19 replies to this topic

[DarthPeanut]

Well at the title stated I am debating an upgrade. Being MWO is very heavily CPU dependent and it is my primary gameplay right now I thought I would ask for input here. I get pretty good fps right now so that is not really the sole reason I am wanting to upgrade. More or less I want to update while I can still get decent money from my selling old board/ processor and move to more future proof up to date hardware. Although that said I would still like to see a performance increase over my current setup to justify the cost.

Current:
ASrock extreme4 Z77
i5 2500k @ 4.4 ghz
antec kuhler 920
16g gskill sniper ram
gigabyte gtx970 g1 gaming
etc

Was thinking of changing the board to a Asus Maximus VII hero and i5 4690K processor. All the other hardware would stay the same for the moment.

Cost is going to be about 365$ out of pocket before I sold off my old gear.

Thoughts? Any and all are welcome, including the hardware I am thinking of going to.

[Flapdrol]

The reason you can still get decent money for those parts is because the 2500K->4690K upgrade is very minor.

I'd just stick with it until the next iteration, maybe that'll actually be a good upgrade.

[Dyhalto]

The i5 4690K seems to be happy OC'd around 4.6 -4.8 so you are looking at a pretty minimal upgrade in compute power. You do get slighty cooler temps and lower TDP but it's also very minor.

If you are encoding\streaming video or heavy multitask\multithread you could step up to a better multithreaded cpu like a i7-4790K.

The next big step up would be a X99 MoBo with an I7 CPU and DDR4 however you are looking at a much larger investment.

Edited by Dyhalto, 09 February 2015 - 03:14 PM.

[Goose]

What's in your user.cfg?

I like Cyberdynes' version best

Don't spend any money just yet: Take your time and tweak it , some …

[rereads post]

Don't sell.

Edited by Goose, 09 February 2015 - 03:29 PM.

[darqsyde]

If you can, you'd be better served (from a "future proofing" perspective), either going to X99 platform or waiting 'til Skylake.

As others have stated, the upgrade from 2500 to 4690 is only a reasonably minor one(maybe 10-15% improvement, maybe).

[MercJ]

From someone that owns both (i5-2500K + i5-4670K), yeah, you'll have about the same experience. Might as well save your money. The Haswell system gets slightly better frametimes (about the same FPS, but frametimes are what I care about ), but I think that's due to my R9 290 on the Sandy system compared to the 970 on the Haswell.

I'll try and upload some frametime captures if you want a comparison, but I really should switch the 970 over and test it in both systems :/

EDIT: Screenshots added to thread below -

Edited by MercJ, 10 February 2015 - 05:08 PM.

[DarthPeanut]

Goose, my user.cfg consists of the following:

gp_option_ShowCockpitGlass=0
r_DepthOfField=0
r_HDRGrainAmount=0.0


In normal maps/ game modes I see 60+ fps even at the lowest points.

I was thinking of holding out for the next gen stuff but the ddr4 is incredibly expensive I looked at and honestly I cannot justify it. Kind of was thinking upgrading now would hold me over until the pricing gets more realistic in a year or so. Although like indicated the performance increase is pretty marginal it seems.

ETA: Mercj, that would be great if you wanted to but up to you entirely... dont wanna create a bunch of work for you or anything.

Edited by DarthPeanut, 09 February 2015 - 05:31 PM.

[Kuritaclan]

W8 for Skylake there is no reason to uprade now. Save money to get the first consumer 6core to oc and you propally will have the next X years no need to upgrade.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Pretty much what's already been said.

The 2500k is still a top class chip keep it.

[DarthPeanut]

Appreciate all the feedback so far from everyone.

Really seems to be at the point where I can overclock the hell out of this chip and still keep it cool enough to compete with the die shrunk newer generation chips.

Doing some reading up now on recent Skylake information, or rather the speculated information/ potential for those chips (in terms of actual processing power). Waiting on the 'new' coming generation of hardware is a perpetual process if you are not careful. So if the Skylake stuff does not significantly outpace the haswell refresh chips then it might be a moot point.

Edited by DarthPeanut, 10 February 2015 - 11:27 AM.

[Rykiel]

No need to upgrade your OC'd CPU for this game alone, as the benefits are minimal at best (due to really poor optimization, IMO). For myself, I'm currently building a 6-core (12 w/HT) rig, but that's using the old x58/LGA 1366 platform with a x5670 Xeon (which I will overclock). Not solely for this game, of course (mostly work-related). Probably not gonna plunk down the truly big greenbacks until Skylake (or possibly even later).

If you're really looking for a significant performance upgrade with your current rig, you might want to consider a 120/144hz gaming monitor -- some IPS-panel ones are just entering the market right now. Would be a nice change. Or, go with G-Sync/Freesync if that is your thing.

[Goose]

Rykiel, on 10 February 2015 - 12:00 PM, said:

No need to upgrade your OC'd CPU for this game alone, as the benefits are minimal at best (due to really meh instruction-per-clock improvements, IMO).

FTFY

[Rykiel]

You will probably need to to SLI/Crossfire for steady fast frames with those monitors, though.

[cSand]

Jesus DIED for me, on 09 February 2015 - 04:11 PM, said:

Wait until i8 come out.

[MercJ]

Hey DarthPeanut, got some data for you

Was stuck on River City for most matches - but regardless, first up, the i5-2500K (@4.8GHz) and the GTX970:


Adding i5-4670K comparison soon - gonna try to get some terra therma matches for same-map comparison.

Ok, now the i5-4670K (@4.6GHz) and GTX970:



I tried to match settings/user.cfg betweent the two machines, and I think they're almost exactly the same settings (might not have dmg glow on the Sandy Bridge system). I really need to get some matches on Terra Therma on the Sandy / i5-2500K system for an exact comparison :/

Anyway, frame times / variance ("smoothness") is noticeably better on the 4670K, and avg FPS is up too (about 20FPS) - in-game, it's *about* the same experience though. Almost interchangeable. If you already have a 2500K, you won't get much of an improvement with a 4670/4690K, unless you're trying to hit 120+ FPS or something.

Edited by MercJ, 10 February 2015 - 08:48 PM.

[DarthPeanut]

Rykiel, I have considered going to a 144hz primary display. Admittedly I have a bit of a tainted mindset towards it for a somewhat odd reason and I will explain. I see 120hz and 240hz led flat screen tv's and honestly I hate them (I know I am in the minority for that but I do). The interpolated frames by the software in them makes motion that I have a hard time watching. Even though I am fairly sure (at least from what I read) that is not how a PC display functions it really has made me resistant to trying one out of fear it might look anything like that. I have been meaning to find someone I know with the higher hz display to check it out and give myself the piece of mind it is not going to have a similar effect.

MercJ! Thank you for sharing that data, that definitely is a lot more tangible information than I had. Although as you said on the same map would be ideal it is still better than nothing.

ETA: The improvement in frame rate and frame times is actually better than I expected honestly. Although you have some pretty healthy overclocking on both.

Edited by DarthPeanut, 10 February 2015 - 07:11 PM.

[Tom Sawyer]

I have my 2500k overclocked to just under 5ghz via a custom water setup. Still using a ASUS P8P67 mainboard with 12gb of DD3. Was considering getting a 77 series mainboard for the PCI 3.0 lanes but am leery I will not be able to overclock as well.

I did upgrade my card to a gtx970 which I used EVGA's step up to upgrade to a 980. So for now I am using a 550ti back up card >.>

For monitors I am using an antique Acer 22 wide TN screen. But this: http://www.pcworld.c...or-at-last.html has me saving a few bucks every paycheck.

All in all though the 2500k has been an incredible chip for its cost.

[Flapdrol]

Tom Sawyer, on 12 February 2015 - 12:28 PM, said:

I have my 2500k overclocked to just under 5ghz via a custom water setup. Still using a ASUS P8P67 mainboard with 12gb of DD3. Was considering getting a 77 series mainboard for the PCI 3.0 lanes but am leery I will not be able to overclock as well.

2500K can't do pci-e 3.0, only 3xxx series and up.

[Goose]

But PCI-E 3.0 is only worth as little as hunting up a full set of lanes for SLI (and/ or XFire) back on PCI-E 2.0 …

[DarthPeanut]

Well I was going to hold out but a family member offered me good money for my parts and to build a system for them using those pieces.

So I caved in and am upgrading after all because overall I will not be out of pocket much to make the changes. Going asus maximus hero vii, i5 4690k, and Swiftech H220-X cooling loop. Will be reusing the rest of my parts.

Appreciate all the replies.