Should I upgrade yet?

[Xerin7]

My rig is feeling a little dated (specs in my sig), so I've been looking into an upgrade to my motherboard (ASRock Z87 Pro3?), graphics card ( GeForce GTX 770/780?) , and cpu (Intel Core i7-4770K?). I'm also wondering if now might be a good time to switch to a 27"-30" monitor, or possibly same size monitor at 4k.

I use my pc mostly for gaming. It would be especially nice to see some improvement when I play Civ V, which can take forever to load and process between turns.

Is now the time to upgrade given my current components, or is there something around the corner that is worth waiting for? I know the cardinal rule about not waiting for the next best thing, but you always have to weigh the pros/cons when deciding when to pull the trigger.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Solid rig. GTX 570 is getting a little old, but if your mostly playing Civ a 770 is overkill. Is Civ 5 on the SSD or the HD? Putting it on the SSD would probably speed load times.

 

[Xerin7]

I'm also playing World of Tanks, Thief, Elder Scrolls Online, etc. I've just noticed a lot of delay with Civ V that seems to be processor related and thought it might help to bump up to the i7-4770k. It seems to be from processing rather than load times, but to answer your question it's on the HD rather than the SSD since I can't fit all my Steam games on SSD.

Anything coming in the next few months that is worth waiting for?

 

[nwo]

Anything coming in the next few months that is worth waiting for?

Maxwell will be coming this year, and it is definitely worth waiting for. 750Ti is an entry level Maxwell that has already proven itself. Now we wait for the mid range and enthusiast versions.

I'd just OC the CPU and wait it out. Your rig is still considered a good mid range rig. 570 is still a very good and capable card. i5 2500k is a great CPU which should be overclocked to 4.5GHz with ease if you have not done so already.

 

[Xerin7]

I prefer not to OC, although I know that I'm missing out on free performance. Sounds like it might be worth waiting for the Maxwells, is there another cpu release on the horizon?

 

[lehtv]

Sounds like it might be worth waiting for the Maxwells, is there another cpu release on the horizon?

*derp edit*

Maxwell is a GPU, not a CPU. Maxwell is the thing to look at for now, but as usual, AMD will respond and then NVIDIA will respond. AMD will probably be releasing R300 series late this year if not early next year, very unsure at this point in time.

 

[mfenn]

An i5 2500K is still a pretty fast CPU (by the way, why did you get an overclocking rig if you don't intend to overclock?), so I would probably wait until Haswell refresh or Broadwell before upgrading it. You could get a nice bump in gaming performance by taking the GPU to a 770 or 780 though.

 

[Xerin7]

*derp edit*

Maxwell is a GPU, not a CPU. Maxwell is the thing to look at for now, but as usual, AMD will respond and then NVIDIA will respond. AMD will probably be releasing R300 series late this year if not early next year, very unsure at this point in time.

I know Maxwell is a GPU. I was asking whether a significantly better CPU is coming out in the same timeframe.

 

[Xerin7]

An i5 2500K is still a pretty fast CPU (by the way, why did you get an overclocking rig if you don't intend to overclock?), so I would probably wait until Haswell refresh or Broadwell before upgrading it. You could get a nice bump in gaming performance by taking the GPU to a 770 or 780 though.

Thanks mfenn, always good to read your insights. Any idea of the timing for Haswell refresh/Broadwell?

 

[nwo]

I prefer not to OC, although I know that I'm missing out on free performance. Sounds like it might be worth waiting for the Maxwells, is there another cpu release on the horizon?

99% of 2500K's can hit 4GHz with stock voltage. That means all you have to do is go into your BIOS and increase the multiplier to 40x or use your windows based motherboard OCing utility to do the same.

I know Maxwell is a GPU. I was asking whether a significantly better CPU is coming out in the same timeframe.

I don't think that the next generation of CPUs will offer any significant performance difference. They will most likely follow the same path of a 5-10% clock/clock performance increase over their previous generations.

 

[mfenn]

Thanks mfenn, always good to read your insights. Any idea of the timing for Haswell refresh/Broadwell?

Haswell refresh is imminent, Broadwell end of the year beginning of next.

 

[Belkov]

If I were you, I would wait till skylake for changing the CPU. As for the gpu - I don't think you need to wait for maxwell. Just take a 290 or 780 - depending on your preferences. Personally I prefered r9 290 due to its cheaper price in my country.

 

[Xerin7]

99% of 2500K's can hit 4GHz with stock voltage. That means all you have to do is go into your BIOS and increase the multiplier to 40x or use your windows based motherboard OCing utility to do the same.

I've never tried overclocking because the horror stories make me nervous. I read a thread yesterday about several issues someone was having (RAM going bad more quickly, etc.) due to overclocking.

Maybe I'm worrying too much and should try it? I appreciate any references you might have on the potential risks and step by step.

 

[Xerin7]

Sounds like the consensus is not to upgrade anything right now, except for the video card. Thanks all for the input!

 

[mfenn]

I've never tried overclocking because the horror stories make me nervous. I read a thread yesterday about several issues someone was having (RAM going bad more quickly, etc.) due to overclocking.

Maybe I'm worrying too much and should try it? I appreciate any references you might have on the potential risks and step by step.

It's pretty hard to instantly blow up a modern PC. Worst thing that'll happen is that you'll set something out of spec and have to reset the BIOS to get it to boot again.

Overclocking is a good way to get some more life out of older components, and a mild CPU overclock on stock voltage is pretty safe.

 

[Xerin7]

It's pretty hard to instantly blow up a modern PC. Worst thing that'll happen is that you'll set something out of spec and have to reset the BIOS to get it to boot again.

Overclocking is a good way to get some more life out of older components, and a mild CPU overclock on stock voltage is pretty safe.

I'm less worried about instantly frying my CPU than about long term wear and tear on the CPU, ram, etc. Is that a concern or not really?

 

[Belkov]

No chance to break this cpu with so minor clock. I am using mine on 4.2GHz from the beginning and i have never had any problems. I can easily clock it above 4.5GHz, but i don't need it and of course my TX3 Evo is no good for anything above 4.4 - 4.5GHz.

Sounds like the consensus is not to upgrade anything right now, except for the video card. Thanks all for the input!

Yes, you don't need to upgrade anything else except the GPU.

I wish you good luck with the upgrade.

 

[Xerin7]

I might give it a try then, thanks!

 

[nwo]

I've never tried overclocking because the horror stories make me nervous. I read a thread yesterday about several issues someone was having (RAM going bad more quickly, etc.) due to overclocking.

Maybe I'm worrying too much and should try it? I appreciate any references you might have on the potential risks and step by step.

Old school overclocking put a lot more stress on the entire system than today's overclocking. Back then you had to do various things one of which included raising the FSB speed which would also raise the motherboard chipset speed as well as your RAM clock speed. However, today with the "K" chips which come with an unlocked CPU multiplier, all you have to do is raise the multiplier and you're done. This only affects the CPU not the RAM or the motherboard. Motherboard and RAM are only affected (and at an increased risk of failure) if you increase voltage or increase BLCK/FSB speed.

Step 1: Go into your BIOS (usually by pressing DEL or F2 on system startup)
Step 2: Find advanced options
Step 3: Find CPU clock speed mutliplier option
Step 4: Raise multiplier to desired level (40 in your case)

Now if it asks you, or gives you the option, to do it on one core or all cores, make sure you apply it on all cores.

 

[Xerin7]

Sorry for the newb questions, but here's what I did so far:
1) went to OC Tweaker in bios and enabled Advanced Turbo 50. This resulted in bsod so I turned it off
2) went to Load Optimized CPU OC Setting and chose Turbo 4.0Ghz. System booted fine

Now how do I check to see if the new setting is working, and ensure temps are still good? I tried downloading HW monitor but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Thanks!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Sorry for the newb questions, but here's what I did so far:
1) went to OC Tweaker in bios and enabled Advanced Turbo 50. This resulted in bsod so I turned it off
2) went to Load Optimized CPU OC Setting and chose Turbo 4.0Ghz. System booted fine

Now how do I check to see if the new setting is working, and ensure temps are still good? I tried downloading HW monitor but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Thanks!

You'll want a stress test utility (something like Prime95, Intel Burn Test, or OCCT -- not sure what the OC stress test favorite is these days) and a temp monitoring program like Core Temp. Run the tests and monitor the temps. If you can run utilities like those for a few hours without a crash, your overclock is stable. How long? Some guys want to run them for 24+ hours. For me, 2 to 4 hours was enough.

Someone else will have to comment on acceptable temps. I put in the initial OC on the rig below years ago so I don't remember all the settings or temp range.

EDIT: Not sure you mentioned it, but what is your CPU cooler? Stock Intel or a third-party cooler?

 

[mvbighead]

If you're worried about load times, you might consider buying two solid SSDs at half the size of your need and run them in a RAID0 config. Just don't store your important stuff there, as you have a higher risk for data loss, but your load times would improve considerably on anything installed there.

 

[Xerin7]

Thanks, but how can I check to confirm the speed my CPU is actually running at and also what temp range should I target?

 

[nwo]

Thanks, but how can I check to confirm the speed my CPU is actually running at and also what temp range should I target?

Anything below 70*C is fine for 24/7 use.

You can download CPU-z to see your CPU clock speed.

Once you open it up, it will be displayed on the main/welcome screen (CPU tab) at the bottom left under clocks.

 

[nwo]

Sorry for the newb questions, but here's what I did so far:
1) went to OC Tweaker in bios and enabled Advanced Turbo 50. This resulted in bsod so I turned it off
2) went to Load Optimized CPU OC Setting and chose Turbo 4.0Ghz. System booted fine

Now how do I check to see if the new setting is working, and ensure temps are still good? I tried downloading HW monitor but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Thanks!

You don't want to use any of the presets. You want to manually decrease turbo boost and set the multiplier (CPU ratio) to 40.

You can use this guide for the Haswell i7 4770k to get an idea of what to look for in the BIOS.
http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/overclock_intel_4770k_guide/2.htm

However, keep in mind this is a guide for a different CPU. The only thing you want and need to change on your CPU to obtain a 4GHz OC is the CPU multiplier/CPU ratio.

Does your motherboard come with a windows overclocking utility? I have an ASRock p67 extreme 4 and it's called ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility which has much more simplified overclocking options from which I overclocked my i5 2500k to 4.4GHz without ever having to change anything in the BIOS.

Edit: I just checked out your motherboard on asrock's website, you can use the same utility that I used. Download it and fire it up, it should be a lot easier for you to overclock using the utility because the BIOS has hundreds of other unnecessary settings and options that will just confuse you.