Sandy Bridge to Haswell

[heineygoat]

Is it worth the $600-$700 upgrade from 2600 to 4770 with a new motherboard, cpu and powersupply or should I just get another 7970 to xfire?

[crunzaty]

Is it worth the $600-$700 upgrade from 2600 to 4770 with a new motherboard, cpu and powersupply or should I just get another 7970 to xfire?

The i7-2600 is one of the better CPU's and the difference isn't really worth it. That is for me tho^^

I have the i7-2600k and i will NOT upgrade until i have too^^

[Godlygamer23]

I personally wouldn't get Haswell because of the heat issues. 

[EChondo]

I would say no.

 

I would wait however for more benchmarks and wait to see what AMD has to say about their 9000 series GPUs, unless you just can't stand having just one 7970 right now :P

[alpenwasser]

In the end it's your money and you need to know what's worth what to you, but if it was my

own money I would say neither.

A 4770 isn't really going to be that much better than a 2600, and last I heard Crossfire

was still riddled with those pesky frame rating issues what were all the rage a few weeks

back.

I would at least save my money until AMD has properly fixed those issues, then I'd think

about investing in more GPU power.

[extremescouter]

I would say there is no reason to upgrade to Haswell. Depending on your usage scenario, Haswell would have some performance increase, but in games, it won't be that noticeable. However, I would also say don't get the extra 7970. If you want an upgrade, go for the GTX 780, but otherwise I would say wait, and you will be just fine. 

[sachin9uk]

I have 2600k and I will not upgrade until another 2 years. 

Sandy bridge 2600k was a huge upgrade for my Q6600 

Haswell is like only 25% to 30% faster imo but for gaming it wont make much difference. 

Wait for a great cpu release which will have low heat output and at least 75% more performance than 2600k.

[havok2191]

I had the 2600K and mine happened to get sold at the same time. Kinda regret it since Haswell runs a lot hotter. My 2600K was air cooled by the Silver Arrow getting to a max of 50C. My 4770K gets to around 55C and its watercooled. The Haswell IPC is higher but that does not justify an upgrade considering the magnitude of perfomance did not increase by much

[Guest]

I personally wouldn't get Haswell because of the heat issues. 

I'd like to point out I have a 4770K coupled with a H80I and some Antec Formula 7 Thermal Compound and have had no heat issues, 47 degrees under load really aint terrible.

To be honest I think people are just upset because Intel diden't listen to their moaning about the heat transfer issues with Ivybridge and used the same thermal transfer methods on Haswell, I only installed my Haswell this afternoon but if I can run it for about 6 hours straight at 100% load and its only hit 47 degrees C thats really quite good, and my h80I is cut down with only a single pressure fan on the front.

 

Oh, and I woulden't go from Sandybridge - Haswell unless something major and chipset specific breaks on your current setup, then it might be worth jumping ship.

[kamaltmo]

NO

[Godlygamer23]

I have 2600k and I will not upgrade until another 2 years. 

Sandy bridge 2600k was a huge upgrade for my Q6600 

Haswell is like only 25% to 30% faster imo but for gaming it wont make much difference. 

Wait for a great cpu release which will have low heat output and at least 75% more performance than 2600k.

To be fair, 25% is quite a difference. 

[alpenwasser]

To be fair, 25% is quite a difference.

True, depending on what you do with your machine that can be significant.

But I'd still argue that a 2600 is plenty powerful for almost everything one usually throws

at it these days.

[Ashratt]

upgrade if you feel the need to, if you have to ask don't upgrade

[Nit3Rid3R]

Nop, if you're only going to be gaming on it, then you won't really see a difference in gaming performance. I would say use that money to buy a new GPU. Gaming performance relies more on the GPU than the CPU nowdays. 

[Godlygamer23]

True, depending on what you do with your machine that can be significant.

But I'd still argue that a 2600 is plenty powerful for almost everything one usually throws

at it these days.

Agreed. If you have a 2600K, there's pretty much no reason to upgrade.

[LessThanSatisfactory]

with that money, you should either get another 7970, or get more expensive (but better performing) Geforce card, AMD cards are known to micro stutter in cross-fire. You should expect too see a 10~15% increase in raw power from your cpu,when upgrading because ivybridge to haswell only introduced better onboard graphics, and more power efficiency.

[Emkryan]

I'm sticking with my 2500k for a while

[Godlygamer23]

with that money, you should either get another 7970, or get more expensive (but better performing) Geforce card, AMD cards are known to micro stutter in cross-fire. You should expect too see a 10~15% increase in raw power from your cpu,when upgrading because ivybridge to haswell only introduced better onboard graphics, and more power efficiency.

AMD cards tend to perform better. But with the micro-stuttering issue, you can get RadeonPro, which essentially remedies that whole micro-stuttering issue.