2500K upgrade to i7-6700K worth it? (same old question)

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slag

Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
10,473
81
101
Meh, a small handful of games benefits from more than 4 cores. Not worth the price premium to buy an i7 over an i5 imho. For the vast majority of users, the i5 is still the best bang for the buck. The price premium from $179.9 to $259.99 for a couple extra cores not many people will use is just not worth it (microcenter pricing).
 

kaesden

Member
Nov 10, 2015
61
2
11
I recently did this same upgrade myself, although from a 2500 non-K to a 6700K and it was a pretty big improvement in raw performance(i got a 700mhz speed increase in addition to the 20-30% IPC improvment.). Also having a modernized platform with USB 3.1 and type-C, plus an M.2 slot and NVMe support is harder to quantify with how much 'faster' the system is. having the extra features the new platform provides makes the upgrade worth it for me and the performance increase is just icing on top.
 
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HexiumVII

Senior member
Dec 11, 2005
661
7
81
I upgraded from a 2500 to a Skylake 6700 @ 4.6GHz, and it feels buckets faster. I even reused my samsung 830 and it feels more than fast enough. Itching to upgrade my work Ivy bridge, i've since upped that bad boy to 4.5GHz, but it still doesn't feel nearly as snappy, and that one has a 840Pro SSD in it. I play a lot of Heroes of the Storm and i get over 100FPS while i only get 60FPS at work. Both have 1080gtxs at stock speeds.
 

guskline

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2006
5,338
476
126
My 6700k at 4.6 is VERY quick. Slightly edged out by Kaby Lake but a preferred cpu for high end gaming.
 

slag

Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
10,473
81
101
My 6600k @ 4.7 ghz feels as fast as my i5 did at 4.5k. I haven't played any really graphic intensive games in awhile, just pillars of eternity, path of exile, grim dawn, and shadow of mordor. They all feel about the same as they did with the 2500k.
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
6,641
2,029
146
I recently did this same upgrade myself, although from a 2500 non-K to a 6700K and it was a pretty big improvement in raw performance(i got a 700mhz speed increase in addition to the 20-30% IPC improvment.). Also having a modernized platform with USB 3.1 and type-C, plus an M.2 slot and NVMe support is harder to quantify with how much 'faster' the system is. having the extra features the new platform provides makes the upgrade worth it for me and the performance increase is just icing on top.
I also upgraded recently for this reason. Not so much for the GHz although that did play a part but also for the features that a more modern platform brings. There's more to it than just how fast a cpu is or how many cores it has. How a system comes together a whole is important too especially if you plan to keep them long term like I do.
 
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bigpow

Platinum Member
Dec 10, 2000
2,372
2
81
If you feel an itch, you should scratch it :p

I've managed to hold off scratching my itch for a while now.
Very tempted to jump on the Skylake and ITX, but I should hold it a bit longer.
I want to see what Zen is and what it'll do to Intel.

I'm also thinking about retiring from this field, and get myself a nice Razer Blade and sell all my desktops & HTPCs.
I've been building my own PCs since the 8088 days... Man, I'm old.