Should i upgrade to Skylake/DDR4 from Ivybridge?

[kYmo]

Hi,

So i was considering upgrading my build which is from january 2013.

Specs:

CPU: Intel i5 3570K @ 4.2GHz OC
MOB: Asus P8Z77-V
GPU: MSI HD 7870 2GB OC 1050Mhz
RAM: G-Skill 8GB 1600Mhz RipJaws X
PSU: Corsair HX-650W Pro Modular
SSD: OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 Max IOPs
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 6GB/S
Cooler: Corsair H100I GTX push/pull w/ x2 Corsair AF120 Quiet
CASE: Fractal Arc Midi

The pc itself is fine and runs anything i throw at it or play currently on 1080p medium/high settings decent/high enough stable frame rates.

I just fancy an upgrade for future proofing it will mainly be used for gaming.

Games played currently:

Battlefield 4
League of Legends
GTA V
Ark Survival

I don't know if it's worth me upgrading to skylake with the i5-6600k as the perforamce increase seems negligible, also having to upgrade the mobo for the new Z170 chipset and DDR4 as the timings/frequencies and performance per £ isn't any better than a decent ddr3-1600/2400 kit in comparison, which i know will soon be a different case as time goes on.

So i don't know if to just upgrade my GPU to an MSI GTX 970 Gaming Twin Frozr/Asus GTX 970 Strix now and buy a faster 16gb ddr3 kit... or wait until january 2017 and upgrade to Skylake/Z170/DDR4 or just upgrade to that now and take the plunge and eventually buy a better 16gb ddr4 2133 kit when the timings come down?

Any advice is much appreciated.

ps: I will be Overclocking the CPU for benchies and such so any decent i5-3570k replacement skylake equivalent which is a good OC'er recommendation i would be greatful .


Thanks

kYmo

 

[lodders]

You already have a very nice PC
I doubt you would get much benefit from an upgrade to skylake.
A better GPU would be nice though.

 

[migronesien]

Just pick up a new GPU and you're set for quite a while. Your GPU is the only thing holding you back.

 

[Martell1977]

Upgrading the CPU/motherboard/RAM is pointless at this time, you wouldn't be getting performance increases that justify the money.

As for the GPU upgrade, if you plan on having the card for a good amount of time, I'd suggest getting a R9 390 instead of the 970. The 8gb of GDDR5 will help with longevity as games become memory hungry, plus the R9 390 and 970 are pretty much equal in performance, but the 390 pulls a little ahead as resolution increases. I tend to keep my GPU's until I have a good reason to upgrade and the 8gb memory made it a no-brainer over the 970 for me.

 

[synphul]

I don't see any point in upgrading 'just because'. There's no advantage and in an every changing tech industry there's no such thing as 'future proofing'. That just wastes money in hopes that it remains useful longer without knowing whether it really will or not. Features and performance only really matter if you're using them.

So long as the system is still fully satisfying your needs I would stick with it. As others said, maybe a gpu upgrade but again only if it's holding you back. If you're unable to get decent frames per second or having to drop game image quality down to keep fps up.

 

[kYmo]

Upgrading the CPU/motherboard/RAM is pointless at this time, you wouldn't be getting performance increases that justify the money.

As for the GPU upgrade, if you plan on having the card for a good amount of time, I'd suggest getting a R9 390 instead of the 970. The 8gb of GDDR5 will help with longevity as games become memory hungry, plus the R9 390 and 970 are pretty much equal in performance, but the 390 pulls a little ahead as resolution increases. I tend to keep my GPU's until I have a good reason to upgrade and the 8gb memory made it a no-brainer over the 970 for me.

Thanks for the suggestion!! (Y)

 

[kYmo]

Thanks for the suggestions guys much appreciated.

i'm going to sell my gpu to a friend as i'm going to be building him a new rig so i will put that money towards the new GPU the R9 390 is looking very tempting with that 8gb of vram!! 😉

 

[CN Shana]

view this website for a little more info on roadmapping intels new chips, remember, its not all 100% true but it does give a fair idea of whats to come.

http://wccftech.com/intel-2016-roadmap-leaked-confirms-kaby-lakes-10-core-broadwelle-apollo-lake-processors/

and i think you made a mistake in your post, you said wait for 2017 for skylake, but we have skylake now, this year in 2016 were supposed to be getting an updated version of skylake called kabylake which is the same thing with just a few new supported features and sub/semi updated configurations/parts. so maybe you would be benefitted to wait for that, but if the rumours about the new extreme edition chips comming out are true and budget isn't an issue then you'd be looking at one of those, otherwise for 2017 i think your reffering to cannonlake chips which nobody should even be considering about right now.

personally in my own opinion i think you should sit on your set up for just a little bit longer and wait until june-july 2016 just to see where intel is at with releases and then make your decision,

of which i would fully support upgrading to a new chip and the z170 chipset, also i've heard any new extreme edition chips like the 6800k+ will still remain on the x99 chipset so any of those would also require a change.

but what i think your looking at is a kabylake upgrade with the z170 mobo

also don't be so hasty to jump into an r9 390 because your getting 8gb vram, most games your going to be playing which i'm assuming your aiming for 1920x1080 won't even come close to actually utilizing that much vram and on top of that amd cards have been widely known to have huge heating issues and much higher temps when running than a gtx.

for 150$ more you'd be much better off getting a gtx980 than anything amd, you absolutely do not just pick a card because it has more ram, you need to, for your own clarity of mind, look up solid reviews and benchmarks with games and fps ratings to see where your own usage statistics would relate too.

I have a 970M in my new laptop which isn't even remarkably close to a desktop 980's performance and I run assassins creed syndicate on high detail at 1920x1080 with 55-60 fps average and almost always a minimal gpu temperature

And dont forget that both amd and nvidia are releasing new gpu's in 2016 as well, i dont specifically know the codenames of the amd ones but i know that nvidia's is pascal gpu's.

 

[kYmo]

view this website for a little more info on roadmapping intels new chips, remember, its not all 100% true but it does give a fair idea of whats to come.

http://wccftech.com/intel-2016-roadmap-leaked-confirms-kaby-lakes-10-core-broadwelle-apollo-lake-processors/

and i think you made a mistake in your post, you said wait for 2017 for skylake, but we have skylake now, this year in 2016 were supposed to be getting an updated version of skylake called kabylake which is the same thing with just a few new supported features and sub/semi updated configurations/parts. so maybe you would be benefitted to wait for that, but if the rumours about the new extreme edition chips comming out are true and budget isn't an issue then you'd be looking at one of those, otherwise for 2017 i think your reffering to cannonlake chips which nobody should even be considering about right now.

It wasn't a typo i did mean 2017 as this system is now 3 years old and i wanted one of the latest architectures which by jan 2017 i'm guessing it'll be last or last last gen by then, i'd be fine with that if the performance increase was warranted but as i've read online by most people it isn't so i won't be upgrading until next year and by that time i'd probably go with the kabylake/cannonlake depending on the performance/overclocking benefits over Ivybridge.

personally in my own opinion i think you should sit on your set up for just a little bit longer and wait until june-july 2016 just to see where intel is at with releases and then make your decision, of which i would fully support upgrading to a new chip and the z170 chipset, also i've heard any new extreme edition chips like the 6800k+ will still remain on the x99 chipset so any of those would also require a change.

but what i think your looking at is a kabylake upgrade with the z170 mobo

Sounds good i will wait out a bit longer

also don't be so hasty to jump into an r9 390 because your getting 8gb vram, most games your going to be playing which i'm assuming your aiming for 1920x1080 won't even come close to actually utilizing that much vram and on top of that amd cards have been widely known to have huge heating issues and much higher temps when running than a gtx.

for 150$ more you'd be much better off getting a gtx980 than anything amd, you absolutely do not just pick a card because it has more ram, you need to, for your own clarity of mind, look up solid reviews and benchmarks with games and fps ratings to see where your own usage statistics would relate too.

I have a 970M in my new laptop which isn't even remarkably close to a desktop 980's performance and I run assassins creed syndicate on high detail at 1920x1080 with 55-60 fps average and almost always a minimal gpu temperature

And dont forget that both amd and nvidia are releasing new gpu's in 2016 as well, i dont specifically know the codenames of the amd ones but i know that nvidia's is pascal gpu's.

Yep 1080p i probably won't be going higher than that not for another 5 years or so when a single card can handle 4k @ 60fps with everything on ultra and doesn't cost an arm & leg lol 😛

Thank you for the response

 

[CN Shana]

deleted

 

[CN Shana]

here's an example, and don't forget that the r9 390 is still based off the amd hawaii chipset and is only a renamed r9 290 with double the vram and enhanced clock speed, so it's still based off of an older gpu model

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/510628-fps-and-temp-issues-with-r9-390-plz-help/

don't think that i'm hating on amd because its still a good gpu, you just have to have an extensive amount of properly set up cooling in your system which can cause excessive fan noise in most situations because this gpu requires extensive cooling to remain at a solid temp speed so you don't receive fps drops from overheating.

 

[kYmo]

here's an example, and don't forget that the r9 390 is still based off the amd hawaii chipset and is only a renamed r9 290 with double the vram and enhanced clock speed, so it's still based off of an older gpu model

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/510628-fps-and-temp-issues-with-r9-390-plz-help/

don't think that i'm hating on amd because its still a good gpu, you just have to have an extensive amount of properly set up cooling in your system which can cause excessive fan noise in most situations because this gpu requires extensive cooling to remain at a solid temp speed so you don't receive fps drops from overheating.

At first i'll admit i did think you sounded like an Nvidia fan boy but after checking that link and multiple posts on google lots of people seem to be having that problem with the r9 390 so it seems like a common problem with the amd drivers and i know amd have always had a bad rep for their drivers in relation to GPU's in the past which they have since turned around but these fans that like to idle for no apparent reason and the card hitting temps of 94c is edging me back towards the gtx 970.

Thanks buddy! (Y)

 

[Martell1977]

here's an example, and don't forget that the r9 390 is still based off the amd hawaii chipset and is only a renamed r9 290 with double the vram and enhanced clock speed, so it's still based off of an older gpu model

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/510628-fps-and-temp-issues-with-r9-390-plz-help/

don't think that i'm hating on amd because its still a good gpu, you just have to have an extensive amount of properly set up cooling in your system which can cause excessive fan noise in most situations because this gpu requires extensive cooling to remain at a solid temp speed so you don't receive fps drops from overheating.

If you read through that thread, the OP there was running the original "Crimson" driver that had the fan bug, which has been corrected since December 16th. Plus, not all R9 390 coolers are created equal. The Sapphire one I have has yet to go over 60c under load with the fans around 34%, and that is running Fallout 4 on Ultra settings. The thing to look out for mainly is room for the card, the one I have is very long, but with 3 fans it's running cool and quiet.

 

[kYmo]

here's an example, and don't forget that the r9 390 is still based off the amd hawaii chipset and is only a renamed r9 290 with double the vram and enhanced clock speed, so it's still based off of an older gpu model

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/510628-fps-and-temp-issues-with-r9-390-plz-help/

don't think that i'm hating on amd because its still a good gpu, you just have to have an extensive amount of properly set up cooling in your system which can cause excessive fan noise in most situations because this gpu requires extensive cooling to remain at a solid temp speed so you don't receive fps drops from overheating.

If you read through that thread, the OP there was running the original "Crimson" driver that had the fan bug, which has been corrected since December 16th. Plus, not all R9 390 coolers are created equal. The Sapphire one I have has yet to go over 60c under load with the fans around 34%, and that is running Fallout 4 on Ultra settings. The thing to look out for mainly is room for the card, the one I have is very long, but with 3 fans it's running cool and quiet.

Thanks for the input

 

[CN Shana]

here's an example, and don't forget that the r9 390 is still based off the amd hawaii chipset and is only a renamed r9 290 with double the vram and enhanced clock speed, so it's still based off of an older gpu model

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/510628-fps-and-temp-issues-with-r9-390-plz-help/

don't think that i'm hating on amd because its still a good gpu, you just have to have an extensive amount of properly set up cooling in your system which can cause excessive fan noise in most situations because this gpu requires extensive cooling to remain at a solid temp speed so you don't receive fps drops from overheating.

At first i'll admit i did think you sounded like an Nvidia fan boy but after checking that link and multiple posts on google lots of people seem to be having that problem with the r9 390 so it seems like a common problem with the amd drivers and i know amd have always had a bad rep for their drivers in relation to GPU's in the past which they have since turned around but these fans that like to idle for no apparent reason and the card hitting temps of 94c is edging me back towards the gtx 970.

Thanks buddy! (Y)

No problem ,its not about preference or fanboying anything, it really doesn't matter to me what card you purchase, i just want you to make a purchase decision based off of reviews, benchmark tests, youtube videos detailing problems and fixes and long term usage reports and overall opinions from several people.

Rather than just jumping into a buy because you see double v ram for a semi cheaper price point.

 

[kYmo]

here's an example, and don't forget that the r9 390 is still based off the amd hawaii chipset and is only a renamed r9 290 with double the vram and enhanced clock speed, so it's still based off of an older gpu model

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/510628-fps-and-temp-issues-with-r9-390-plz-help/

don't think that i'm hating on amd because its still a good gpu, you just have to have an extensive amount of properly set up cooling in your system which can cause excessive fan noise in most situations because this gpu requires extensive cooling to remain at a solid temp speed so you don't receive fps drops from overheating.

At first i'll admit i did think you sounded like an Nvidia fan boy but after checking that link and multiple posts on google lots of people seem to be having that problem with the r9 390 so it seems like a common problem with the amd drivers and i know amd have always had a bad rep for their drivers in relation to GPU's in the past which they have since turned around but these fans that like to idle for no apparent reason and the card hitting temps of 94c is edging me back towards the gtx 970.

Thanks buddy! (Y)

No problem ,its not about preference or fanboying anything, it really doesn't matter to me what card you purchase, i just want you to make a purchase decision based off of reviews, benchmark tests, youtube videos detailing problems and fixes and long term usage reports and overall opinions from several people.

Rather than just jumping into a buy because you see double v ram for a semi cheaper price point.

I agree