Should I upgrade my i5-750 to a 2500k?

[chihlidog]

Right now my system is: i5-750 @ 3.5ghz, Radeon 5850, 8 gigs of Corsair vengeance, an ASUS Maximus III GENE, and 2 WD 1TB drives.

In 2 separate threads (one here, one at another forum) while discussing other potential upgrades, the comment was made that moving up wouldnt make much noticeable difference. I wanted to start a thread for this particular discussion to settle my thoughts on it.

So - feedback? I plan on OCing the 2500k, of course. Primarily used for games and I'd like to start folding.

 

[cubeless]

certainly more cycles for folding, but gaming probably won't notice...

 

[Edrick]

I moved from a i5-750 to a 2500K.

3.2Ghz to 4.2Ghz with the better IPC performance.

And yes, my machine feels faster for a lot of things. (Gaming only minimal improvement.)

 

[Zap]

Isn't Folding much faster on a GPU?

You probably won't notice for gaming, at least without running benchmarks.

 

[smakme7757]

If i was you i would keep it until the end of this year and see what's available then. By then you might be able to jump on the new AMD bulldozer if it proves its worth or if it doesn't and the newest Intel CPUs are out of your price range the 2500k should be a tad cheaper.

Win win if you ask me!

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Any reason you stopped overclocking at 3.5 with your 750? I found that 3.8 was really easy and 4.0 was doable with a moderate amount of fiddling. If you feel the need for more power, maybe try squeezing a bit more out of your existing chip.

 

[chihlidog]

I appreciate all the responses, guys.

Birthdaymonkey - I stopped at 3.5 because I started getting a tiny bit of instabilty at 3.6 and I felt that 1) 3.5 is pretty fast and 2) Almost a whole ghz was a decent OC. I bought this system from a guy that really knew what he was doing, but I planned on replacing the cpu the whole time. I just found a deal on this system I couldnt pass up.


Honestly, I dont really feel like performance is lacking on this system. Its actually quite a fast rig and I am very pleased with it. I'll tell you my brutally honest reason for wanting to upgrade - I've been an AMD guy since I started playing with PCs (2000). Ive never really had the budget to throw at a truly high-end system. Ive always just gotten by on the hardware I was able to afford. Reducing settings, wondering if that next game would run smoothly, etc. Right now I've got the budget to play with, I can build almost anything I want, and I want a fire-breathing beast.

It seems like the 2500k is perfect for what I'm after. It's fast, easy to OC, but still reasonably priced. I know I dont need HT, so the 2600k isnt worth it for me, but I'm drooling at the potential of the 2500k. My current system runs quite well, but it's almost like "I want to because I CAN".

I'm looking at the 6970 as part of the upgrade, as well. My planned upgrades arent the very fastest, bleeding edge crazy high-end stuff, but performance should come close without having spent obnoxious amounts of money.

However, if the 2500k isnt truly going to be noticeably faster in real-world use, then maybe I really am better off saving the money for a few months to see what bulldozer and Ivy Bridge bring.

 

[Lightflash]

Isn't Folding much faster on a GPU?

You probably won't notice for gaming, at least without running benchmarks.

For folding, it depends on the CPU if it can run bigadv or not. Since he wants to move to a 2500k there is not an option to do it and would be better to mix SMP -3 core folding with GPU.

As for if you will notice a big difference, I went from and 760 to a 2600k. Not a huge difference in gaming as others have said, but now with ability to run bigadv I went from around 25k PPD (CPU & GPU) to around 45k PPD (CPU only).

 

[AkumaX]

i'm debating on going from an 875k to either a 2500k or 2600k... for video encoding!?

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Well there will be some improvement going from the Intel® Core™ I7 875K to the Intel Core I5 2500K or the I7 2600K for a couple of reasons. First the improvement in technology should get you about a 15% to 20% improvement at the same speed, then you will also tape into the Intel Quick Sync for video encoding that may offer improved performance over the video card that you have at this time.
Now for gaming the on processor graphics wouldn’t yield that big improvement (if any at all over your video card) in gaming. So the value of going from an Intel Core I5 750 to the 2500K would only be in clock speed. Because the Intel Core I5 750 only has a clock speed of 2.66GHz vs. the 3.3GHz on the Intel Core I5 2500K you would see some major improvement on processor intensive applications.

Christain Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[tweakboy]

certainly more cycles for folding, but gaming probably won't notice...

True!

 

[Edrick]

True!

If you have neither the 750 or the 2500k, how would you possibly know?

 

[vshin]

I run an i5-750 @3.67 ghz and haven't run into any game so far that is cpu-limited on my system. Civ V comes close but it doesn't perform noticeably worse than on 2600k systems. I suspect the video card will remain the major determinant in running max-quality settings for at least another year.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I appreciate all the responses, guys.

Birthdaymonkey - I stopped at 3.5 because I started getting a tiny bit of instabilty at 3.6 and I felt that 1) 3.5 is pretty fast and 2) Almost a whole ghz was a decent OC. I bought this system from a guy that really knew what he was doing, but I planned on replacing the cpu the whole time. I just found a deal on this system I couldnt pass up.


Honestly, I dont really feel like performance is lacking on this system. Its actually quite a fast rig and I am very pleased with it. I'll tell you my brutally honest reason for wanting to upgrade - I've been an AMD guy since I started playing with PCs (2000). Ive never really had the budget to throw at a truly high-end system. Ive always just gotten by on the hardware I was able to afford. Reducing settings, wondering if that next game would run smoothly, etc. Right now I've got the budget to play with, I can build almost anything I want, and I want a fire-breathing beast.

It seems like the 2500k is perfect for what I'm after. It's fast, easy to OC, but still reasonably priced. I know I dont need HT, so the 2600k isnt worth it for me, but I'm drooling at the potential of the 2500k. My current system runs quite well, but it's almost like "I want to because I CAN".

I'm looking at the 6970 as part of the upgrade, as well. My planned upgrades arent the very fastest, bleeding edge crazy high-end stuff, but performance should come close without having spent obnoxious amounts of money.

However, if the 2500k isnt truly going to be noticeably faster in real-world use, then maybe I really am better off saving the money for a few months to see what bulldozer and Ivy Bridge bring.

If you feel the irresistible urge to upgrade right now, maybe get that 6970 and sock the rest of your money away till the next wave of chips hit the market later this year?

I understand how you feel though. Even though I just picked up my 750 system in January, I was very close to buying a 2500K for $179 at Microcentre when I was in the States a couple weeks ago. In the end, I would have gotten a 10% clock speed increase and and a 10+% IPC increase... significant, but not worth upgrading mobo and CPU, selling my old stuff, all the attendant upgrade hassles, etc.

 

[B-Riz]

I got lucky and was able to sell my X58 setup through craigslist and spend $42.77 to move to i5 2500k, AsRock Extreme4 and 8GB DDR3.

Not like it is a truly noticeable difference, but it is awesome to be able to have a quad core at 4GHZ with temps 10 - 15 degrees cooler.

 

[perdomot]

Right now my system is: i5-750 @ 3.5ghz, Radeon 5850, 8 gigs of Corsair vengeance, an ASUS Maximus III GENE, and 2 WD 1TB drives.

In 2 separate threads (one here, one at another forum) while discussing other potential upgrades, the comment was made that moving up wouldnt make much noticeable difference. I wanted to start a thread for this particular discussion to settle my thoughts on it.

So - feedback? I plan on OCing the 2500k, of course. Primarily used for games and I'd like to start folding.

My system is very similar to yours including my OC but there is one very big difference: an SSD. This makes such a huge difference that you can see and feel that its difficult to express until you see it in action. My advice is to get yourself an SSD with the SATA III interface so that your performance isn't bottlenecked and prepare to be amazed.

 

[bryanW1995]

What games do you play? What resolution?

 

[veri745]

If you're expecting to see a gaming benefit (or really any noticeable improvement), then it's certainly not a worthy upgrade, but if you have the money and want the e-peen boost, then go for it!

 

[Kenmitch]

I was thinking about the same thing last week when at Microcenter picking up one of the i3-2100 combos.

I had the Asus P8P67-M Pro R3 board in my hand and was thinking 2500K all the way untill I came to my senses. It woulda been an upgrade somewhat I guess but in the end I figured it wouldn't be worth the hassle. Guess I could sold my current MB and CPU but in the end to offset the upgrade but figured to much hassle for now.

Cancel that comment I just jumped on the Core i5 2500k & ASUS P8P67 Pro -$329 @ MicroCenter (B&M) 4/22/2011 - 4/24/2011 combo deal

http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...r%20Parts%20LP%2020110422&utm_source=ACT_BYO&

 

[dma0991]

You could give the Core i5 750 a few more years of good service by overclocking it before changing though. Usually I would prefer if a single generation is skipped before changing completely. I think you should wait it out for Haswell before changing. My two cents

 

[tweakboy]

If you have neither the 750 or the 2500k, how would you possibly know?

I have a friend he has 2500k or it might be just 2500 ,, but I know its a 2500. ty and I know someone with that chip i750... plus you get another 4 threads...

 

[nyker96]

I;d say wait for Ivy, you get another 15-20% IPC improvements that would be more worth it, besides Ivy can probably be clocked like 5ghz.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm looking at the 6970 as part of the upgrade, as well. My planned upgrades arent the very fastest, bleeding edge crazy high-end stuff, but performance should come close without having spent obnoxious amounts of money.

However, if the 2500k isnt truly going to be noticeably faster in real-world use, then maybe I really am better off saving the money for a few months to see what bulldozer and Ivy Bridge bring.

Unless you really need the upgrade, I would wait 3-4 months, until BD and AMD's new 7000-series cards get released. 28nm is supposed to be a big jump for graphics card capabilities.

 

[mosox]

Only you have shares at Intel Corp.

 

[blckgrffn]

Only if you agree to cut me a deal on the 750. Seriously, especially if you have a gigabyte or Intel mobo to go with it. Ah - Asus - that board looks a little spendy for me. I would still be interested in the CPU for the right price.