4930k power requirements

[OlekKing]

Getting really tired of all the bottlenecking i'm having to deal with using my 2500k, doesn't cut it anymore, especially for two 780s...

 

I'm thinking about getting a 4930k but my only concern is if my PSU would be enough to handle it along with the rest of my rig, i have a Corsair HX850 running two overclocked 780s and a 2500k @ 5Ghz.

 

I'm wondering if this would be enough for the 4930k, i also want to overclock it to maybe 4.4-4.5Ghz and cool it with my H100i....

 

I just can't deal with the low gpu usage in BF4 anymore, some maps drop to the 100s and 90s and that's pretty crappy on my 144Hz display.

 

Also i'm really getting into recording gameplay and editing/rendering high quality videos so this CPU would be perfect for that as well.

[helping]

Are you sure a 2500k at 5Ghz is bottlenecking you?

 

Since that's a modest chip overclock, and you're not pushing insane voltages and overclocks on 780's under water, 850w should be fine. 

[lufihengr]

Getting really tired of all the bottlenecking i'm having to deal with using my 2500k, doesn't cut it anymore, especially for two 780s...

 

I'm thinking about getting a 4930k but my only concern is if my PSU would be enough to handle it along with the rest of my rig, i have a Corsair HX850 running two overclocked 780s and a 2500k @ 5Ghz.

 

I'm wondering if this would be enough for the 4930k, i also want to overclock it to maybe 4.4-4.5Ghz and cool it with my H100i....

 

I just can't deal with the low gpu usage in BF4 anymore, some maps drop to the 100s and 90s and that's pretty crappy on my 144Hz display.

 

Also i'm really getting into recording gameplay and editing/rendering high quality videos so this CPU would be perfect for that as well.

You know it could be just battlefield causing these issues?

 

A 2500k at 5 gigs should be more than enough for two 780's. Unless they are running at over 9000 mhz

[warmmilk]

you do realize that most games don't make use of 6 cores, and Ivy being 10% faster per clock than Sandy...  in most games your 2500k at 5GHz will do better than a 4930k at 4.5GHz

[OlekKing]

Are you sure a 2500k at 5Ghz is bottlenecking you?

 

Since that's a modest chip overclock, and you're not pushing insane voltages and overclocks on 780's under water, 850w should be fine. 

Yes and it's pissing me off a lot, my 780s both have unlocked vBIOS and run at 1250mhz with 1.24V if i recall correctly, 2500k is 5Ghz stable with 1.51V

 

It's okay in some games but i play a lot of BF4 and also Arma3, DayZ and other CPU intensive games, the 2500k just gets chocked while my 780s are barely being used. (DayZ is still unoptimized but you get what i mean)

[OlekKing]

you do realize that most games don't make use of 6 cores, and Ivy being 10% faster per clock than Sandy...  in most games your 2500k at 5GHz will do better than a 4930k at 4.5GHz

BF4 makes good use of hyperthreading and the extra cores could help a lot, when playing BF4 my CPU is constantly 100% while my 780s sit around 60ish sometimes 70ish % usage. Got a friend who has a 3930k running 3 780s and he's getting constant usage above 90% on all of his cards.

 

Another reason i'm interested in this CPU is because i like to do a lot of multitasking and i like to record gameplay with DXtory and i'll be diving into video editing and rendering, before someone mentions Shadowplay: source file quality is "okay" but it gets completely shredded when uplading it somewhere.

 

This upgrade is also for the future, games are starting to make good use of HP and hexacores.

[BrightCandle]

BF4 does thankfully use those extra cores so this is the one game where its worth it. There have been a couple of others in the past but by and large its not common for 6 cores to perform better than 4 cores in games. In terms of recording the best bet is ShadowPlay even with a faster CPU, because I have personally found DXtory's hit is pretty heft even with the extra cores.

 

You question was about power consumption so.....

 

The overclock on your 2500k is pretty large, that CPU is probably pulling 200W on its own. Combine that with the ~300W of each of your GPUs and your already over your current PSU. The only reason its working properly is likely due to the CPU bottleneck in the game limiting its own power consumption and that of the 2 GPUs. An overclocked 4930k is going to be 150-200W depending on what clockspeed and voltage you go for as well, maybe a little more, at most +50W. But actually I think you are already marginal with your existing setup with an 850W supply, you are realistically wanting to aim to use about 80% and your total consumption is likely to peak at 900W fully utilised. So a 1KW PSU is in your future purchase list I am afraid. Otherwise you do risk crashes from low power.

[FlamingDefibs]

Another reason i'm interested in this CPU is because i like to do a lot of multitasking and i like to record gameplay with DXtory and i'll be diving into video editing and rendering, before someone mentions Shadowplay: source file quality is "okay" but it gets completely shredded when uplading it somewhere.

 

Since that's the case, the six extra cores should be excellent for video rendering, and the likely extra performance is also a big plus. I would recommend going with the 4930k based on all of the things you said, but only if you for sure have the money. It's about $200 USD more than a 4770k, which you should also consider.

[warmmilk]

BF4 makes good use of hyperthreading and the extra cores could help a lot, when playing BF4 my CPU is constantly 100% while my 780s sit around 60ish sometimes 70ish % usage. Got a friend who has a 3930k running 3 780s and he's getting constant usage above 90% on all of his cards.

 

Another reason i'm interested in this CPU is because i like to do a lot of multitasking and i like to record gameplay with DXtory and i'll be diving into video editing and rendering, before someone mentions Shadowplay: source file quality is "okay" but it gets completely shredded when uplading it somewhere.

 

This upgrade is also for the future, games are starting to make good use of HP and hexacores.

 

ah... I don't play BF4 so I never really think about it.  In that case go for it, especially since you do other stuff that can make use of extra cores.  850 watts is enough.

[OlekKing]

Since that's the case, the six extra cores should be excellent for video rendering, and the likely extra performance is also a big plus. I would recommend going with the 4930k based on all of the things you said, but only if you for sure have the money. It's about $200 USD more than a 4770k, which you should also consider.

Thing is that i found a guy re-selling one on a swiss website, boxed and brand new with proof of purchase and warranty, pretty reputable guy from what i see, he's selling it for only like 70 more $ compared to what i'd pay for a brand new 4770k and 200$ less compared to a 4930k from any retailer.

Only like 3 days to buy it at least according to his post but i asked if maybe it would be possible to get it after that time passes.

[FlamingDefibs]

Thing is that i found a guy re-selling one on a swiss website, boxed and brand new with proof of purchase and warranty, pretty reputable guy from what i see, he's selling it for only like 70 more $ compared to what i'd pay for a brand new 4770k and 200$ less compared to a 4930k from any retailer.

Only like 3 days to buy it at least according to his post but i asked if maybe it would be possible to get it after that time passes.

 

Oh, then absolutely go for it. Buying a 4930k for the price of a 4770k is legendary.

[OlekKing]

Oh, then absolutely go for it. Buying a 4930k for the price of a 4770k is legendary.

Yeah, only problem is that i don't know if it will be possible for me to do it right now, recently shelled out about 300€ on my new DT880 Premium 250ohm along with the FiiO E07K DAC/AMP (and damn it was worth every cent), the guy who's selling has two of them but 3 days left to bid, he doesn't seem to be getting much attention and there hasn't been a bid yet so i asked him if it was possible to buy after that.

[FlamingDefibs]

Yeah, only problem is that i don't know if it will be possible for me to do it right now, recently shelled out about 300€ on my new DT880 Premium 250ohm along with the FiiO E07K DAC/AMP (and damn it was worth every cent), the guy who's selling has two of them but 3 days left to bid, he doesn't seem to be getting much attention and there hasn't been a bid yet so i asked him if it was possible to buy after that.

Well, good luck with the bid. Hopefully you'll get it.

[StormEye]

Just as a reference point, my i7 4960X @ 4.6Ghz averages around 20~30% CPU usage on all cores while playing BF4.

 

I spikes to around 60'ish or so during loading/changing-map for 2~3 seconds and backs down to 20~30%.

[OlekKing]

Just as a reference point, my i7 4960X @ 4.6Ghz averages around 20~30% CPU usage on all cores while playing BF4.

 

I spikes to around 60'ish or so during loading/changing-map for 2~3 seconds and backs down to 20~30%.

Plenty overhead to do other stuff in the background then

[OlekKing]

Can anyone recommend any decently priced motherboards for this CPU? I was looking at the Rampage IV Formula but it exceeds the 300$ mark, are there any good alternatives for around 200$ or less?

[paulsterio]

I know I'll probably get hammered for this, but if you want just simple raw fps increase, for the amount you're spending on the 4930K + motherboard, you should just get an extra 780 instead. 

 

The extra 780 will give you more fps than the upgrade to a 4930K and it'll cost less. 

 

Yes, I know 3-way SLI doesn't scale very well, but it'll still be better. 

[OlekKing]

I know I'll probably get hammered for this, but if you want just simple raw fps increase, for the amount you're spending on the 4930K + motherboard, you should just get an extra 780 instead. 

 

The extra 780 will give you more fps than the upgrade to a 4930K and it'll cost less. 

 

Yes, I know 3-way SLI doesn't scale very well, but it'll still be better. 

This is hysterical...you seem to miss the point of getting a proper CPU...it will not be better at all...you know you'd get hammered because what you said is just ridiculous.

[paulsterio]

This is hysterical...you seem to miss the point of getting a proper CPU...it will not be better at all...you know you'd get hammered because what you said is just ridiculous.

 

No, but you seem to underestimate what a 5.0 GHz 2500K is capable of. 

 

I have a very powerful CPU myself, the 3930K with an R9 290X. My partner has a 3570 with an R9 290. I've benchmarked the two and the difference between them is within the margin of difference between a 290X and a 290, i.e. around 10% max. I was interested so I decided to test both with the R9 290, my 3930K actually did not deliver better FPS at all, it was some this way, some that way, showing that it was all within the margin of error. Yes, there were tests where the 3930K won by a significant margin, but they were games where it was like 80 fps and 110 fps, i.e. both very playable. Most of the ones which were closer to the 60 fps mark were very close. 

 

I knew that I would get hammered because very few people on these forums have the money and means to actually run proper benchmarks and tests to see the effects of what they are doing and very few do proper research. I was offering my suggestion, but if anything, the 4930K at 4.5 GHz and your 2500K at 5.0 GHz will be very close. If you want, drop the money on the 4930K and see what your %ge FPS improvement is. 

 

You're going to get one anyway, so why not test it out and see how much better it does? I assure you that it won't be much, I've tested these things myself. 

 

I will assure you that the FPS gain from an extra 780 will be more and it will cost you less. You're going to get a maximum of like 10 fps with the CPU upgrade. 

 

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/288?vs=443

 

Look at how close the game benchmarks are. There's almost no benefit of having more cores. There are less than a handful of games at the moment that can even utilise them. 

[Faa]

BF4 does take advantage of 6 cores but that's it. I can't find any proper cpu benchmarks using 2x 780's.

Anyways I'm still dipping below 100fps even at 33% cpu load on my 3930K so I have a cpu bottleneck here and there as well. Maybe you should try playing with the resolution scale and field of view to make it a bit more gpu bound maybe you could get 144 fps with higher gpu loads out. In middle of a firefight in closed doors I still had 120fps on ultra & 4x msaa with 50/50% gpu loads (capped fps at 120fps) and an average cpu load of 38-45%

Going to quickly try this game with 4 cores enabled. 

[OlekKing]

No, but you seem to underestimate what a 5.0 GHz 2500K is capable of. 

 

I have a very powerful CPU myself, the 3930K with an R9 290X. My partner has a 3570 with an R9 290. I've benchmarked the two and the difference between them is within the margin of difference between a 290X and a 290, i.e. around 10% max. I was interested so I decided to test both with the R9 290, my 3930K actually did not deliver better FPS at all, it was some this way, some that way, showing that it was all within the margin of error. Yes, there were tests where the 3930K won by a significant margin, but they were games where it was like 80 fps and 110 fps, i.e. both very playable. Most of the ones which were closer to the 60 fps mark were very close. 

 

I knew that I would get hammered because very few people on these forums have the money and means to actually run proper benchmarks and tests to see the effects of what they are doing and very few do proper research. I was offering my suggestion, but if anything, the 4930K at 4.5 GHz and your 2500K at 5.0 GHz will be very close. If you want, drop the money on the 4930K and see what your %ge FPS improvement is. 

 

You're going to get one anyway, so why not test it out and see how much better it does? I assure you that it won't be much, I've tested these things myself. 

 

I will assure you that the FPS gain from an extra 780 will be more and it will cost you less. You're going to get a maximum of like 10 fps with the CPU upgrade. 

 

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/288?vs=443

 

Look at how close the game benchmarks are. There's almost no benefit of having more cores. There are less than a handful of games at the moment that can even utilise them. 

Lol dude, arguing with you seems like a waste of time...you are comparing your single 290x to my SLI 780 setup, really? I mean really? Excuse my language but no shit you don't see much difference between your CPU and your partner's, but even then that's a pretty big difference, and for me it's just vital to get 144fps, vital, right now if i want to hold that framerate i have to drop everything to low except textures and mesh quality on Ultra along with 150 res scaling, and i didn't buy two 780s to play on crappy settings.

 

I couldn't even install another 780 because i can't use the last PCIE slot since i'm on sandy bridge and my mobo needs ivy for that, even if i could i'd never do that because two of these cards are already too much heat, i'm excited to get a new motherboard along with the 4930k because i'll be able to put both cards as far away from each other as possible so the top card won't get all clogged with hot air.

 

You don't seem to understand that i've got a serious CPU bottleneck and i know it by testing and observation, on large conquest large maps i get crappy gpu usage, around 60-60 and goes to 50-50 a lot so basically like having 1 card...on infantry maps like Locker or Metro i get better GPU usage.

 

You're delusional, you don't have a CPU bottleneck at all, you have a GPU bottleneck, get another 290x if you want to make good use of that 3930k haha

[paulsterio]

Lol dude, arguing with you seems like a waste of time...you are comparing your single 290x to my SLI 780 setup, really? I mean really? Excuse my language but no shit you don't see much difference between your CPU and your partner's, but even then that's a pretty big difference, and for me it's just vital to get 144fps, vital, right now if i want to hold that framerate i have to drop everything to low except textures and mesh quality on Ultra along with 150 res scaling, and i didn't buy two 780s to play on crappy settings.

 

I couldn't even install another 780 because i can't use the last PCIE slot since i'm on sandy bridge and my mobo needs ivy for that, even if i could i'd never do that because two of these cards are already too much heat, i'm excited to get a new motherboard along with the 4930k because i'll be able to put both cards as far away from each other as possible so the top card won't get all clogged with hot air.

 

You don't seem to understand that i've got a serious CPU bottleneck and i know it by testing and observation, on large conquest large maps i get crappy gpu usage, around 60-60 and goes to 50-50 a lot so basically like having 1 card...on infantry maps like Locker or Metro i get better GPU usage.

 

You're delusional, you don't have a CPU bottleneck at all, you have a GPU bottleneck, get another 290x if you want to make good use of that 3930k haha

 

I'm not arguing with you either, go buy that 4930K and report back how much fps improvement you're getting. We'll see. 

[Faa]

Lol dude, arguing with you seems like a waste of time...you are comparing your single 290x to my SLI 780 setup, really? I mean really? Excuse my language but no shit you don't see much difference between your CPU and your partner's, but even then that's a pretty big difference, and for me it's just vital to get 144fps, vital, right now if i want to hold that framerate i have to drop everything to low except textures and mesh quality on Ultra along with 150 res scaling, and i didn't buy two 780s to play on crappy settings.

 

I couldn't even install another 780 because i can't use the last PCIE slot since i'm on sandy bridge and my mobo needs ivy for that, even if i could i'd never do that because two of these cards are already too much heat, i'm excited to get a new motherboard along with the 4930k because i'll be able to put both cards as far away from each other as possible so the top card won't get all clogged with hot air.

 

You don't seem to understand that i've got a serious CPU bottleneck and i know it by testing and observation, on large conquest large maps i get crappy gpu usage, around 60-60 and goes to 50-50 a lot so basically like having 1 card...on infantry maps like Locker or Metro i get better GPU usage.

 

You're delusional, you don't have a CPU bottleneck at all, you have a GPU bottleneck, get another 290x if you want to make good use of that 3930k haha

 

Well you're right that the gpu is limiting factor there with a single 290x or 780 but whenever you add a 2nd card it's pretty much a different scenario. I've always said that when you add a stronger or another card it will just need a bunch of more information from your cpu and if it doesnt keep up it's forming a bottleneck like you are experiencing now. Sounds weird but lets get this review out: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-fx-8350-vs-intel-core-i7-3770k-4-8ghz-multi-gpu-gaming-performance/17494.html?ak_action=reject_mobile

We're seeing there a difference of up to 100% with 7970's in CF -> basically AMD was capable there filling a single 7970 to 99% so an Intel with a single 7970 would perform exactly the same but when they added a 2nd 7970 AMD bottlenecked it complety where as Intel filled it to its max.

Another argument; when you upgrade your gpu eg from a 6970 to a 680 your cpu load increases -> http://i.imgur.com/rMmEUuz.jpg (left capped fps with Vsync 60 fps should be a 6970's performance & right a 680 with no Vsync but the CPU load increased dramatically)

Now lets move if a 3930K would be useful; you can have a game so sexy multithreaded like you wish but you still could have a cpu bottleneck at 33% cpu load as I said earlier and thats a moment where you would need IPC. Just an example; operation locker everyone spamming m320 rooms that are full of smoke thats torturing your CPU mainly because it's using havok physics and if that would be 1 thread which you cant split to a 2nd core your 6/8core cpu would be useless.

In my experience, I've tested it a lot, this game doesnt take any advantage of more than 6 cores and multithreading performance in games doesnt scale lineairly which would be here a 50% gain with 2 extra cores. Here's another example why IPC is still a big factor in BF4 -> http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/original/2014/02/Battlefield-4-Mantle-Review-CPU-Benchmarks-Multiplayer-290X-pcgh.png where i7's are outperforming 8350's by 40% because of its IPC

Just hard to tell atm if a 3930K would make a world of difference but I'm seeing average cpu loads of 40-50% so.

I've had the same situation as you have now in BF3, it was pointless to have a 780 or even worse 780's in SLI because the CPU bottlenecks the crap out of it so I'm just disabling SLI for BF3 andturning the settings to medium to obtain 120fps and honestly the visuals are better at medium/low settings than ultra, makes it so much easier for sniping.

[OlekKing]

Well you're right that the gpu is limiting factor there with a single 290x or 780 but whenever you add a 2nd card it's pretty much a different scenario. I've always said that when you add a stronger or another card it will just need a bunch of more information from your cpu and if it doesnt keep up it's forming a bottleneck like you are experiencing now. Sounds weird but lets get this review out: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-fx-8350-vs-intel-core-i7-3770k-4-8ghz-multi-gpu-gaming-performance/17494.html?ak_action=reject_mobile

We're seeing there a difference of up to 100% with 7970's in CF -> basically AMD was capable there filling a single 7970 to 99% so an Intel with a single 7970 would perform exactly the same but when they added a 2nd 7970 AMD bottlenecked it complety where as Intel filled it to its max.

Another argument; when you upgrade your gpu eg from a 6970 to a 680 your cpu load increases -> http://i.imgur.com/rMmEUuz.jpg (left capped fps with Vsync 60 fps should be a 6970's performance & right a 680 with no Vsync but the CPU load increased dramatically)

Now lets move if a 3930K would be useful; you can have a game so sexy multithreaded like you wish but you still could have a cpu bottleneck at 33% cpu load as I said earlier and thats a moment where you would need IPC. Just an example; operation locker everyone spamming m320 rooms that are full of smoke thats torturing your CPU mainly because it's using havok physics and if that would be 1 thread which you cant split to a 2nd core your 6/8core cpu would be useless.

In my experience, I've tested it a lot, this game doesnt take any advantage of more than 6 cores and multithreading performance in games doesnt scale lineairly which would be here a 50% gain with 2 extra cores. Here's another example why IPC is still a big factor in BF4 -> http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/original/2014/02/Battlefield-4-Mantle-Review-CPU-Benchmarks-Multiplayer-290X-pcgh.png where i7's are outperforming 8350's by 40% because of its IPC

Just hard to tell atm if a 3930K would make a world of difference but I'm seeing average cpu loads of 40-50% so.

I've had the same situation as you have now in BF3, it was pointless to have a 780 or even worse 780's in SLI because the CPU bottlenecks the crap out of it so I'm just disabling SLI for BF3 andturning the settings to medium to obtain 120fps and honestly the visuals are better at medium/low settings than ultra, makes it so much easier for sniping.

Visuals aren't better at lower settings...it's simply easier to spot people, i play on "tryhard" "competitive" settings most of the time which are 150res scaling and everything to low/off except Textures and Mesh, but i've put many hours into the game, i've mastered almost more than 40 weapons, i've unlocked everything and at this point i just want to enjoy the visuals and atmosphere in it's full glory although it does really make it harder to play.

 

I want to start creating some video content that i truly love, which are cinematic videos, just like the trailers that DICE makes, it's truly fascinating to me, i already mentioned that the 4930k would be useful for me because of multitasking and because of faster rendering.

[Faa]

Visuals aren't better at lower settings...it's simply easier to spot people, i play on "tryhard" "competitive" settings most of the time which are 150res scaling and everything to low/off except Textures and Mesh, but i've put many hours into the game, i've mastered almost more than 40 weapons, i've unlocked everything and at this point i just want to enjoy the visuals and atmosphere in it's full glory although it does really make it harder to play.

 

I want to start creating some video content that i truly love, which are cinematic videos, just like the trailers that DICE makes, it's truly fascinating to me, i already mentioned that the 4930k would be useful for me because of multitasking and because of faster rendering.

Why won't you use the IGP for rendering? That will destroy a 3930K for rendering.