ghz at the time. ANd we shared benchmark numbers and I consistently beat him by about 3-5%. But close enough. So to be honest you can clock a 2500k about .2Ghz more than a 3570k. But the 3570k is about .3Ghz faster. So to me the Ivy bridge still wins in overall efficiency as far as speed goes. And it uses less power and has new instructions and also has PCIe 3.0 and other perks.

And I don't really have bad problems with my temps and I'm at 4.6Ghz. Keep in mind Ivy chips were made to run hotter. They're designed with a 105c ceiling in mind. So all of this about Ivy's temps being so high is really irrelevant because they're suppose to be higher. Whereas a Sandy is only suppose to go up to 90 something an Ivy goes up to 105c. Personally I just can't see why in the world anyone would ever want to go with old tech. I'm sure there are numberous things that I'm not thinking about that Ivy has over Sandy.