Ivy Bridge vs Haswell clarifications??

[TheCanadian0495]

Okay so I've done a lot of looking online, and research about ivy bridge and haswell. I am in no way a pro with PC hardware knowledge, but I think I know more than your average joe. What I've gathered is that you do get a performance increase with Haswell, but it consumes more power and runs hotter. Also, the performance difference from Ivy Bridge to Haswell almost isn't enough to really justify buying a whole new processor. Basically that a Haswell is more "future proof", but not really necessary.

Currently in my system, I have an i5 3450, and I was looking to upgrade. This PC is straight gaming. If I went Haswell, I was going to do an i5 4670, and if I stayed with Ivy bridge I was considering a 3570. My question is kind of confusing, but is the Haswell better? Or should I stay with the Ivy Bridge? And if I did stay with Ivy-Bridge, is there a big performance difference between the 3450 and the 3570? Any help would be awesome

My build:
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128541 (I believe this is my motherboard, if not it's really similar to this one. I'm not at home right now so I can't check exactly xD)
Processor: i5 3450 quad core 3.1ghz
GPU: EVGA GTX 770 superclocked edition with atx cooling
PSU: Azza 850 watt
RAM: 8 GB (It's two different kinds, I know two of the sticks are Samsung, I'm not sure on the other two)
HDD: 7200 RPM 1TB
SSD: 120 GB Samsung

I'm a big fan of this site, but I haven't really posted anything before, so please be nice if I was redundant or posted something irrelevant

 

[CTurbo]

Haswell does NOT consume more power and run hotter!!!!!


This is 100% completely wrong.

 

[TheCanadian0495]

Man I'm just going off of what I've read on lots of forums and websites.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

Link them. Because they are wrong, wrong, wrong.

 

[Supernova1138]

Haswell does have a higher TDP than equivalent Ivy Bridge chips, likely due to the beefed up integrated graphics core on Haswell. Performance wise, Haswell isn't much better than Ivy Bridge, only about 5 to 10% faster when comparing the two with equivalent clockspeeds and core counts. Haswell also tends to not overclock as well as Ivy Bridge does, though this does vary depending on how lucky you get in the silicon lottery. Haswell also gets the AVX2 instruction set, but that's not really relevant outside of a few applications like financial modelling, and few programs support AVX2 right now.

If you already have an Ivy Bridge build, there is no real sense in upgrading to Haswell, the performance difference isn't large enough to justify the cost, and you wouldn't benefit from the improved integrated graphics as you already have a really good discrete GPU. If you do feel that you need more CPU horsepower, you might be better off grabbing an Ivy Bridge i7, if you have programs that can benefit from hyperthreading, that way you don't need to get a new motherboard as well as a new CPU.

 

[doubletake]

Neither of those options will provide more than marginal performance gains. If you really want to "upgrade", get an unlocked processor and overclock it to 4+GHz.

 

[CTurbo]

You have read that Haswell doesn't overclock as high as Ivy Bridge. You've heard that Haswell gets hotter faster when overclocking. You've heard that some guy had his 3570k clocked at 4.6ghz and some other guy's 4670k only hit 4.4ghz. You read that the Haswell chips have a higher TDP.

The truth is that Haswell cpus consume less power under normal uses. They don't overclock as high, but they don't need to to outperform Ivy Bridge. A 4670k at 4.4ghz will easily outperform a 3570k at 4.6ghz, and consume less power.

 

[CTurbo]

If you already have a i5 3450, I would not bother upgrading to Haswell right now unless you just have some extra money to blow. If you really do have a Z77 motherboard, you should get a 3570k or 3770k.

 

[davcon]

^+1 I agree with what CTurbo has said on this thread.

 

[geofelt]

1. clock for clock, haswell is about 5% more efficient.
2. Your current ivy bridge cpu has a locked multiplier, running at a base multiplier of 31. If you upgraded to a 4670, at 3.4, you would be getting a bit more than 10% more cpu power. Probably not worth it.
3. Since you have a Z77 based motherboard, you could usefully change to a i5-3570K. It is also clocked at 3.4, but the"K" allows you to up the multiplier to the limits of your particular chip and your cooling. Something in the range of 4.4 to 4.6 might be reasonable. That is about a 30% boost, and very worthwhile.
4. A haswell i5-4670K would be marginally better, but considering the cost of replacing the motherboard too, there really is not much advantage in that.

5. Haswell actually runs cooler at stock speeds. It is only when pushing the limits of overclocking that the heat issues raise exponentially.

6. The i7-3770k has hyperthreads which would be rarely used by most games. The extra $100 spend is not worth it for the gamer.
------------bottom line------------
A i5-3570K would be an appropriate upgrade.

 

[CTurbo]

The 4670 is at least 20% more powerful than the 3450. It, the 4670k, and even the 4570 would be a huge upgrade over the 3450, yet I still don't think it's worth switching at this time. Did you know you can overclock your 3450 +400mhz? Have you done that yet? Why are you wanting to upgrade your cpu now? The 3450 is still a very strong cpu.

 

[TheCanadian0495]

Does overclocking make a big difference in gaming? I've also read that if you overclock, the stock heat sink isn't really enough. What would be a good after market heat sink/fan to go with?

 

[TheCanadian0495]

And I don't need to upgrade it, I was just wanting a new case, and I was figuring if I have to switch everything over anyways, might as well get a new mobo and processor and save myself some work xD but if you think the processor will still last me a while I might just stick with it

 

[leeb2013]

it would not be good value to replace your mobo just to go from Ivy to Haswell for 5-10% increase in performance. At you have a Z77 mobo, it would make more sense to get an unlocked Ivy and overclock. Ivy easily hits 4.4GHz 24/7 with only small V increase and temps around 60C and will give you around 40% boost in performance over your current CPU. Basically it'll perform like Haswell at 4.2GHz. Generally, it's more difficult to o/c Haswell, but it's a bit better performing.

 

[leeb2013]

Does overclocking make a big difference in gaming? I've also read that if you overclock, the stock heat sink isn't really enough. What would be a good after market heat sink/fan to go with?

The coolermaster EVO is good performance and value.

 

[CTurbo]

+1 Cooler Master 212 Evo

 

[TheCanadian0495]

What exactly is an unlocked CPU? I know what overclocking is, but what is unlocking a cpu? And is it safe to overclock your cpu and leave it overclocked as long as your temperatures don't rise?

 

[TheCanadian0495]

And I just looked, mine is actually the Gigabyte GA-H77M, not the Z77M.. is that much of a difference?

 

[Supernova1138]

Yeah, if you have an H77 board, you won't be able to overclock unlocked Intel CPUs, so no point in even trying to upgrade your CPU right now, you'd need a new motherboard either way.

 

[TheCanadian0495]

So if I need a new motherboard should I just get the z77? Or should I get something better?

 

[Supernova1138]

If you insist on upgrading and buying the new CPU and mobo combo, you might as well get Haswell unless you are planning to do an extreme overclock, or can get the Ivy Bridge CPU and mobo cheaper.

I'd say just stick with what you have unless you have lots of money to burn and have nothing else to spend it on.

 

[CTurbo]

Officially, even with a H77 motherboard, you don't really even NEED to upgrade. The 3450 could handle two 770s in SLI.


If you just WANT to upgrade, you should get either the 4570 and a H87 or B85 if you don't want to overclock, or the 4670k and a Z87 if you do.

 

[TheCanadian0495]

I'm probably just going to stick with what I have. Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate your input

 

[leeb2013]

I suppose whether to upgrade depends on whether your current CPU is at 100% usage and is slowing you down so much that you need to upgrade, or if you've got money to spend for the sake of spending.

As for the upgrade, general wisdom now would be to go for a Z87 and Haswell unlocked CPU ie. marked with a -K

 

[STbob]

The answer in 2018 is the same. Keep your Ivy system not much point in upgrading and you can get $3,000 Ivy xeon workstations for like $300.00 now with 32 gig ECC.

I have Sandy, Nehalem, Ivy, Haswell, caby and skylake. Which ever I put my 1080GTX in is the best gaming system. So put your money into the fastest graphics card you can and not worry about a system upgrade. No compelling reason anymore. So unless you have maxed out your graphics card with a 1070 gtx or better don't bother upgrading the system you will not "FEEL" the difference.