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i7-920 to i7-3770k, how much of an "upgrade" is it?

Maximus96

Maximus96

Diamond Member
my current system is an 920 overclocked to 3.6ghz. if I upgrade to a 3770k, i plan to overclock it to about 4.5ghz on air and hand the 920 system to my wife. but the more i think about it, the more i'm not sure how much of an upgrade it will be. i mainly use my system for lightroom, photoshop, premiere, and after effects.

any thoughts?
 
i7 920 = 2.66GHz (2.8GHz turbo) at stock, 3.6GHz OC
3770k = 3.5GHz (3.9GHz max turbo) at stock, 4.5GHz OC
~35% higher clock at stock, 25% higher OC'd

Stock vs stock performance: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/47?vs=551
3770K about 45-60% faster. OC vs OC, you can estimate it to be about 30-40% faster.

Is that, along with some power savings, PCIe 3.0, USB 3.0, SATA 6gb/s etc., worth about $500 at minimum for CPU+motherboard+RAM?
 
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lehtv said:
i7 920 = 2.66GHz (2.8GHz turbo) at stock, 3.6GHz OC
3770k = 3.5GHz (3.9GHz max turbo) at stock, 4.5GHz OC
~35% higher clock at stock, 25% higher OC'd

Stock vs stock performance: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/47?vs=551
3770K about 45-60% faster. OC vs OC, you can estimate it to be about 30-40% faster.

Is that, along with some power savings, PCIe 3.0, USB 3.0, SATA 6gb/s etc., worth about $500 at minimum for CPU+motherboard+RAM?
Click to expand...


Based on this good estimate, I'd say yes.

You'd get around 40% better performance in the applications mentioned (time is money), along with a significant reduction in power consumption (especially at idle, since a 920 running at higher base clock wrecks idle power savings). You could easily save $100-200 in a year's time depending on how many hours you spend in Adobe CS.

But don't be fooled, you won't reach 4.5 Ghz on air 100% stable unless you're willing to apply a serious voltage offset and cook your chip.
 
JAG87 said:
Based on this good estimate, I'd say yes.

You'd get around 40% better performance in the applications mentioned (time is money), along with a significant reduction in power consumption (especially at idle, since a 920 running at higher base clock wrecks idle power savings). You could easily save $100-200 in a year's time depending on how many hours you spend in Adobe CS.

But don't be fooled, you won't reach 4.5 Ghz on air 100% stable unless you're willing to apply a serious voltage offset and cook your chip.
Click to expand...

I have a 920 OC to 3.4 and just got a 3770K for son. I like the ivy for its power savings but it does not give me the WOW when I use his then go to mine. They feel same, both very fast.

In games not much different, as its mostly video card.
encoding, the intel hd4000 is faster than video card so if you encode for hours then it will save some time.

USB 3.0 is nice but you can get a PCIx add on card for that.

Its very nice just not enough to make me upgrade yet as its not a WOW.

I got the 3770k on sale for 220.00 last week (box version)
It gets 9600 cpu in passmark, my 920 (3.4) gets 6200.

If you are doing 3dsmax rendering for 6 hours it might knock an hour off but I'll have to bench. That 40 percent people are telling you is misleading. My DDR bandwidth is still faster (but essentially same) In real world day to day tasks you will not feel 40 percent faster. Only in specific benchmarks.

So don't expect to get 40 percent more done web surfing or gaming because you wont.

They both feel so fast I cant feel any difference.
My page loads in .8 seconds and his loads in .7. Wow saved .1 second.

But I think the 3770k is one of the best overall cpus you can get right now. It does everything well. games, video, usb, sata, pci 3.0. I think I paid 420.00 for Asrock z77 pro3/ 16 gig 1600 ddr3/3770k.

Have not bothered to overclock it, 3.9ghz fast enough. It only uses 8.5 watts at 1600hz. So its very very nice for power and if my 920 dies Id get a 3770k right now.



But if you just hungry for new gear and just want to spend 500.00 then do it.
 
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JAG87 said:
You could easily save $100-200 in a year's time depending on how many hours you spend in Adobe CS.
Click to expand...

Yeah... no. I don't think you'd quite spend $200 on power let alone save that much money. LOL. I'm pretty sure it's the air conditioner/heater, water heater and your clothes dryer that's sucking all the juice. I leave my main rig (in sig) and file server on all the time and my bills are not sky high.
 
JAG87 said:
But don't be fooled, you won't reach 4.5 Ghz on air 100% stable unless you're willing to apply a serious voltage offset and cook your chip.
Click to expand...

Don't be so sure of that. My 3770K is 24hr Prime95 stable at 4.5GHz with only a 0.005V offset on air. I currently run it at 4.6 with a 0.115V offset and it's nowhere near being cooked. At 4.5 it was cool as a cucumber.

There are likely plenty of variables which can effect how well your chip will OC so it's not wise to make a blanket statement like that.



I upgraded from an i7 970 and don't see a big difference either. Both systems are very fast and run very well. I am still really happy with the upgrade though.
 
JAG87 said:
But don't be fooled, you won't reach 4.5 Ghz on air 100% stable unless you're willing to apply a serious voltage offset and cook your chip.
Click to expand...

My 3770k is ROCK SOLID stable, not even a WHEA error, at 4.5ghz and a -.035v offset. If I was just going for 24 hour prime stable, it would be 4.5Ghz at a -.065v offset. Those damn WHEA errors always get you.

Oh yea, also, max temps after 24 hours of prime blend are 71-78-74-71. Chip is far from cooking.
 
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scannall said:
Wait for Haswell. This close to launch, you don't want to fall back a generation by being impatient.
Click to expand...
I second that. If it would be an upgrade from an old dual core system, then I wound understand why one doesnt want to wait, but a 3.6 Ghz Quad System?
Seriously ... wait these 2-3 months.

And buy fast DDR3 RAMs, otherwise it might be a downgrad from Triple -> dual channel. Depending on how big your pictures are, Photoshop can be bottlenecked by the RAM bandwidth. If they are below ~100 MB in size, it should be ok.
 
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Push that overclock to 4 Ghz on the 920 and wait for haswell.

No point going to ivy this close to launch.
 
The difference in performance is at least significant, at least in games. But since you have waited so long already, might as well wait for Haskell.
 
lehtv said:
i7 920 = 2.66GHz (2.8GHz turbo) at stock, 3.6GHz OC
3770k = 3.5GHz (3.9GHz max turbo) at stock, 4.5GHz OC
~35% higher clock at stock, 25% higher OC'd

Stock vs stock performance: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/47?vs=551
3770K about 45-60% faster. OC vs OC, you can estimate it to be about 30-40% faster.

Is that, along with some power savings, PCIe 3.0, USB 3.0, SATA 6gb/s etc., worth about $500 at minimum for CPU+motherboard+RAM?
Click to expand...

What is the difference in performance with the 920 at 4ghz vs 3770k at 4.5ghz.
 
scannall said:
Mine is at 4 Ghz. It will go a bit higher, but it does get hot.
Click to expand...
I must be a lucky bastard - have six D0 920s that I bought at the MN Microcenter store at the same time that all do this 😛
aratar_2.png


Makaveli said:
What is the difference in performance with the 920 at 4ghz vs 3770k at 4.5ghz.
Click to expand...
4.5GHz x 1.03 (SB->IB) x 1.10 (NH->SB) ~ 5.1GHz i7 920, not enough to warrant the moolah IMHO, which is why I'm waiting for Haswell :

(Hopefully) 5GHz x 1.10 (IB->HW) x 1.03 x 1.10 ~ 6.3GHz i7 920 🙂
 
Maximus96 said:
my current system is an 920 overclocked to 3.6ghz. if I upgrade to a 3770k, i plan to overclock it to about 4.5ghz on air and hand the 920 system to my wife. but the more i think about it, the more i'm not sure how much of an upgrade it will be. i mainly use my system for lightroom, photoshop, premiere, and after effects.

any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I wonder if CS might get optimized for AVX2 (Haswell) in it's next release. It would be a no brainer for Adobe, IMO.
 
RAJOD said:
So don't expect to get 40 percent more done web surfing or gaming because you wont.
Click to expand...


^ this...

as RAJOD said.. unless ur a heavy encoder, folder, or BOINC freak...

I really dont think u'll notice a difference as your hoping on...


Anyhow OP i was in a simular boat as you are.
I am still sitting on a 975x until Haswell, cuz IB-E wasnt a merit to what i call an upgrade.

Its also like my GPU's... ive been sitting on 3 x 580GTXs cuz i realized all the stupid games i play are DX9... so why do i even need 3 x 580gtxs??!?!?!
 
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