Should I upgrade from an i7 970?

[Kippa]

I have had an six core i7 970 running at 3.2ghz for quite a few years and am wondering if I need to upgrade gaming wise. What I want to know is in the next 12 months is that cpu likely to become a bottleneck with regards to performance in games? If not, I'd like to keep it for another year or two. Graphics wise I have an HD 7970 and will probably upgrade to the next fastest single gpu card when it comes out later on in the next 6 months.

 

[Railgun]

I have a 970@4.0 and have been waiting for the same question to be answered.

To that end, no. Looking at some of the multi threaded apps I use, photoshop being the main one, any CPU since didn't have a significant enough gain to warrant swapping the whole setup out.

In your boat, gaming is a little different and a few CPUs have been better suited.

Look at AT's bench. That will pretty much give you all the answers you need.

 

[blastingcap]

I suspect you will be fine for the next 1-2 years since most new games are still afflicted with consolitis (meaning, they don't demand much CPU or GPU power), and the new consoles don't come out for a while. And even when they do, the optimizations and such won't be there that fast, meaning the games for PS4 or whatever, are unlikely to demand more power than what you already run. That may change after developers get a handle on the PS4 hardware, though.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

The longer you wait, the less you'll be able to sell if for.

Gaming wise it's outdated. I was considering a 970 myself, and from what I remember it was a lateral move + the cost of the chip. I say upgrade. Least you'll just be doing a platform swap like I.

 

[dawp]

I went from an i7 950 @ 4.1 to a 3770k @ 4.4 and in most apps you won't notice too much of a difference. I do mostly gaming @ 1080p and surfing

I'd only upgrade if you wanted newer features such as usb3.

 

[Arkaign]

I went from an i7 950 @ 4.1 to a 3770k @ 4.4 and in most apps you won't notice too much of a difference. I do mostly gaming @ 1080p and surfing

I'd only upgrade if you wanted newer features such as usb3.

I agree with this for the most part.

I'd note that I've tossed in a USB3 PCI Express x1 card in a 980X box, and the results are fairly good. Not as fast as Z77/etc, but still fast enough to not really make that much difference.

I think multi-GPU with 7xx/Titan would be another reason to consider an upgrade.

 

[Sheep221]

I assume you are enough tech savvy that you see that your games are running well and all programs you use are working fast enough. I would recommend not to upgrade to anything unless you will feel you are bottlenecked, but I think it won't be earlier than in next 2 years.
The platform swap is not a good point here because still the single and dual core CPUs are in most computers worldwide, so I'm sure even if he continues to use his hex for next 2-3 years he still will be able to sell it for a good price.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Your system isn't outdated as far as gaming is concerned. You should be overclocking it a bit more though.

 

[dkm777]

I have a 980@4GHz and it bottlenecks my 7970 just slightly. Since I don't have an SSD I keep all my programs open all the time (24GB RAM, yay!) and put my PC on standby instead of turning it off. I don't think a quad core would be this smooth under my scenario, therefore I'm not thinking about an upgrade. Maybe in 2 years.

 

[IonusX]

I have a 980@4GHz and it bottlenecks my 7970 just slightly. Since I don't have an SSD I keep all my programs open all the time (24GB RAM, yay!) and put my PC on standby instead of turning it off. I don't think a quad core would be this smooth under my scenario, therefore I'm not thinking about an upgrade. Maybe in 2 years.

umm you do realise all cpu's bottleneck at least one gpu somewhat. iirc there was a test done with a jerry rigged vodoo 5000 and a core i7 2600k and it still was technically bottlenecking it. so dont fuss over the bottle, its only by how much you do and a "little" is rather relative not figuartive

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

See? That's the whole thing. The OP just needs to overclock his chip a little and he'll forget about Haswell, or upgrading for that matter. Even 3.6 or 3.7Ghz. That chip is a 32nm chip and can take it.

 

[bleucharm28]

i got rid of my Asus Rampage II extreme and i7 920 for a few reasons roughly six to 8 months ago. I had no USB 3.0, no Sata III 6GBps for my SSD, and 920 put's out more heat; even tho it was D0 batch. My current i5 3570k OC to 4.5 temp is quite nice underwater. oh and pcie 3.0 is nice to have, but not a big deal.

 

[wasabiman123]

Funny enough I've been pondering the same question, I've been rocking a 980X @ 3.8ghz (woo! LGA 1366 babe :biggrin currently with a GTX 670, SSD, and it still does very well in recent titles. I am feeling the hurt from no USB 3 sometimes and it does make for quite the space heater for better or worse. How much better would a 4770K do at stock on CPU intensive games (Planetside 2?), would it improve frame latency at all?

 

[moonbogg]

I wouldn't say its inadequate for gaming at all, but you will get quite a bump in performance from a new chip, depending on your GPU loading.

 

[2is]

For strictly gaming, you could just OC that CPU and call it a day. PCIe 3 can show some gains for multiple high end GPU's but PCIe 2.x plenty fast enough for even a single Titan.

Going Haswell will certainly improve gaming performance but by how much will depend on several factors. My 3770k certainly games better than my old Q6600 @ 3.2GHz, but the only game I really noticed an appreciable difference in was BF3 MP.

The other factor is, simply wanting a new toy to play with, which is certainly understandable. Us enthusiasts will need to make due with Haswell for a good while (Until Skylake) since Broadwell is said to be BGA only.

 

[skipsneeky2]

If i did not sell my i7 940 gaming rig years ago,honestly i think i would still be hard pressed to upgrade to anything new at this point.

Pretty damn happy rocking my i5 2500 non k,while it can't be overclocked i guess its gonna be a while before a game can seriously choke this chip.

 

[aigomorla]

<---- 990x @ 4.43ghz
That is my 24/7 ghz... its at a nice 1.325vcore.... under watercooling.... u see my problem now?

havent seen ANYTHING which would merit me to upgrade.
The only thing tho is if i wanted to scale massive gpu's so i could get pci-e 3.0
However looking at reviews pci-e 3.0 isnt all that compared to 2.0 which my board has 4x16 slots of..
E759 classified... the original limited production one.. it has been very awesome to me... it is also under watercooling.

Factoring in all the upgrade cost... with the pro's and con's... after looking at haswell, and being very disappointed, im stuck in limbo with all you guys.

Id say if an octocore comes out, it might entice me to upgrade... otherwise, id rather spend 2000 dollars on titanic gpu's vs 2000 dollars on a new board and cpu and ram.

 

[moonbogg]

If current CPUs are able to keep up with ported games for new consoles, then we might not have to upgrade CPUs for nearly a decade from now. Thats insane, but I think it might be true.

 

[TuxDave]

I have a Core i7-975 and I'm pretty sure I'm never going to upgrade until this computer blows up. On the other hand, I'm totally in the market for a tablet convertible.

 

[StinkyPinky]

If current CPUs are able to keep up with ported games for new consoles, then we might not have to upgrade CPUs for nearly a decade from now. Thats insane, but I think it might be true.

I doubt it. I think you'll find games coming out in late 2014/2015 that will start pushing the hardware a lot more.

 

[aarontpx]

Keep it.

 

[tweakboy]

YES! even a sandy 2600k will show HUGE improvement in power and speed. gl

What do you need 4 core or 6 core ?

All Haswells in 2013 will be 4 core

Ivy E 6 core 4930k ,,, I would be set for years until 2023

 

[Lepton87]

You have a 6 cores CPU, games are getting more threaded I wouldn't be surprised if your CPU will be actually faster then 4core IB in some future games. 3.2GHz for a 32nm Intel process is "criminal" though. All you need to do is overclock it, it should do 4.0-4.2GHz with EASE. 25-32% faster is like upgrading a CPU. If you're very against OC and won't overclock no matter what it might bottleneck a Radeon 7970, 3.2GHz is a very low clock speed. I would actually prefer i970 then my 2500k.

Id say if an octocore comes out, it might entice me to upgrade... otherwise, id rather spend 2000 dollars on titanic gpu's vs 2000 dollars on a new board and cpu and ram.

Do you need FP64 performance? IMHO 3x780 aftermarket cards would be better or even 2x780 and pocket the change. Titan is no longer the fastest single card out of the box.

 

[Railgun]

. Titan is no longer the fastest single card out of the box.

If you're referring to an OC'd model, then yeah, it still is. Stock for stock, Titan is faster.

 

[Lepton87]

If you're referring to an OC'd model, then yeah, it still is. Stock for stock, Titan is faster.

Out of the box doesn't mean clocked at reference clocks, It means the fastest without overclocking and there are faster 780s then reference clocked titan. Yeah, there is a Zotac AMP Titan, for an absurd 1150$ but it only matches pre-Oced 780s. And it wasn't available for the majority of the titan's time on the market