i7 920 and Dual-Channel RAM.

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

Hi. I have an i7 920 and I've been told it goes best with triple-channel ram. I have 8gigs Gskill 1600XMP RAM Dual-Channel.
Am I losing a lot of performance because I have Dual-channel instead of triple-channel? Thanks

 

[JackNaylorPE]

the 920's memory controller can handle three simultaneous feeds to RAM...you're only getting 2

 

[InvalidError]

Between dual and triple channel, you are likely losing less than 3% performance in most real-world games and applications.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

THanks. I'm getting bottlenecked in a lot of games. I have the i7 920 and a 7950. I also have a second 7950 that's not installed right now because I see no benefit from it in any game except Tomb Raider because of the bottleneck caused by the CPU. Also my case isn't good for it, too much heat.

I want to get a new CPU. I'm thinking about the i5-4670k. I think that is the fastest one I can get before going to i7. I know that i5 will give me the same performance as an i7 in games. But I also read on the best CPU for the money page that the i7 has something that that can give it an edge over the i5 in some games. Right now it's only Crysis 3 that can utilize this whatever it is. But future games may benefit from it as well.
I have no clue what it is though or how much of a performance increase it would be over the i5. Would appreciate it if you could fill me in on that
Thanks again

 

[InvalidError]

I want to get a new CPU. I'm thinking about the i5-4670k. I think that is the fastest one I can get before going to i7. I know that i5 will give me the same performance as an i7 in games. But I also read on the best CPU for the money page that the i7 has something that that can give it an edge over the i5 in some games.

The 'thing' is hyperthreading which lets each core handle up to two instruction flows and makes it look like you have twice as many cores. This lets the CPU make more efficient use of its execution units by (hopefully) increasing the instruction mix diversity going through it and under ideal circumstance, this gives HT a 30-40% advantage over non-HT.

But very few games make significant use of more than two cores so even the i5-4670k would already be grossly under-used (less than 50% overall load) in most games so going with the i7-4770k for "futureproofing" yields very little benefit. That's why you see most enthusiasts who do not use massively threaded applications choose the i5.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

I5 it is then. last question if you don't mind

3570k or 4670k?

 

[InvalidError]

3570k or 4670k?

Between those two, I would go with Haswell simply because it has a few new instructions and future software releases will likely be recompiled with Haswell-oriented optimizations which should eventually give it a greater lead over Ivy Bridge.

If you are more interested in trying to reach high overclocks without going all the way back to 25xxk then the 3570k would be a better choice since Haswell's integrated VRM makes overclocking more difficult due to extra on-chip heat.

So the right answer is largely up to personal preference. I personally do not care about overclocking so I favor the most up-to-date option.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

I've never overclocked a CPU. I want a CPU that I won't need to overclock for a long time, but it would be nice to have the option available to me in the future.

 

[InvalidError]

I've never overclocked a CPU. I want a CPU that I won't need to overclock for a long time, but it would be nice to have the option available to me in the future.

If I bought a 4670k, I would give it a 10% overclock from the beginning (conservative OC) to get some benefit out of it while it still is in its prime. If you wait until it no longer feels fast enough for you, you will likely find out that your OC comes nowhere near changing that in any meaningful way so you are better off enjoying a mild OC until then.

Personally, by the time the computer starts feeling sluggish due to the CPU no longer being fast enough for what I do, 20% extra performance from overclocking (being optimistic) will almost certainly still feel inadequate so instead of paying almost $100 extra between the CPU and motherboard for "end-of-life overclocking," I would pick the i5-4xxx with the lowest $/GHz, a good h87 board and save the difference to upgrade something else that will make a much bigger difference later.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

Alright, I'll look into that then. I'm not sure about the motherboard but I know the CPU's are all relatively close in price so I figured it was just a 20 dollar difference might not be a bad idea. I wouldn't spend too much on it though. Thanks for the help