I'm thinking of an upgrade, I'd like some opinions please.

[Saffron]

My current computer:
AMD Phenom II 965BE 3.9GHz (Zalman CNPS9900MAX cooler)
Asus M4A78TD-EVO (if I remember correctly)
8GB Corsair Vengence 1600MHz (2x4GB)
HIS IceQ HD 6870 (one)

I haven't been researching computer hardware since I got my phenom II when it first came out, so I am a little behind. I really like AMD and I've always had AMD based computers because of budget but this time around I am going to move to Intel.

I was thinking about getting these:
Intel i7-3770k
ASRock Z77 Extreme4
Sapphire HD 7970GHz Edition

What are your guy's thoughts on these (likes or dislikes). I will definitely receive a performance bump, but will it be worth the the almost $900 price tag. Or should I wait for upcoming releases? What sucks is I won't have any money until a few days after Black Friday...

 

[Shephard]

well what do you do with the computer? are you a gamer do you do a lot of rendering. if your just a gamer I think that CPU is overkill.

I think the 965 is good enough for any game right now. you could upgrade the GPU and wait for Haswell.

I would only go Ivy Bridge if you got a Core 2 like me or an older AMD Phenom or X2.

 

[Vesku]

Agree with Shephard, hang on a bit longer if you can. Intel has been having a good run lately on the Tocks in their Tick Tock strategy.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/silicon-innovations/intel-tick-tock-model-general.html

 

[bononos]

.....

What are your guy's thoughts on these (likes or dislikes). I will definitely receive a performance bump, but will it be worth the the almost $900 price tag. Or should I wait for upcoming releases? What sucks is I won't have any money until a few days after Black Friday...

What do you use your pc for? AMD slashed prices on the piledriver cpus to ribbons. They are very cheap if you need the more cores for multithreaded apps like transcoding/rendering.

 

[rgallant]

get the vid card now and see how it go's , I never update everything in the same year[and I don't have a budget ]

 

[BD231]

Don't waste your time with ivy, its got poor thermals and it'll be replaced sooner than later. If you have a Microcenter around they're currently selling $99 dollar 2500k's and right now you can find yourself a high end z68 board for pennies. If you go Ivy/z77 you're looking at spending closer to $300 and getting absolutely no value out of that extra money spent.

You'll get the most gaming performance for your money by just throwing in a 7970 though and as others have stated you can get away with that cpu a little while longer.

 

[lakedude]

Don't waste your time with ivy, its got poor thermals and it'll be replaced sooner than later. If you have a Microcenter around they're currently selling $99 dollar 2500k's and right now you can find yourself a high end z68 board for pennies. If you go Ivy/z77 you're looking at spending closer to $300 and getting absolutely no value out of that extra money spent.

You'll get the most gaming performance for your money by just throwing in a 7970 though and as others have stated you can get away with that cpu a little while longer.

I'm loving my Ivy 3770 with 8 threads and low power consumption but you just can't argue with $99 2500k's!

 

[Dave3000]

On some games you should get a good improvement in speed with the 3770k, if those games are CPU intensive, such as Flight Simulator X. Some games won't show much improvement with a 3770k, it just depends on the resolution, AA and AF levels, and the game. However, I see that you want to upgrade to a 7970 GHz edition as well, so in that case every game should run much better whether it's a CPU or a GPU intensive game. Someone here said the MC is currently selling an i5 2500k for $99, I just checked the website while I was typing this and it didn't show a search result for the i5 2500k. However, MC currently has the i7 3770k on sale for $229.99, so if you live near a MC then I think that's a great deal. To sum it up, I think it's worth the upgrade, especially with the MC deal on the 3770k going on. Some people say wait for the next chip, but then again, last year some people said skip Sandy and wait for Ivy.

 

[CHADBOGA]

My current computer:
AMD Phenom II 965BE 3.9GHz (Zalman CNPS9900MAX cooler)
Asus M4A78TD-EVO (if I remember correctly)
8GB Corsair Vengence 1600MHz (2x4GB)
HIS IceQ HD 6870 (one)

I haven't been researching computer hardware since I got my phenom II when it first came out, so I am a little behind. I really like AMD and I've always had AMD based computers because of budget but this time around I am going to move to Intel.

I was thinking about getting these:
Intel i7-3770k
ASRock Z77 Extreme4
Sapphire HD 7970GHz Edition

What are your guy's thoughts on these (likes or dislikes). I will definitely receive a performance bump, but will it be worth the the almost $900 price tag. Or should I wait for upcoming releases? What sucks is I won't have any money until a few days after Black Friday...

I don't think that you will get a meaningful bump by upgrading to anything other than a Haswell based system, considering what you already have.

No doubt the i7 3770K would be a nice improvement, but your overclocked CPU won't cause you to be unable to have a great gaming experience right now, so you only need to update your video card IMHO.

You don't want to be suffering from buyer's remorse when Haswell comes out.

 

[Saffron]

Sorry I forgot to mention that in my original post, but yes I am a gamer. A somewhat hardcore one at that. I will take your suggestions and hold off for now. I will definitely purchase the 7970 GHz, unless there are some upcoming releases that I should hold off on that as well?

When is Haswell supposed to be released?

And thanks for all your positive and helpful feedback. You guys are great!

 

[OBLAMA2009]

lemme axe you guys a question, lemme axe you guys a question. can someone post a link to $99 2500's? if they are $99 why would anyone buy pentium or i3? why would anyone buy ivy bridge?

 

[Termie]

These benchmarks using an HD7950 should help you make your decision: http://techreport.com/review/23750/amd-fx-8350-processor-reviewed/5

In most games, an OC'd Phenom II will reduce a 7970's performance by about 30% versus a 3770k.

 

[TemjinGold]

The $99 i5 2500k is MC instore only.

 

[MisterMac]

The $99 i5 2500k is MC instore only.

You Americanadians should try buying a 2500k over here in EU :/


jeezus 99 USD?
And the black firiday sales too ....


Anything instore in scandinavia generally has a 10-15% pricebump at minimum.

 

[SickBeast]

OP if you can't get a 2500k or a hot deal on Black Friday then I say wait for Haswell. It will probably be worth it.

 

[Idontcare]

The $99 i5 2500k is MC instore only.

Jesus at those prices AMD would do better to just hire people at minimum wage to raid MC stores buying 2500k's and rebranding them for resell as $200 8320's with better power profiles and bag themselves better margins than what they are htting now

 

[Saffron]

These benchmarks using an HD7950 should help you make your decision: http://techreport.com/review/23750/amd-fx-8350-processor-reviewed/5

In most games, an OC'd Phenom II will reduce a 7970's performance by about 30% versus a 3770k.

Here is the breakdown of the performance differences from the provided link:

Skyrim (I don't play) - 27% Gap
Batman: Arkham (I don't play) - 22% Gap
Battlefield 3 (I do play) - 2% Gap
Crysis 2 (Used to play) - 20% Gap
Civ 5 Late Game View (I don't Play) - 40% Gap
Civ 5 Late Game View No Render - 42%

There are some nasty performance gaps, making the 3770k a good upgrade compared to the Phenom II. But the only game listed that I play is Battlefield 3, with only a 2% gap. Worth $500?

I think I will just purchase the 7970 GHz, because I will upgrade soon and switch from AMD to Intel eventually. Most likely going to be when the new stuff comes out.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

i dont see the $99 2500 on their site. do you have to go into the store to see that price advertised? its always been on their site before.

lemme axe your bay areans, did the silicon valley store ever reopen anywhere?

 

[Arkaign]

i dont see the $99 2500 on their site. do you have to go into the store to see that price advertised? its always been on their site before.

lemme axe your bay areans, did the silicon valley store ever reopen anywhere?

Historically when they do in-store only closeouts, they don't post them on their website. Weird, but that's how it is. It was the same way when the Q9xxx were hitting the doors. Even at the previous price of $159 in-store, 2500K was the way to go for gamers. Once both are overclocked to typical limits of air cooling, 2500K was just as fast in games as 2600/3570/3770K (aside from 1-2 games that see a small boost with the HT). Supposedly BF3 benefits from HT, but I personally didn't see any benefit going from a 4.8 2500K to a 4.6 3770K with my GTX670FTW @ 1200P. Literally zero increase, and a good bit more $, so I just dumped it and am back to running ~25C cooler on the cores.

 

[Termie]

Here is the breakdown of the performance differences from the provided link:

Skyrim (I don't play) - 27% Gap
Batman: Arkham (I don't play) - 22% Gap
Battlefield 3 (I do play) - 2% Gap
Crysis 2 (Used to play) - 20% Gap
Civ 5 Late Game View (I don't Play) - 40% Gap
Civ 5 Late Game View No Render - 42%

There are some nasty performance gaps, making the 3770k a good upgrade compared to the Phenom II. But the only game listed that I play is Battlefield 3, with only a 2% gap. Worth $500?

I think I will just purchase the 7970 GHz, because I will upgrade soon and switch from AMD to Intel eventually. Most likely going to be when the new stuff comes out.

The gap in BF3 multiplayer will actually be much closer to the gap you see in all the other games (~25% on the 7950). The singleplayer game uses very little CPU power.

That being said, if you're certain you're going to upgrade the CPU within the next 6 months or so, go ahead and get a 7970. You will definitely see an improvement from your 6870, just not the one you might expect (2x in theory, probably 1.5x on your system).

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Historically when they do in-store only closeouts, they don't post them on their website. Weird, but that's how it is. It was the same way when the Q9xxx were hitting the doors. Even at the previous price of $159 in-store, 2500K was the way to go for gamers. Once both are overclocked to typical limits of air cooling, 2500K was just as fast in games as 2600/3570/3770K (aside from 1-2 games that see a small boost with the HT). Supposedly BF3 benefits from HT, but I personally didn't see any benefit going from a 4.8 2500K to a 4.6 3770K with my GTX670FTW @ 1200P. Literally zero increase, and a good bit more $, so I just dumped it and am back to running ~25C cooler on the cores.

is that true? when they were selling in store 9300's for $90 and $170 9550's they were on the website, you just had to go to the store if you wanted to purchase one at that price. are they doing things differently now? was this a clearance sale or would they likely have them in stock right now?

 

[Makaveli]

The gap in BF3 multiplayer will actually be much closer to the gap you see in all the other games (~25% on the 7950). The singleplayer game uses very little CPU power.

That being said, if you're certain you're going to upgrade the CPU within the next 6 months or so, go ahead and get a 7970. You will definitely see an improvement from your 6870, just not the one you might expect (2x in theory, probably 1.5x on your system).

Good advice and good work with the breakdown OP.

I agree grab the 7970 now and wait for haswell.

Granted the gap from a phenom II to Ivy is large you only have a few months to wait.

 

[Saffron]

I've done some minor digging and I'm getting 2013 for the Haswell release, is this correct? Does anyone know a decent ETA? Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4?

If it is released in Q1 of 2013 then I will wait an call it a late Christmas gift or an early birthday present. On the other hand, if it won't be released until the end of Q2 or later then I might just upgrade to Ivy Bridge now.

 

[Termie]

I've done some minor digging and I'm getting 2013 for the Haswell release, is this correct? Does anyone know a decent ETA? Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4?

If it is released in Q1 of 2013 then I will wait an call it a late Christmas gift or an early birthday present. On the other hand, if it won't be released until the end of Q2 or later then I might just upgrade to Ivy Bridge now.

I think it's confirmed to NOT be Q1. I'd say late Q2.

 

[dma0991]

I've done some minor digging and I'm getting 2013 for the Haswell release, is this correct? Does anyone know a decent ETA? Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4?

Possibly late Q2 till early Q3. I wouldn't suggest waiting if you're really in need of an upgrade right now.