Worth it to upgrade an i5 650?

[Morestra]

Hello, I currently have an i5 650? I was just wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to something a little stronger, like a 3570k? I mainly do gaming, and I mostly stick to MMOs. Thanks!

 

[twelve25]

Are you experiencing any performance problems now?

What video card do you have?

 

[Morestra]

I currently have a zotac 660, and I any problems per say, however I am just wondering how big of an upgrade it would be from an i5 650 to a 3570k, I.E going from a dual core with multithreading, to a quad core, would cause an increase in performance gaming wise.

 

[Morestra]

I don't have any problems per say*

 

[mohit_king]

yes it will be worth it if you mainly do gaming + the i5 3570 got a 22nm architecture +increase in the clock speed=3.4 goes upto 3.8 +support the ddr3 1600mhz you can also refer to the chart here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html if you want to see the head to head comparison then you can also open http://ark.intel.com/products/43546/Intel-Core-i5-650-Processor-4M-Cache-3_20-GHz with http://ark.intel.com/products/65520/Intel-Core-i5-3570K-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz...........again i will say it is totally worth it but also checfk if you have a 1155 socket or you will have to buy a new motherboard.

 

[patrick47018]

And you could totally sell your old processor on amazon or whatnot and make back a good chunk of your cost

 

[twelve25]

yes it will be worth it if you mainly do gaming + the i5 3570 got a 22nm architecture +increase in the clock speed=3.4 goes upto 3.8 +support the ddr3 1600mhz you can also refer to the chart here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html if you want to see the head to head comparison then you can also open http://ark.intel.com/products/43546/Intel-Core-i5-650-Processor-4M-Cache-3_20-GHz with http://ark.intel.com/products/65520/Intel-Core-i5-3570K-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz...........again i will say it is totally worth it but also checfk if you have a 1155 socket or you will have to buy a new motherboard.

Regardless of what benchmarks say, upgrading CPU will only improve performance if the CPU was the bottleneck in the equation. If the CPU is only running at 40%, then doubling performance just means it runs at 20% now.

I'd still like to know what graphics card he is running. If it's as old as the CPU, then it's more likely to be the limiter for game performance.

 

[mohit_king]

Regardless of what benchmarks say, upgrading CPU will only improve performance if the CPU was the bottleneck in the equation. If the CPU is only running at 40%, then doubling performance just means it runs at 20% now.

I'd still like to know what graphics card he is running. If it's as old as the CPU, then it's more likely to be the limiter for game performance.

he has already written that he is using zotac 660

 

[twelve25]

he has already written that he is using zotac 660

Missed that, thanks!

In that case, I would recommend watching CPU and GPU utilization and see if you are experiencing CPU bottleneck i the games you play. If your CPU utilization is higher than your GPU utilization (or CPU is in the 90%+ range), then you'd benefit from an upgrade of the processor.

i5-650 is not a bad processor. Should be about like a newer i3 in most gaming situations, which is no slouch. So I wouldn't rush out and upgrade without determining your CPU is struggling in your specific games.