upgrade question for my cpu

[boozzer]

I have a e8500 c2d, should I upgrade when ivy comes out or wait 1 more year for haswell?

this is for my gaming pc. I also do some video encoding from time to time. I have read that ivy has very small performance gains over sandy. haswell will be something totally new, but I can't find any info on it. I just know it will be the 2nd gen 22nm cpus by intel after ivy.

 

[Ken g6]

What games are you playing, what GPU do you currently have, and what resolution are you playing at? Oh, and what video encoding software are you using?

I don't see a huge amount of benefit coming, from either of the new chips, over an i5 2500k today. But you might be better served with a new GPU.

 

[boozzer]

css, witcher 2, deus ex hr, shogun 2 + other games and mods in the total war series. I have a 460 1gb, play my games on 1080p. I was using virtualdub and it's variants, but been trying out freemake video converter lately.

 

[boozzer]

double post, chrome glitched.

 

[mfenn]

CS:S should be running fine, The Witcher 2 is GPU bound, DX3 is probably running fine but technically GPU bound, and Shogun is probably CPU and GPU bound. Video encoding is CPU bound.

So really, if you want to improve your gaming experience, you need both a CPU and a GPU. If you are more interested in decreasing your transcode times, the CPU by itself would be fine.

 

[boozzer]

what I am asking is should I upgrade to ivy or haswell? or just save all my money and time and get 2500k? I know my e8500 is getting extremely long in the teeth.

 

[mfenn]

What I'm answering is that it depends on what you'd like to make faster, gaming or encoding. If you want to make gaming faster, you should get an i3 and a new GPU. If you want to make encoding faster, you should get an i5.

 

[boozzer]

so back to my question, 2500k now? or wait for ivy? or wait for haswell?

 

[VirtualLarry]

No real reason to wait. Many modern games these days run best with a 2500K, even unoverclocked, but many of them OC to 4.5Ghz with a decent air cooler.

Ivy may have higher overclocking headroom, but not that much of an IPC increase over Sandy Bridge.

Haswell, well, I know very little about Haswell, other than it is supposed to have some new opcodes, AVX2 or something like that. (FMA?)

But software will have to be updated to be able to take advantage of the speed increases that those new opcodes will provide. So I somehow doubt Haswell will have that much of an IPC increase over Ivy, with existing software.

 

[boozzer]

thanks for the input. I guess 2500k it is. if I can oc to 4.5 on air, that is all I need. I am not really worry about performance with existing software(my e8500 is still doing ok in that department, just not as well as I want it). the main reason I am asking here on this forum is because I sort of want to future proof my purchase for 3 years min. 1.5 years of enjoyment and 1.5 years for the new cpu tech to mature = good enough for me.

oh larry, could you please recommend a good mobo and ram to go with 2500k?

 

[mfenn]

i5 2500K $230 (Newegg is OOS)
ASRock Z68 Pro 3 $79 AR AP
Patriot DDR3 1600 8GB $35

 

[boozzer]

could you recommend a mobo with front panel usb 3 support? I will be getting the bitfenix raider case. my last question and I will finally be done.

 

[mfenn]

Front panel USB 3.0 costs a bit more, but IMHO the way to go for that is the ASUS P8Z68-V LE for $130.

 

[boozzer]

I don't mind the cost. just want a good mobo that goes well with the raider. thanks for the links.

 

[VirtualLarry]

What I don't get is, why you can get front-panel USB3.0 ports on a "lowly" $100 Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3, but in Z68 mobos, you have to pay $150 or more it seems.

The ASrock Z68 Pro3-M would be perfect for me if it had front-USB3.0 support.