I7 920 still cuts the mustard in 2016

[RAJOD]

I see many posts about older cpus and never get a real answer, they just guess from looking at min specs on the back of the box. I have a 8 cpu lan and one of my machines is a I7 920 @ 3.4Ghz 18 gigs ram. It had a gtx 760 in it. It could not play the new Doom very good at 1080P but it could play it well at lower rez settings.

I have a i7 3770k and skylake with gtx 970s.

I put a gtx 1070 in the i7 920 system and it beats the skylake with a gtx 970 in Doom at 1080p and beyond.

 

[Deleted member 1955220]

You should have posted this as a discussion not a question but i agree lots of people are even buying hps and dells, adding a psu and gpu and seeing great results

 

[atomicWAR]

my wifes gaming rig is a Nethalem based rig too though i7 970 hexa-core OC'd to 4ghz. And it is quiet capable with two gtx 780s in SLI and soon it will have 2 980's when the GTX 1080 Ti launches and I upgrade my primary rig. AMD newest offerings are basically on par with high end nethalem in CPU performance. CPUs are good for gaming much longer then many folks realize. If your CPU can crank out 100FPS at 640x480....it can do the same at 4k assuming your GPU is strong enough.

 

[boju]

True 920 is still capable, i compared Farcry 4 once with a GTX780 in two systems, one a 920 @ 4GHz 12GB and the other 2600k @ 4.5 16GB, both Win7 pretty lean condition. The 2600k did feel smoother though put aside various differences.

I'm curious, the 920 + 1070 beats the Skylake with 970 yeah? Have you tried the 1070 with the Skylake?

Unless you're going to get another 1070 for the Skylake system, would be better suited to give the 920 system the 970 and Skylake the 1070.

Whats the Skylake cpu?

Bit of a comparison between 920+1070 & 6700k+1070 in firestrike

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/900/1090/14356?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel%20Core%20i7-920%20Processor&gpuName=NVIDIA%20GeForce%20GTX%201070

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/2005/1090/25206?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel%20Core%20i7-6700K&gpuName=NVIDIA%20GeForce%20GTX%201070

 

[RAJOD]

True 920 is still capable, i compared Farcry 4 once with a GTX780 in two systems, one a 920 @ 4GHz 12GB and the other 2600k @ 4.5 16GB, both Win7 pretty lean condition. The 2600k did feel smoother though put aside various differences.

I'm curious, the 920 + 1070 beats the Skylake with 970 yeah? Have you tried the 1070 with the Skylake?

Unless you're going to get another 1070 for the Skylake system, would be better suited to give the 920 system the 970 and Skylake the 1070.

Whats the Skylake cpu?

Bit of a comparison between 920+1070 & 6700k+1070 in firestrike

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/900/1090/14356?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel%20Core%20i7-920%20Processor&gpuName=NVIDIA%20GeForce%20GTX%201070

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/2005/1090/25206?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel%20Core%20i7-6700K&gpuName=NVIDIA%20GeForce%20GTX%201070

No I have not tried the GTX 1070 in the skylake. No doubt it will do better. But the point was a I7 920 can push most games at 60fps given a good graphics card. I've seen posts where people say. OMG you are crazy to put that in a 920 system it would work well. They are all full of hogwash, the 920 is fine no need for these people to dump ram, cpu, case, mb etc to get a new cpu just get a new graphics card.

Basically my findings is max out the graphics first. then if its not enough think about cpu. But a 920 or newer will play most any game at 1080P or more at 60fps or more with a gtx 1070. And that is all you need.

Some people have 300-400 to spend on upgrade and they end up puting into a new mb ram and then buy a 150.00 graphics card cause they dont have money left.

Just put it all into the graphics card and keep the older quad core especially if its intel.

I would say to buy a cheap used i7 3770k and put a 1070 in it for budget buyers.

 

[boju]

Fair enough point taken. Maybe i should do the same thing ;P

 

[RAJOD]

Bit of a comparison between 920+1070 & 6700k+1070 in firestrike

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/900/1090/14356?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel%20Core%20i7-920%20Processor&gpuName=NVIDIA%20GeForce%20GTX%201070

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/2005/1090/25206?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel%20Core%20i7-6700K&gpuName=NVIDIA%20GeForce%20GTX%201070

Yes I tried to use those comparison tools and they are not totally useless but its not like doing the comparison for real like I did. I am sure I can find a few cherry picked games that a skylake + 970 will be a i7 920 + 1070 but not in Doom.

Doom just cranks with a gtx 1070 + 920 cpu. It would crank more with a skylake but I am already over 130 fps so don't need more cpu.

CPU does not make up for a weak gpu and sure having both is going to be better. And sure the skylake + 1070 will be the better system but when you have a ton of computers in the same room as long as they game at 60 fps or more I does not matter much to me.

 

[kid-smooth]

Sorry for rezzing this from the dead haha, but hey its only a little over a month and why make another post when this one is already setup perfectly.


I just wanted to add to this as I have an i7 930 O.C to 3.9ghz. (couldn't quite get the solid 4.0) paired with a GTX 970 at 5870 x 1080 (Bezel Correction) resolution. I was thinking about either getting a GTX 1070 and hoping for the best or upgrading to a 4790k due to seeing some lack in performance; after all, it is over 5/6yrs old now. Everything I've looked up shows the 4790k doubling in performance over the 930. However, seeing this thread, I might just end up getting the 1070 and seeing what happens.

Since Legion for WoW came out, I've been playing that mostly which I've read is more CPU intensive so I am a little worried that the 1070 might not hold up. Especially after some of the negative posts I've read in the forums. I do however play other titles like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Crysis, Far Cry, etc.

What do you guys think is the best option in this scenario? I'd appreciate any input!!

 

[gamerk316]

Guys, it's very simple: Once a CPU is powerful enough to keep the GPU fed, for games, additional power is USELESS. It's ALL GPU processing.