i7 920 - Time to upgrade. Any suggestions?

[Snowness]

Hello, everyone!

 

I'm looking for some potential upgrades to my big angry dinosaur, the i7 920.

 

I'll likely need a new motherboard and ram as well, so I'm trying to weigh my options and get the best bang for my buck. My budget will be about $500 CAD, which should include a motherbaord, CPU (must be a significant improvement over a OC'd 3.0 ghz i7 920), and 16 GB of RAM or greater. I also use a LOT of USB ports, so I do need room for a PCI-E USB card on the motherboard in addition to my video card. (GTX 1060) (Likely ATX form factor)

 

I've always preferred Intel, but if AMD will get me more performance per dollar, I'm open to change! 

 

Any suggestions? I've been looking for ages and can't seem to find anything of any significant value in terms of a real performance increase for my money. Are there any good sites for comparing CPUs? I found CPU Boss, but it seems impossible for me to believe the scores of new $250 CPUs are hardly a 10% upgrade to my really old i7.

 

I'd really appreciate any help!

 

Thanks!

[SLAYR]

CBUBoss is shit.

 

an i5 6600k, or 6700k is a big improvement over a 920.

 

 

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-920-vs-Intel-Core-i5-6600K/1981vs3503

[DunePilot]

What is your current motherboard.... X58 is actually still very very good. The 920 is crap but if you buy a X5650 for $80 on ebay it's pretty much just like having a 4790k or a stock 5820k. That's extra money you can spend on your GPU and then just build a new system when Skylake-E or Cannonlake is here in a year or two....

[Snowness]

 

1 minute ago, SLAYR said:

CBUBoss is shit.

 

an i5 6600k, or 6700k is a big improvement over a 920.

 

 

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-920-vs-Intel-Core-i5-6600K/1981vs3503

That does make a lot more sense. That's a lot more like what I was expecting to see as far as performance increases.

 

Perhaps an i5 6600 is a good bet. Any other similarly performing AMD chips for less money? I'll probably be keeping this CPU for the next 3 years, so I really want to get the best bang for my buck.

 

Thanks for your input, SLAYR! 

[CostcoSamples]

Just get an i5 6500k with whatever motherboard is on sale and 16GB of RAM.  Can easily get all that for $500 CAD and it will be a huge improvement.

[CostcoSamples]

Also, there is nothing from AMD that is worth considering right now.  Their Zen CPUs are coming in February and should be pretty good.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

3 minutes ago, DunePilot said:

What is your current motherboard.... X58 is actually still very very good. The 920 is crap but if you buy a X5650 for $80 on ebay it's pretty much just like having a 4790k or a stock 5820k. That's extra money you can spend on your GPU and then just build a new system when Skylake-E or Cannonlake is here in a year or two....

While I typically vouge for Xeons I think going for a the Z170 platform is a good choice. New features and much faster.

 

Just now, CostcoSamples said:

Also, there is nothing from AMD that is worth considering right now.  Their Zen CPUs are coming in February and should be pretty good.

Zen is supposed to be about as fast as Haswell, and by the time Zen drops Kaby Lake will be right on the horizon.

[DunePilot]

I'd rather have a X5650 over a skylake i5 but that's just me... 6700k that would be a nice jump though but thats $500 in upgrades vs. $80....

[DunePilot]

This is a more fair comparison... but that is before you clock that CPU from 3.46 to 4.3 giving the Xeon another 25% gain from OC. Need I mention... 12 threads vs. 4......

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-X5690-vs-Intel-Core-i5-6500/m16752vs3513

 

[CostcoSamples]

4 minutes ago, Jacktastic-Mofo said:

Zen is supposed to be about as fast as Haswell, and by the time Zen drops Kaby Lake will be right on the horizon.

All we know for sure is Zen has IPC comparable to Haswell, and most likely will have higher core count.  The rest is speculation.  Besides, it's not like Skylake and Kabylake are huge improvements over Haswell anyway.  Even if Zen is slower due to lower clock speeds, high core count will make it very competitive for workstations.  Zen is already looking pretty good, even if it's not the right CPU for gamers.

[Snowness]

Thanks for all the responses!

 

I really appreciate the helpful suggestions!

 

Just now, DunePilot said:

I'd rather have a X5650 over a skylake i5 but that's just me... 6700k that would be a nice jump though but thats $500 in upgrades vs. $80....

Do you know if the x5650 would work well with an ASUS P6T Deluxe (v1)?

 

My biggest concern is that my DDR3 ram is very slow compared to DDR4. I'm all for saving money to stretch a bit more life out of my current rig. I already have the GTX 1060, which was a HUGE leap from my GTX 580, but now I'm still not impressed with my PC's performance, and I'm pretty sure the i7 is bottle necking my GPU. Between the DDR3 ram, PCI-E 2.0, and potential unreliability of my older hardware, it's a bit of a tough decision to drop almost $100 on a used CPU that may not give me the performance increase I'm looking for. (Also, 3Gb/s SATA is not doing my SSD any favors.)

 

I still have no idea what I should do at this point.

[TheCakeIsNaOH]

Options

#1 Do you have sata 6gbps? even if there are only 2 6gpbs then a ssd upgrade if not already done is great. The $115 w3680(x5650 is locked but cheaper) is equal to a i7 980x(6 core!) and is also unlocked so 4.4+ should be achievable. Dual channel ram should work fine and 16gb ddr3 is cheap these days. The only things you would be giving up are bootable nvme ssds/hdds over 2tb. You could get a $115 w3680, a $120 h80-115, and $65 16gb ddr3, then reuse the water cooler when you upgrade again in a year or two to a zen cpu or something.

 

#2 get a i5 6600K- it is about %40 better per clock then a first gen i7 but it does not have hyperthreading and newer games are using 8 threads or more, and later on the only upgrade will be a quad with hyperthreading. 

 

#3 wait for zen- 8 cores, muli threading and probably a %35 ipc gain over your i7 but we do not know much at this point.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

2 minutes ago, CostcoSamples said:

All we know for sure is Zen has IPC comparable to Haswell, and most likely will have higher core count.  The rest is speculation.  Besides, it's not like Skylake and Kabylake are huge improvements over Haswell anyway.  Even if Zen is slower due to lower clock speeds, high core count will make it very competitive for workstations.  Zen is already looking pretty good, even if it's not the right CPU for gamers.

Skylake is ~10% over Haswell and Kabylake should be ~10% over Skylake. That's ~22% over Haswell.

[TheCakeIsNaOH]

2 minutes ago, Jacktastic-Mofo said:

Skylake is ~10% over Haswell and Kabylake should be ~10% over Skylake. That's ~22% over Haswell.

Should is the operative word, and will any of these gains affect gaming?

[DunePilot]

Just now, Snowness said:

Thanks for all the responses!

 

I really appreciate the helpful suggestions!

 

Do you know if the x5650 would work well with an ASUS P6T Deluxe (v1)?

 

My biggest concern is that my DDR3 ram is very slow compared to DDR4. I'm all for saving money to stretch a bit more life out of my current rig. I already have the GTX 1060, which was a HUGE leap from my GTX 580, but now I'm still not impressed with my PC's performance, and I'm pretty sure the i7 is bottle necking my GPU. Between the DDR3 ram, PCI-E 2.0, and potential unreliability of my older hardware, it's a bit of a tough decision to drop almost $100 on a used CPU that may not give me the performance increase I'm looking for. (Also, 3Gb/s SATA is not doing my SSD any favors.)

 

I still have no idea what I should do at this point.

You have absolutely nothing to worry about with the DDR3, I don't usually recommend X58 to anyone other than those who have the motherboard already because the resale value on the motherboards are sky high. But your only real upgrade path if you have X58 is to jump straight to a 6700k or a 6800k Anything else is a side grade or worse, especially when you factor in the fact it's only about $80 vs. $400. Spending an extra $320 for a sidegrade to an i5 isn't a good idea to me. For $80 what do you have to lose? Give it a try before upgrading to an entirely new rig. You could sell it on ebay in probably 2 days if you don't like it. Almost every one of them can hit 4.3GHz easily and to be honest I think X58 is by far the most fun platform to overclock....

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

Just now, relaxative said:

Should is the operative word, and will any of these gains affect gaming?

Not very likely, the real performance gains will come in multi-threaded applications- but the same extent is 8 cores necessarily beneficial on Zen for gaming? Also we don't even know the prices for Zen. That 8 core hyperthreaded chip could be $500.

[DunePilot]

Kaby Lake is coming at least by January. That would be a great upgrade jumping to a 7700k but you're probably talking $600-700 vs. $80 again. Since you have a 1060 you don't really need it... a X5650 can handle a 1080 just fine.... 

[Snowness]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

 

I think I'm going to give the x5650 a shot for now and see how it goes. Hopefully it can at least get me enough performance to tie me over until January or February, at which point I'll get myself a nice birthday present! Haha. I know most of my hardware is so old that it's difficult to "upgrade" any of it without just building a whole new rig.

 

I appreciate all of your help! 

 

All the best!

[DunePilot]

So you know I'm not BSing you... here is what you can expect...

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/6044454

 

 

 

[CostcoSamples]

1 hour ago, Jacktastic-Mofo said:

Skylake is ~10% over Haswell and Kabylake should be ~10% over Skylake. That's ~22% over Haswell.

Skylake had the advantage of a die shrink, Kabylake does not. Even if it does achieve that 10% improvement, it will be primarily through higher clocks, and not necessarily an improvement in IPC.  Zen is roughly equal to Haswell in IPC, but we don't know what it's clock speed will be.  It could be 3.0 Ghz, which means it's not optimal for gaming but maybe with high core count it's a workstation CPU.  Perhaps they will release a 4.5Ghz quad core to compete with the 7700k.  who knows.

 

[Canada EH]

X5650 is 1366 mobo.

Was looking at the exact same thing last night.

Would a X5560 (4C/8T, *MB 2.8-3.2GHz) fit and work?

 

Its good to know that the X5650 = 4790K = 5820K

Linus said 4790=5820, just watched his vid.

What about the W35xx and E55xx Xeon chips, are they like the X55xx chips?