Is a 3rd or 4th gen chip better than a i2600k chip ?

[raidenwinsfatality]

I am going to play Crysis 3 on ultra settings because I finally decided to upgrade my motherboard to Directx 11. I was wondering if a 3rd or 4th generation chipset (no k involved) would be fine enough to run Crysis 3 on ultra?

 

[Barty1884]

Depends on the specific chip you're looking at.

For example, a locked i7-4770 or 4790 would be an improvement. A 3570, 4690 etc, probably not so much.

Depends on cost too - to get rid of a 2600K + compatible board, for the gains of, say a 4790 is going to be costly, I would assume.
If you could do it for next to no outlay, sure. Otherwise, I'd just run with the 2600K.


What GPU do you propose to pair with any given setup? I don't see any need to "upgrade" the motherboard?

 

[raidenwinsfatality]

The chipset I have is socket775 with Intel Core Duo and Nividia 980GT, so I read that the i2600k and gtx 680 would run Crysis 3 at Ultra Settings, hence the upgrade

 

[Barty1884]

Very High is the max for Crysis3 IIRC - but even then, it's quite demanding (for the era).

A 680, I believe, was necessary at the time.
From what I can find though, a 680 these days is routinely selling for $80-$100 USD

A GTX 770 performs very similarly to a 680, is a gen newer, and sells for nearer $50 - That's what I would look to if I were you.

As for the 2600K vs anything else, what kind of prices are you considering them at?
You might be able to find a C2Q, like a Q9550 for pretty cheap, or an X5450 Xeon with a mod to work on 775 - which would be a more 'budget' entry into Crysis3.

With a bit of an overclock to a Q9950, you could see ~30FPS paired with a GTX 760 at very high.
Drop to medium/high, and you should have a pretty decent experience.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR6.TRC1.A0.H0.Xq9550.TRS0&_nkw=q9550&_sacat=0

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=gtx+760&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=15

That could be a ~$50 outlay, and a very playable experience as a result.

 

[raidenwinsfatality]

I will look into all of this, thank you so much.

 

[chemmajorp53]

What about a Ryzen 5 2400g? It's new and has a good upgrade path, can run crysis at like 45fps on 1080p low without a dedicated gpu, mobos are cheap, RAM is getting less expensive. If you wanted to save up and buy a good gpu the 4C/8T would easiy handle it.