Upgrade 2500k to 3770?

[gen3d]

I have been running a i5 2500k since sandy bridge first came out. I was able to get a stable overclock of 4.7ghz but I left it at stock speeds all these years. I currently have a GeForce 980 and 16 gigs of ddr3. Overall it works great still. Recently I got a slightly used i7 3770 for free. I have thought about swapping out my 2500k with the 3770, but I am not sure if it is worth the trouble. I might just overclock the 2500k until I buy a whole new motherboard/cpu setup probably this summer when I have the money. Any thoughts?

 

[Yuriman]

Ivy Bridge is superior. Performance is better per clock, power consumption is lower at a given clock (on top of performance being higher). Although it might run a little hotter, it's only because the IHS is not soldered on; it's producing less heat. Your max overclock might be a little lower, but performance per-thread will not be, and you'll have hyperthreading on top of that.

The 2500K is probably still plenty sufficient, but a 3770 has more years left in it than the i5.

EDIT: You could, of course, send me the 3770 instead.

 

[AtenRa]

Im assuming the 3770 is not K,

Install the 3770 and raise the multiplier to the highest value (should be 4x over four core turbo) and BCLK by 1-2MHz. That will put it close to 4.2-4.3GHz.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Get a 3770K. If not then the 3770.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I have been running a i5 2500k since sandy bridge first came out. I was able to get a stable overclock of 4.7ghz but I left it at stock speeds all these years. I currently have a GeForce 980 and 16 gigs of ddr3. Overall it works great still. Recently I got a slightly used i7 3770 for free. I have thought about swapping out my 2500k with the 3770, but I am not sure if it is worth the trouble. I might just overclock the 2500k until I buy a whole new motherboard/cpu setup probably this summer when I have the money. Any thoughts?

Swap that 3770 in. Better perf/clock, hyperthreading, and lower power consumption.

 

[gen3d]

It is not a k model so I can't overclock via changing the multiplier correct? I also only care purely about gaming and stability.

 

[iSkylaker]

If both CPUs are yours, sell both and get the latest and the greatest.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Throw in the 3770. With Hyperthreading support, some tasks run faster on there at stock clocks than many newer OCd i5s, particularly when you're multi-tasking.

 

[Yuriman]

It is not a k model so I can't overclock via changing the multiplier correct? I also only care purely about gaming and stability.

You can change the multiplier, but you can only raise it by 4x.

 

[Charlie98]

I also only care purely about gaming and stability.

As long as it's a good chip, stability shouldn't be a problem... but I've found trying to raise the BCLK on my Sandys was a train wreck.

Most everyone is recommending swapping in the i7 for the superior HT... but the OP is concerned with purely gaming. Wouldn't keeping the OC'd i5 be better than the i7's HT given that most games can't even use 4 cores (but that depends on which games the OP is talking about.) Just curious, myself.

 

[rgallant]

Any thoughts?
what mother board ?

 

[gen3d]

I have a Asus P8P67 Pro. I is the 2nd stepping of the board as I sent it in for a recall due to a problem with Sata corruption if I remember right. I have never had a motherboard cpu combo work as well or as long as this one. I do all my work on my work desktop or notebook. I use this computer sticky for gaming. I play all types of games really. I am just a couple games under 900 on my steam account and another 50 between Orgin and UPlay.

 

[Dasa2]

for games the 2500k at 4.7ghz is faster than the 3770 with a small oc
with 2500k and 3770 at the same clock speed the 2500k could get higher fps in games if it had faster ram so if you want some more cpu grunt maybe look at overclocking your ram if you havent already
you do need to test ram overclocks thoroughly as it can create some annoying stability problems

 

[Blue_Max]

I'd sell the 2500k combo and get a B75 (etc) motherboard to gain USB3 and SATA6 along with the 3770's 8 threads. Using 20W less power just feels good on top of that.

 

[Braxos]

Sell 2500 3770 and motherboard and buy a 6600. The 3770 is/would be a option if it was a k and the motherboard was a z77. You will need to put some cash but you can still sell them with a good price tag so they don't go wasted on trash as they will in 3 years, 20 30 bucks if the motherboard can survive so long with the OC.

 

[Yuriman]

for games the 2500k at 4.7ghz is faster than the 3770 with a small oc
with 2500k and 3770 at the same clock speed the 2500k could get higher fps in games if it had faster ram so if you want some more cpu grunt maybe look at overclocking your ram if you havent already
you do need to test ram overclocks thoroughly as it can create some annoying stability problems

I'd argue otherwise. Single-threaded performance will be within spitting distance when that 3770 is clocked at 4.3ghz 1t/4.1ghz 4t even without the additional cache and extra threads, because of Ivy's IPC advantage.

^ 10% performance advantage over 2600K, with a 100mhz (2.5%) clockspeed advantage

^ 16% performance advantage, possibly more but CPU is no longer the bottleneck

^ Not gaming, but the advantage here is closer to 15%

^And 18% here

Those don't even take into account the extra cache i7's have over i5's, or the benefit of extra threads.

 

[Headfoot]

Definitely a boost going from 2500k to 3770k there Yuriman, but the graph only makes me want a 6700k (or a 5960x, anyone giving free ones of those away?) instead! Funny how that works

 

[Blue_Max]

It's not a K variant. Stock only.

Maybe a little slower compared to a massive overclock, but faster in multithreading, much lower voltage, and newer technology.

Combine it witha cheap B75 motherboard you also gain USB3 and faster SATA.

If you CAN sell it all, great. Selling the single combo (possibly as a system) and using the 3770 would involve the least amount of cash spent - even netting a PROFIT, rather than another ~$250 out of pocket for a new 6700k combo.

 

[Dasa2]

^And 18% here

Those don't even take into account the extra cache i7's have over i5's, or the benefit of extra threads.

its interesting to see some reviews are showing such large gains since i have just swapped my 2600k for a 3770k
but since there not fixed to the same clock speed maybe turbo is doing something funny in there tests

while others show only ~5%

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/9
we will ignore the gpu bottlnecked tests on the next page of the anandtech review...

i havent compared it to the 2600k im afraid but i did test how ht and ram speed affect a multithreaded game
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2455994&highlight=

edit
just realized they tested sandy with 1333 ram at techreport
so with the memory sensitive 7zip test showing ~18% difference would break down as ~2.5% clock speed ~5% ipc ~10% is due to 1333 8-8-8 vs 1600 9-9-9

 

[Sweepr]

In some newer games, especially X1/PS4 ports, Core i7 3770 can be noticeably faster. I would swap it, 8-thread Ivy Bridge will extend the life of your system.

 

[bystander36]

its interesting to see some reviews are showing such large gains since i have just swapped my 2600k for a 3770k
but since there not fixed to the same clock speed maybe turbo is doing something funny in there tests

while others show only ~5%

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/9
we will ignore the gpu bottlnecked tests on the next page of the anandtech review...

i havent compared it to the 2600k im afraid but i did test how ht and ram speed affect a multithreaded game
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2455994&highlight=

edit
just realized they tested sandy with 1333 ram at techreport
so with the memory sensitive 7zip test showing ~18% difference would break down as ~2.5% clock speed ~5% ipc ~10% is due to 1333 8-8-8 vs 1600 9-9-9

The benchmarks shown earlier had stock clocks, so the 3770 had higher clocks as well as being faster clock for clock. Yours has them all downclocked to 3Ghz, so you see them as if they were clocked the same. If the i5 2500K is OC'ed significantly, it's going to vary on which is faster, depending on what you are doing.

 

[Dasa2]

yes clock for clock\ipc is what we were after to get a rough idea of how they compete once overclocked
with the same clock speed and ram speed the ipc was ~5%
with different ram speed and clock speed there was obviously a much bigger difference
ht will add another ~5% to that in the few new games that support it


the 3770 will be faster than the 2500k when rendering as ht is much more beneficial under those work loads so it would need to be overclocked more than 30% higher than the 3770 to compete if the system was used for video editing
but the 2500k should win in gaming as it only needs to be clocked ~10% higher to catch up or just 5% in games that dont benefit from ht

just found some mb can apparently get the 3770 to 4.3ghz on all cores instead of just when 1-2 are under load and 4.1ghz when all 4 are under load so that makes it a bit closer if your mb can manage that

 

[TeknoBug]

It's a decent step up and it's overclockable with certain motherboards (can be done with my ASRock Z77 Pro4 and Z77 Extreme4 boards) and limit the BCLK to 102 if you bother to (I never touch BCLK since it OC's the ram, HDD, GPU, PCI devices, etc).

On that note, I actually miss my silicon lottery 3770K, 4.5GHz at stock voltage. But money for big bills comes first.