Upgrade to sandy worth it for gaming ?

[Orthello77]

Hi All,

I've recently got my old core i7 930 humming along at 4.5ghz and may get a bit more out of it yet but anyways i've been thinking whilst they are still available should i get a Sandy Bridge 2600k or 2700k and a Z77 mainboard.

I mainly game on my rig, my res is 2560x1440 and i set vsync to 60 fps , i have 2 x 3GB GTX580s @ 1065mhz (exotic cooling) currently.

Am i going to get a tangable benefit in any game at my res ? or is it just a matter of wait and save the $$. Ivy bridge doesn't really interest me at this stage.

I just don't want to kick myself 6months down the track when all the new sandys are gone thats all.

[ChocoTaco]

In gaming I imagine your difference in performance would be almost non-existent.

[Bootes]

Dont, wait for Haswell. Although Haswell is a while away, going SB, IB, or SB-E you'll only see roughly 5-10% performance improvement, and for games that's not worth it at all. Just stick it out and wait, that's what i'm doing sadly..

[Orthello77]

Possibly by the time Haswell is out there will be games that push the older generation hardware more so than now - could be a good time to upgrade then. New 4k+ monitors are going to start coming out next year so i guess it could all tie in together.

[Wildstaroct]

Originally Posted by ChocoTaco

In gaming I imagine your difference in performance would be almost non-existent.

I've been in serious research mode in the last few days and concur with this assessment.

[Sparkey247]

the only thing you would really gain is and easier way to tap into usb 3.0 and sata 3. which is offered on some 1366 boards anyway.

i have thought long and hard about upgrading from my i7 965 EE and 3 gtx 280. but currently there is not a single game out there that i would like to play that will not give me 60fps or higher on my 28inch screen witht he settings maxed out so whats the point.

that and when i do upgrade in no longer going to go with the bleeding edge. i did that twice once with the kentsfield cores and then with the bloomfield cores.

i spent 900 bones on a QX6700 the week it came out and now it resides in the living room as an htpc i won't sell it because i will never get close to what i payed for the qx. and i payed a G-note for the i7965EE the night it came out and well im going to use it till i an't get teh power i need out of it

[Orthello77]

Yeah its a sad state really for PC gaming where 2nd and 3rd generation old hardware is all thats required to play the lastest games at their maximum settings at 60fps. Hoping the new games out next year start to evolve things a bit.

I'm going to start to measure $ spent in performance per $ in actual game performance and the CPU / mobo upgrade is pretty woefull in that department at present.

[_DOM_]

If you wanted to upgrade I would go with ivy z77 and just upgrade gpu when needed

[hostage67]

I wouldn't bother with Sandy at this point. If you don't already have a sandy go straight to Ivy, though frankly I would wait until the next generation unless there is some need to get it right away. I was so far behind I decided to get an Ivy, but if I had a decent chip I would wait until the new CPU's come out which should focus more on a real CPU upgrade instead of the onboard GPU upgrades from the last two generations.

[Sheep221]

Get SB only if you can get it with some good rebate. Otherwise get either i5-3570K or i7-3770K
But I also think as others, that your i7-930 is still holding alot of power, so unless you are really having performance problems I wouldn't upgrade if I was you.

[Urbanfox]

Originally Posted by Orthello77

Hi All,

I've recently got my old core i7 930 humming along at 4.5ghz and may get a bit more out of it yet but anyways i've been thinking whilst they are still available should i get a Sandy Bridge 2600k or 2700k and a Z77 mainboard.

I mainly game on my rig, my res is 2560x1440 and i set vsync to 60 fps , i have 2 x 3GB GTX580s @ 1065mhz (exotic cooling) currently.

Am i going to get a tangable benefit in any game at my res ? or is it just a matter of wait and save the $$. Ivy bridge doesn't really interest me at this stage.

I just don't want to kick myself 6months down the track when all the new sandys are gone thats all.

No. Not at all. If you have a first gen i7 @ 4.5, then no. Wait for Haswell if you want to upgrade.

[buttons]

Your fps might change 5% with an overclocked sandy/ivy but your eyes wouldnt see a difference. your wallet would though....

[LordVampyre]

Thank you all for this thread... you all just saved me a great deal of money.

[jmilch]

Originally Posted by buttons

Your fps might change 5% with an overclocked sandy/ivy but your eyes wouldnt see a difference. your wallet would though....

I think thats probably a high estimate. You are better off saving for a better gpu if you want a decent FPS increase

[Hickeydog]

Heck, I've still got an AMD 955 BE and it chugs through everything I throw at it. Save money. Buy more GPU.

[AdamV]

I'm keeping my overclock i7 930 bloomfield as well until Intel or AMD release something with a substantial performance increase. Just wait it out a bit longer.

[rich9cinti]

Originally Posted by Orthello77

Yeah its a sad state really for PC gaming where 2nd and 3rd generation old hardware is all thats required to play the lastest games at their maximum settings at 60fps. Hoping the new games out next year start to evolve things a bit.

I'm going to start to measure $ spent in performance per $ in actual game performance and the CPU / mobo upgrade is pretty woefull in that department at present.

Not 100% true. Depends on the game and at what resolution. I'm not sad at all, I'd rather spend less money just to play games