Overclock or upgrade?

[gc28]

Curenttly running with an Intel® Core™ i3-540 @ 3.06 GHz,
I'm looking at buying the i7 version for my socket Intel Core i7 870 @ 2.93GHz or over clocking I've never done so before can an i3 of that age handle it?

 

[Xibyth]

Why do you feel the need to upgrade? Did you just want more general performance or something specific?

 

[gc28]

Sorry should have said, I have installed the following over the weekend,
Ssd drive & a 2gb graphics card, I have ran a few games on the system and it does pretty well however for games like watchdogs it seams to struggle generating new graphics and a little lag in playing fifa too.

In the long run i will upgrade the MB and that will obvious mean a newer i7.


So i guess the short answer is gaming performance.

 

[Xibyth]

What GPU are you using. Watchdogs even after the patch is a very VRAM intensive game. Try dropped down AA if your running at 1080p or above, 2x at 1080p and none above that. The visible difference is nearly nonexistent, but will improve performance in some cases by 30% (average is between 8-15%) more frames.

But honestly very very few games actually utilize 8 threads, and while Watchdogs is one of them the performance difference is nominal. I would go with an i5 and use the money you saved for upgrading the GPU (if you are not running at least a 760 or equivalent).

 

[geofelt]

As I recall, you OC that chip by raising the FSB.
Why not try it?
The cpu will shut down if it gets dangerously hot.

If your workload require many threads, a i7 will be good, even though the clock rate is less.

If you need more cpu for gaming, it is better to look towards higher individual core speeds. Few games are going to use more than two cores effectively.
I think watchdogs is largely single threaded.
If overclocking does not give you enough, it is time to consider a haswell upgrade.

 

[gc28]

Gigabyte NVIDIA GTX660 2GB DDR5 PCI-E with 8gb Dddr3

Maybe an upgrade in ram might be more useful i could go to 12GB for the money i'd spend on a 2nd hand i7?

Thanks for the advice

 

[Xibyth]

No your system RAM is completely fine, upgrading it would offer no better gaming performance. Try a GTX 770 4GB GPU. That will have a massive impact on your gaming experience. Not to mention they did just go down in price with the GTX980 and 970 out now. I have seen them as low as $280 for the 4GB card.

 

[gc28]

@Xibyth Oh you meant GPU no problem, I think i'll wait a while before upgrading that but thanks!

@geofelt I'll give it a try later, little worried that i don't have a major cooling system but the i7 does have a faster clock speed than the i7 version

 

[gc28]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Palit-Nvidia-GeForce-Graphics-Express/dp/B00NPRH3P0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412701161&sr=8-1&keywords=GTX+970

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-GeForce-Superclocked-Graphics-Vision-Ready/dp/B00D3LE2MK/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1412701161&sr=8-6&keywords=GTX+970

Opinions on either of these and if you think they'll sort my problem?

 

[Xibyth]

Never had a palit cars. But EVGA is a brand I highly support. I still have an old 550 ti running. But I have not tries their 970's.

 

[gc28]

Sorry sent the 2gb version out!

If you have the time could you advise on the best option from these...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Nvidia-GeForce-Gaming-Graphics/dp/B00E5V2SOQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1412703361&sr=8-3&keywords=4gb+graphics+card

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-270X-Graphics-Card-PCI-E/dp/B00HCLLOUK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1412703361&sr=8-4&keywords=4gb+graphics+card

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-GeForce-Cooling-Graphics-Display/dp/B00E9I99WE/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1412703361&sr=8-6&keywords=4gb+graphics+card

 

[Xibyth]

Well between the GTX 760 and 270x the 760 has higher performance levels, uses less power, runs cooler (on stock cooling, the windforce will compensate so in this comparison they are nearly matched in temps), and is get driver optimizations more often. The AMD is not far behind in performance, and is much less expensive.

In this, the real question is which is more important to you, cost effective or power efficiency; since the performance alone is not enough to justify the price difference.

My reccomendation, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GTX770-Nvidia-Graphics-Memory/dp/B00GNE0BVK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1412705910&sr=8-2&keywords=GTX+770+4gb

You can probably get it used for the same price as the 760. Price to performance, it's the best bang for your buck right now.

To answer your original question I would go with the 270x.

 

[gc28]

Thanks, Think I'll go with the 270x, unless i have an issue with the intel and amd working together?

I don't mind spending the money on either of the two others though, surely with that price difference there will be a gap in performance?

 

[Xibyth]

About 3-5 frames average. For $100 though it's not worth it.