2500k - more gaming performance from an Ivy, Haswell or an i7?

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TurboJ

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Sep 8, 2013
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I currently have a 2500k CPU on a Z77 Asrock Extreme 4 MoBo.

I'm wondering if a CPU upgrade would benefit me any if I'm mostly going to run games on my PC. As my MoBo is a Z77, I could go from Sandy to Ivy very easily, but would I gain anything? Going Haswell would cost me a fair bit more money.

I am going to build a full custom water cooling setup in the future, so cooling the CPU isn't going to be a big problem. As far as max clock rates are concerned, Sandy>Ivy>Haswell, but which one can give the most gaming performance when overclocked to ~max level of each CPU?

I built my current rig about 10 months ago and now I want to start upgrading it (first a new GPU, then water cooling etc.) But what would be my best bet with CPUs? I want to have the right one ready when I go shopping for the water blocks.

Furthermore, usually the unlocked i5s are the most recommended CPUs for gaming, but how much would I be gaining by going i7 - looking forward a year or two?
 
Hi. I built this rig in the Fall of '11 with a Z68 MOBO and i72600k. I just upgraded to a Z87 MOBO and i7 4770k the first week of June. The performance kick was huge. It would be the same if you went from the i5 2500k to the i5 4670k. About all you really gain by using an i7 is Multithreading ( 8 virtual cores ).
 
Thanks..

So, can anyone confirm what is the difference in gaming performance between CPUs 2500k, 3570k and 4670k when each is overclocked to their max?

Also, would the hyper threading feature of i7s be really useful in 2014-2015 games?

As of now, upgrading to a 3570k would cost me approx 40-50 euros, while going Haswell would cost about 160 euros(since I'd have to get a new mobo). Going with a 3770k would cost like 120 euros. What are your thoughts on this?
 
Sandy Bridge is the best of the three overclocking wise, and about 10%-20% slower than the 3570k/4670k. Also, an i7 will not benefit you unless you are doing mulch-threaded work(i7 has hyper-threading), I believe some games may benefit from this, but not to much currently.

The IB and Haswell platforms get hot and do not overclock well compared to the SB platform, but mainly it's bad for Haswell. A 2500k can do 4.8ghz-5.0ghz easily on liquid cooling. Any overclocked SB will be just as fast, if not a little bit more faster than a Haswell chip if overclocked high, which is easy and Haswell chips cannot go past 4.4ghz easily without getting very hot.

The moral of the story, the 2500k will be just as good as a IB for Haswell chip currently for gaming for the next few years, stays a lot cooler, and overclocks like a champ. There is no reason to upgrade.
 
Thanks, that is reassuring.. I take it that new features on the Ivy and Haswell don't really matter much on gaming use either? Like PCI-e 3.0 for instance?

Also, is my mother board capable of pushing the 2500k to the levels of 4.8+ GHz?
 
It depends most on the chip itself, not all chips are created equal, and the features of the last two generations, IV and Haswell, don't matter much. It's best for you to test for yourself if you can do 4.8ghz, but it's best to have a custom loop for above 4.6ghz. 4.5ghz should be easily obtainable.
 
So my mother board should not be the limiting factor then? I'm just wondering since this is not a high end board, but it is one designed for overclocking none the less (Asrock Extreme 4 z77). I know that different mobos can also yield different OC results, that's why I'm asking..
 


Performance kick huge, doing what?

To be honest, I havent found my overclocked 2500k struggle with anything, gaming wise, so I wouldnt bother upgrading until Skylake.
 
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