Worth upgrading 2500K @ 4.5 or just GPU

[fstime]

I built my rig in 2012 with the help of some of you here. i5 2500K Sandy @ 4.5 ghz, 8 GB DDR3, and a GTX 680 with a little o/c.

Currently gaming at 1920x1200p on a 24'' 16:10. Might go 3 x 27'' 2560x1400 (just for multitasking, would still use only 1 x 27'' monitor for gaming).

You guys think its worth going Kaby Lake that just came out or just upgrade to a GTX 1070?

Obviously the first option is a much bigger investment, new mobo, cpu, gpu and ram is easily another $850-900 versus just ~$400 for a new GPU.

I don't need any CPU power for non-gaming tasks, all I do is stream and web browse when not gaming.

Thanks

 

[Ancalagon44]

What games do you play? Do any of them run badly?

I'd say, sell your 680 and upgrade to a 1070 or 1080. You could even think of waiting for GPUs like Vega and Nvidia's next GPU, whatever it is called, because they should decrease the prices of 1070s and 1080s. You might even be able to pick up a used 1080 (if you want used).

As for CPU, unfortunately not much point now. Wait for Zen to see what effect that has on the CPU market. Or maybe Intel's Cannon Lake.

I'm hoping we might see better things from Cannon Lake due to the lukewarm reception that Kaby Lake received.

 

[fstime]

Yeah, I can't max out many games any more like the Witcher 3 or Doom, medium graphics is fine and I can average 50-60 fps. Any ETA for the new GPUs you mention, i'm seeing rumors of around March?

So at 2560x1400 I shouldn't be CPU bottlenecked correct?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

General rule of thumb is, upgrade the GPU first and frequently, and upgrade your CPU when a new GPU doesn't get you any additional FPS.

But don't worry about "wasting" money quote on a new GPU that you don't "need", because you probably needed it anyway.

 

[DigDog]

Yeah, I can't max out many games any more like the Witcher 3 or Doom, medium graphics is fine and I can average 50-60 fps. Any ETA for the new GPUs you mention, i'm seeing rumors of around March?

So at 2560x1400 I shouldn't be CPU bottlenecked correct?

those are really high end games; i'm gonna take an educated guess, and say that everything else you play runs flawlessly.
sure, you can upgrade a 2500k / 4.2ghz, but how much improvement do you expect to gain ?

 

[monkeydelmagico]

This has been tested and debated to death. Do a bit of searching. To sum it up: Just get the GPU. 2500k at that overclock performs roughly equivalent as a stock 6600k in games.

 

[DaveSimmons]

No need for a CPU upgrade yet, you'll be disappointed with the small jump in performance and it will cost around $600 for a 7700K, Z270 mobo and 16 GB DDR4.

Instead get the 1070 or 1080.

 

[Charlie98]

Still rocking my 2500K in my gamer rig... granted, I don't play anything newer than BF4.

 

[draknon]

I run my 2500k at 4.3 with 8gb ram and it has worked well. When I built the rig in 2011, I moved over my gtx460 and then upgraded to a gtx760 when they were released.

Last July, I upgraded to a GTX1070 and everything was working great. Then in the fall, I bought a new monitor and started to game at 1440p. (a 1070 is really being wasted at 1080) Just about everything still runs great with the 2500k and 1070, except for Battlefield 1. BF1 runs ok at 1080p but I have severe issues at 1440p. My cores are all pegged near 100% and it uses up almost all of my RAM.

I am in the process of replacing the rest of my rig with a 7600k or Ryzen. I'll also be switching to all SSD storage and moving from Win7 to Win10. I'll be moving from ATX to ITX for this build. Everything will be new other than the 1070 and power supply.

With the exception of BF1 I do not feel that this upgrade is needed. I think I would be fine just upgrading to win10 on one of the new ssd's that I bought and adding another 8gb of ddr3 to my current board. But I've already gotten 6 years out of this setup and it has served me well.

 

[whm1974]

BF1 should play just fine at 1440p with a 1070 GPU.