When will there be value in upgrading a i5 2500k for gaming?

[steve wilson]

Hi Guys,
I was just wondering when a chip will be released that is value for money to upgrade to? I have the excellent i5 2500k at the moment and see no need to upgrade. I tend to go for chips that are good bang for buck... but the higher end of bang for buck if that makes sense?

 

[AtenRa]

Try in 3-5 years, maybe more. That will be the time that Intel will release a 6-core at $200-250, but you will spend more for the Server motherboard :whiste:

 

[steve wilson]

Well on the brightside I will have got a lot of value for money out of my chip

But a small part of me just loves upgrading my PC.

 

[NTMBK]

No point in upgrading to Haswell, and presumably Broadwell (unless Broadwell K somehow turns out to be an overclocking god... yeah right). Maybe Skylake?

 

[996GT2]

If you're running SLI GTX 780s and have a non-overclocked 2500K, then I could see a possible CPU bottleneck there. But other than that, there's no reason to upgrade from a 2500K unless you're doing multithreaded, CPU-intensive work.

 

[steve wilson]

All I'm doing is gaming... I know right now there is no point in upgrading.

How long until Skylake? Wiki says 2015-2016 ... but I have been burnt by wiki b4

 

[Galatian]

Mind you it also depends on the chipset features. For example I'm planning my next upgrade not so much on a better CPU (perfectly fine with my Core i5-3570K @ 4,5 GHz on air and my planed water loop will probably increase this to 5,0 GHz) but on chipset features. I want at least DDR4 and SATA Express. Both got somewhat canned on Broadwell and Haswell-E (although I wouldn't get this since I need Quicksync). So if it comes out with Skylake I'll be all over it, if not then not.

 

[NTMBK]

All I'm doing is gaming... I know right now there is no point in upgrading.

How long until Skylake? Wiki says 2015-2016 ... but I have been burnt by wiki b4

Skylake is next after Broadwell, so it should be out next year if everything goes according to plan.

 

[alawadhi3000]

At least two years probably.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Honestly, going to a 4770k isn't a zero upgrade. It isn't a big upgrade but it is definitely not zero. To get a 40-100% upgrade based on app you will probably need to wait at least till Skylake.

Even then it will be mostly 50% or so faster in most stuff or something like that.

 

[Essence_of_War]

If you're running SLI GTX 780s and have a non-overclocked 2500K, then I could see a possible CPU bottleneck there. But other than that, there's no reason to upgrade from a 2500K unless you're doing multithreaded, CPU-intensive work.

I agree with this.

Is your SB i5 OC'd at all? If you're pretty sure that you're not CPU bottlenecked, and you're happy with your chipset features, I think it'd be fine to hold off until something more exciting like DDR4 or SATA-E comes to the table.

 

[steve wilson]

Mind you it also depends on the chipset features. For example I'm planning my next upgrade not so much on a better CPU (perfectly fine with my Core i5-3570K @ 4,5 GHz on air and my planed water loop will probably increase this to 5,0 GHz) but on chipset features. I want at least DDR4 and SATA Express. Both got somewhat canned on Broadwell and Haswell-E (although I wouldn't get this since I need Quicksync). So if it comes out with Skylake I'll be all over it, if not then not.

That is a good point. It looks like all roads lead to Skylake. Well at least until we have more info further down the road.

Edit: Or AMD pull something out of the hat.

 

[steve wilson]

I agree with this.

Is your SB i5 OC'd at all? If you're pretty sure that you're not CPU bottlenecked, and you're happy with your chipset features, I think it'd be fine to hold off until something more exciting like DDR4 or SATA-E comes to the table.

It has a slight overclock on it, but as I'm not having any problems running anything I don't see the point in overclocking properly until I need the extra power. I only have a GTX 770, so I don't have any problems with a bottleneck. I have no plans for SLI either... I only game at 1920x1080.

 

[jacktesterson]

If your overclocking, and are simply gaming, probably not for quite a while.. (years)

Even @ 4.0GHz at stock voltage.

 

[Qwertilot]

You'll probably just have to pass the time contemplating how low they've got the power draw for an equivalent speed chip

Not a classical upgrade of course although smaller cases are nice in their own way.

 

[Essence_of_War]

It has a slight overclock on it, but as I'm not having any problems running anything I don't see the point in overclocking properly until I need the extra power. I only have a GTX 770, so I don't have any problems with a bottleneck. I have no plans for SLI either... I only game at 1920x1080.

Nice. Unless you're just looking to scratch an upgrade itch with disposable income, I'd probably just wait until DDR4 and SATA express are chipset standards, then move from there. That looks like Skylake, and/or Canonlake at the earliest.

 

[steve wilson]

Thanks for the info and advice guys, I have a rough idea on timescale now.

 

[Charlie98]

I can't justify upgrading my 2500K yet... no matter how hard I try. I did consider bumping up to a Z77 board to get native USB3, but I can't even justify that.

Eventually, I'll build a new desktop for upstairs, I may swap the 2500K/mobo/RAM into that and reload the main desktop, but it's hard to justify dumping that much money into a desktop build that could easily work with a Celeron or Pentium.

 

[Torn Mind]

Skylake.

I personally prefer upgrading to the "tocks", i.e Ivy Bridge because ticks, i.e Sandy Bridge can have potential issues, but Cannonlake is a long ways away..

 

[OCGuy]

Are we complaining that our purchases last much too long? Must be an enthusiast tech site

I just rode a i7 950 for years, and before that E8400/Q9450........enjoy the ride, we will get mainstream 6-core goodness soon enough. I hope.

 

[greenhawk]

Hard to say for sure as the biggest issue is what you use it for. Gaming has not really been pushing the limits of hardware for quite a while (pleanty of ideas why, not going into it).

Looking at history, I think a lot of people upgraded to the i5-2500k from q6600 and similar systems. Given they where considered good back about 2007 (2011 for the i5-2500k) .IIRC about double performance from a q6600 to a i5-2500k without overclocking, so a noticable reason to upgrade then.

Assuming linear improvements means it might be 5 years (from 2011, makes 2016) before something will be a "wow, I must upgrade" chip. Of course performance growth is not linear, but current chip development is more for lower power / minor speed boost, will probably add up to linear being a usable ruler.

At that sort of distance away, I would be expecting an upgrade to occur from dieing hardware before performance reasons.

 

[USER8000]

The Core i5 2500K will be fine for a few years more IMHO.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The Core i5 2500K will be fine for a few years more IMHO.

The basic info is in my sig. Today, I wanted to see if I could easily punch up my i7-2600K (HT enabled) from its 2.5 year run at 4.6 to 4.7. I punched up the "Xtra Turbo Voltage" by 12 mV as a guess, and Prime95 BSOD'd in just under 3 hours. Punched it up another 4 mV, with same result. Finally, I just figured to add 32 mV to the 4.6 setting of 0.008V, and it runs like a champ, 4hrs "0/0" for both sFFT and large. For the thermals, the prevailing average core temperature is ~69C to ~71C, depending on the test. So the loaded sFFT voltage averages 1.340V; the large FFT average is about 5mV higher. The unloaded or "transitional" idle voltage is 1.38V before settling down in EIST to 1.008V.

So there's the question. "What am I gonna do, just to keep my hand in it? Before I become techno backwards and clueless?" The fam-damn-ily doesn't need upgrades from their Wolfdales -- they're happier'n's***.

IT wouldn't make as much sense to buy a 2700K and a z77 mobo, then turn over the 2600K and Z68 for Mom or Bro. Seems too early for that.

The other option: a Z77 or Z87 mobo and corresponding IB or Haswell. But then, I'd want to de-lid. I have a crazy idea about that, too, which I may post soon in a separate thread.

But you'd have to be able to OC IB or Haswell beyond 4.4Ghz to reap any benefits at all, or so it seems.

What will I do -- to keep my enthusiast-OC'er brain from atrophying?! God help all of us! D:

 

[USER8000]

The basic info is in my sig. Today, I wanted to see if I could easily punch up my i7-2600K (HT enabled) from its 2.5 year run at 4.6 to 4.7. I punched up the "Xtra Turbo Voltage" by 12 mV as a guess, and Prime95 BSOD'd in just under 3 hours. Punched it up another 4 mV, with same result. Finally, I just figured to add 32 mV to the 4.6 setting of 0.008V, and it runs like a champ, 4hrs "0/0" for both sFFT and large. For the thermals, the prevailing average core temperature is ~69C to ~71C, depending on the test. So the loaded sFFT voltage averages 1.340V; the large FFT average is about 5mV higher. The unloaded or "transitional" idle voltage is 1.38V before settling down in EIST to 1.008V.

So there's the question. "What am I gonna do, just to keep my hand in it? Before I become techno backwards and clueless?" The fam-damn-ily doesn't need upgrades from their Wolfdales -- they're happier'n's***.

IT wouldn't make as much sense to buy a 2700K and a z77 mobo, then turn over the 2600K and Z68 for Mom or Bro. Seems too early for that.

The other option: a Z77 or Z87 mobo and corresponding IB or Haswell. But then, I'd want to de-lid. I have a crazy idea about that, too, which I may post soon in a separate thread.

But you'd have to be able to OC IB or Haswell beyond 4.4Ghz to reap any benefits at all, or so it seems.

What will I do -- to keep my enthusiast-OC'er brain from atrophying?! God help all of us! D:

I would probably just get a bigger SSD,and maybe a faster graphics card down the line.

Your CPU is perfectly fine and probably faster than what 90% of gamers have even today I suspect.

 

[videogames101]

Skylake (presumably) brings DD4 to the desktop and you'll certainly see gains solely based on that leap.

Not to mention that Intel is in all likelihood pumping R&D dollars into that particular architecture, so maybe we'll get something unexpected as well.

If you have Sandy or newer, I would recommend holding on for Skylake unless you actually need the 10% IPC increase you'll see from SB to Haswell.