Upgrading i7 870

[i do dew]

hey, i just got paid and was wondering what kind of difference i would see upgrading my i7 870 to either an i5 2500k or an i5 3570k. i was also wondering what kind of performace differences i'd see if i did upgrade. The main things i do are bot runescape, so my computer is on nearly all day everyday and i also play games, battlefield 3, skyrim, Dirt 3, Crysis etc.

my specs are:
i7 870 @ 2.93 ghz
no clue on the current mobo...
ocz zt 750 watt psu
evga gtx 660 superclocked
8 gigs ddr3 1333 mhz ram

any and all help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[popatim]

Just monitor/log your cpu usage while you game. If you're not hitting 100% alot then theres not really a need to upgrade. The Old i7's are still respectible gamers!

 

[Supernova1138]

I would say keep what you have right now and wait for next year's Haswell at the earliest before really considering a CPU upgrade. For games, your main bottleneck is still your GPU. I have a slower CPU and a slightly faster GPU than you, and the only modern game I have encountered a CPU bottleneck in was Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Skyrim and Crysis are still GPU bound on my setup.

Of the games you play, the only one that might benefit slightly from a CPU upgrade would be Battlefield 3, and only in very large multiplayer games eg. 64 players. I would say save your money, and look at a new build next year, because the performance difference between the Lynnfield CPUs and Ivy Bridge really don't justify spending $300+ on a new CPU and motherboard, especially if gaming performance is what you really care about.

If you absolutely must spend money now, your options would be to get a better graphics card, get another 660 and run them in SLI (if your motherboard supports it), or get an SSD.

 

[i do dew]

I would say keep what you have right now and wait for next year's Haswell at the earliest before really considering a CPU upgrade. For games, your main bottleneck is still your GPU. I have a slower CPU and a slightly faster GPU than you, and the only modern game I have encountered a CPU bottleneck in was Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Skyrim and Crysis are still GPU bound on my setup.

Of the games you play, the only one that might benefit slightly from a CPU upgrade would be Battlefield 3, and only in very large multiplayer games eg. 64 players. I would say save your money, and look at a new build next year, because the performance difference between the Lynnfield CPUs and Ivy Bridge really don't justify spending $300+ on a new CPU and motherboard, especially if gaming performance is what you really care about.

If you absolutely must spend money now, your options would be to get a better graphics card, get another 660 and run them in SLI (if your motherboard supports it), or get an SSD.

i can't sli on my current motherboard, would it be worth getting a different mother board to sli 660's? i doubt it would i get 80-100 fps in bf3 on 64 player servers with the game maxed out. my dips are to 75 and i get up to around 100, averaging out in the high 80's.

 

[Supernova1138]

If your motherboard doesn't support SLI, don't bother with it. Good LGA 1156 motherboards are hard to come by these days, especially ones that support SLI. There are better graphics cards you could buy, but they aren't all that much faster than what you have right now. On the GPU front you may also be better served waiting until next year for the Radeon HD 8000/GeForce 700 series to launch, you would get a bigger performance boost that way. The only really worthwhile upgrade available right now would be something like the GTX 690, a $1000 dual GPU card.

If 75 FPS is your minimum in BF3, you are doing quite well, and don't really need to upgrade anything unless you really want to enable higher detail settings (if you haven't already).

 

[i do dew]

If your motherboard doesn't support SLI, don't bother with it. Good LGA 1156 motherboards are hard to come by these days, especially ones that support SLI. There are better graphics cards you could buy, but they aren't all that much faster than what you have right now. On the GPU front you may also be better served waiting until next year for the Radeon HD 8000/GeForce 700 series to launch, you would get a bigger performance boost that way. The only really worthwhile upgrade available right now would be something like the GTX 690, a $1000 dual GPU card.

If 75 FPS is your minimum in BF3, you are doing quite well, and don't really need to upgrade anything unless you really want to enable higher detail settings (if you haven't already).

ah okay thank you. my BF3 is maxed out completely with AA etc... so i guess i don't really need to upgrade anything after all. i appreciate the help. i'll just save up for next year thank you.

 

[i do dew]

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