Is upgrading a 2nd generation i5 (3.00 GHz) to a simmilar 4th generation proccessor worth it?

sm620

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Oct 18, 2012
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I am thinking about upgrading my gaming computer with a fourth generation processor from Intel. I have heard the biggest improvement is with the graphics, but I have a graphics card so I don't really care about that. Are there any speed upgrades that are worth five-hundred dollars in the fourth generation processors or motherboards? I also don't really care for efficiency because I have a desktop. If I get the new fourth generation Intel processors will I need to look for some faster RAM cards because I have the basic low frequency ones right now?
 
Solution
Well if you have a Sandy Bridge there is supposed to be about %10 performance increase between Sandy and Ivy, and between Ivy and Haswell. So you could be looking at least at %20 increase in performance. Also if you were to get one of the K series, like the new i5k whatever it will be, then then you could have a much higher increase than that. Ivy overclocks to about 4.7 GHZ, thats already over a %50 increase from yours. There is a rumor, but not confirmed someone pushed a test version of the new Haswell up to over 7 GHz, so probably at least 5.5 Ghz is in range. Thats close to 85% increase over yours. Thats just counting pure clock and not considering architectural improvements.

While this is mostly hypothetical, you will probably get...
Well if you have a Sandy Bridge there is supposed to be about %10 performance increase between Sandy and Ivy, and between Ivy and Haswell. So you could be looking at least at %20 increase in performance. Also if you were to get one of the K series, like the new i5k whatever it will be, then then you could have a much higher increase than that. Ivy overclocks to about 4.7 GHZ, thats already over a %50 increase from yours. There is a rumor, but not confirmed someone pushed a test version of the new Haswell up to over 7 GHz, so probably at least 5.5 Ghz is in range. Thats close to 85% increase over yours. Thats just counting pure clock and not considering architectural improvements.

While this is mostly hypothetical, you will probably get a minimum of 25% increase up to 100% increase. But its a bit of a gamble at this point still. So think is it worth it to you to try. If not, then just go buy some better RAM and maybe a better but cheaper Ivy to hold you over.
 
Solution
I mainly want a new motherboard so I am going to buy a new one no matter what processor I get because my current one has hp utility as it's BIOS settings so I don't think I can overclock my processor with it.

I read that Intel is usually good at pricing their new products closely to their old ones, but I wouldn't know because I have just recently started looking at computer parts. Is that true? If it is I'm thinking that it would be better to get a new processor because mine is two generations old now and I want a new motherboard anyway so I was thinking that it wouldn't cost me much more to upgrade to fourth generation as opposed to third generation.
 
To be honest on this I am not completely sure. I have been tinkering with computers for over a decade, but never bought any except this past year. So Haswell will be the first new release I will really see. It seems to me that they probably do, because whenever I look at CPU's and have for the past year, the Sandy Bridge equivalent CPU is usually within $20 of the Ivy Bridge. I think the Sandybridge i5-2700k it was, was $200 and the Ivy Bridge i5-3570k was $220. So I think they probably will be. Also, if they charged too much difference for them then they would be competing with their old stuff, like the Ivy i7 will probably still beat the Haswell i5. Regardless you are probably better off to wait because the prices will probably drop a little on Ivy Bridge.

Also, I looked at motherboards quite a bit and really regardless of Intel, AMD, or core type (with the exception of the LGA 2011), I haven't seen any reason to buy a motherboard that costs more than $150 maybe. If you are considering putting out $500, I would be surprised if you couldn't grab a nice motherboard, Haswell CPU, and also maybe better RAM for about that. Thats assuming staying under $200 for motherboard and under $300 for CPU.

Other things you may want to consider, LGA 1150, the new one, should be the socket for Haswell and the one after Haswell. So get a nice motherbaord and it could last you the next four or five years even with new CPU's.

Or if you want you could always go AMD, they are cheap and still pretty good.
 
I have a maximum budget of $800 but I am thinking about only using $600 of that. I really just want a new motherboard, but I did not want to get one that is out of date because the processor port is old. I figured that the fourth generation would be a big improvement over the second generation because of the "tick-tock" pattern. I am planning on getting a $200 ASUS motherboard, one set of high quality RAM cards for $100, and $300-$400 processor. I usually wait for sales so I can save around $100 on parts sometimes. I have heard that the 15 processor runs games faster than the i7 because most games do not have hyper threading support. Will that be true with the fourth generation processors?
 
Well what you have heard is something that comes as a result of software, but its slightly off. i5's in general do not perform better than i7's for gaming. It is just that right now after you have about four cores video games fail to take advantage of the extra threads and cores to improve performance. These is more true with hyper-threaded cores than actual cores. SO when this happens for CPU's in the same architecture, for example both being Ivy Bridge, the one with the highest CPU clock will perform better.

The reason you have heard the i5 performs better is because the i5-3570k overclocked will perform better than any of the i7's in gaming at the moment with the exception of the i7-3770k, which can be overclocked just as much. I think at that point the i7 performs a little bit better but its really a small increase and not worth the extra cost.

As for if this will continue with Haswell and the fifth generation after this will depend on game developers. Chances are eventually this will change and game developers will make their games take advantage of these extra cores in some way. When this happens CPU's with hyper-threading like the i7's will experience a boost over the i5's. Its uncertain when this will happen though. It could be next year, or it could not be for another five. You could go ahead and get the i7 just to be safe, or get the i5 to save money and not worry about it and upgrade later if need be. Either way you will be good probably.
 
I will just get the i7 because if games do become upgraded enough to use the hyper threaded cores it would instantly make my i5 processor obsolete because they would make the games need the extra things probably. When the processors come out I will look at benchmarks to see how much each series can be overclocked and their average temperatures so I can make my final decision. Thanks for the help.
 
Well the i5 will still not be obsolete really and will still be able to play all the games but just not as good as the other.
How the new ones will be is probably similar to how the current Ivy's are. The Ivy's only have two which can be overclocked. One in the i5 and one in the i7. They both overclock to the exact same clock I believe, and the i7 is a little hotter but not a lot. It will probably be the better choice.
Good luck with your upgrade.

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Im not an expert but even the best graphics cards cant bottleneck a 2nd generation i5 at this point in time, and the FPS improvements in games wouldn't be that noticeable as upgrading to a better Graphics card. iv seen a lot of benchmarks that have show very little increases in FPS even up from an i3 to an i5 since most games nowadays don't really need more then two core especially from an Intel CPU. and since you have a 4 core i5 I would say depend on what GPU you have now that money would be better spent on that, and waiting for the next gen even. unless your editing videos you don't really need any i7, it would just be more to say that you have it