Worth it to upgrade to i7?

zwotb, I definitely do not have the money to blow lol. I'll be sticking with this setup for a while. I mean I only have a 22" monitor so its not like i'll be gaming at super high resolutions anyway ;)
 
Diyguy said:
Merlin, Just thought I would let you know that I took your advice.

Went ahead and ordered a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 for the QX, i'm able to reach 3.66 ghz with stability using the stock HSF :) by moving the multiplier up to 11 but am going up to 70 C in prime 95 (Reminds me of my old prescott 3.0ghz cpu at 3.6ghz lol) which is uncomfortably high for my liking.

So in the mean time i'll be running at stock speeds. The sunbeam core contact freezer seems to be the best, but sadly it doesn't work with my gigabyte UD3p :( The xigmatek will do.

alright, happy holidays all!
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Make sure you use some good thermal paste, preferably AS5. Once you get the new HSF, report back with results. Hell, you might even be able to go higher than 3.66. ;)
 
Yes, I already have the larger tube of AS5 on hand ;)

It shipped out today so my guess is it'll arrive by this weekend. Looking forward to it! Will report back with the results.
 
Forceman said:
But how many people are sporting a tri-SLI rig? Unless you mean it's more future-proof for the next generation of video cards?
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You dont need triSLI to be able to see the difference, thats the whole point, but so ignored. I can se it with only SLI and in every rez 1920x1200+ i had some to compare from the old QX9650 and SLI.
If/when ATI fix the trifire/quadfire for X58 properly you will see it to on the 4870X2 quadfire that seems to be very common setup and if you can afford a i7 then SLI/CF of GTX260/HD4870 or better is more or less the normal setup you gonna have or you waste your money that should be better spent on the cheaper i5 later.
They even say this two or three times that a GTX260SLI is enought for a difference(but offcource smaller) but it is still more or less ignored that it is enought for a difference, why is a mystery, i bet that if they had done it with 4870X2 then the rest of the pages would been ignored the same way the most important part now is and the bitching about the main part is done with a E8400 would been overseen with but i have seen a notsiable difference in just about every game i played/tested so far and that "only" on GTX280SLI that aint that uncommon or waste of money anymore.
BTW noting is futureproof, just that some things last longer than other and still gonna have better secondhandvalue than other things that needs to be changed sooner.
 
Unless you do heavy encoding or folding I don't see why anyone would want to switch from a core2 to i7. i7 did not wow me.
 
There are several reasons to upgrade.
1. Video encoding
2. Highly multithreaded programs
3. Multi card gaming system (Esp. SLi because of the lack of nv chipsets)
4. folding of course
5. multiple CPU intensive apps.
 
merlin704 said:
Considering the system in my sig, would it be beneficial for me to make the move to an i7 setup or stick with what I have for a little longer?
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Yes. Just do it.
Get the EVGA X58 and clock the shit out of a 920.:D
 
Yes. Just do it.
Get the EVGA X58 and clock the shit out of a 920.

- Following above advice :D mine comes in Friday
 
I can see professionals who do heavy encoding / etc. benefiting from this processor. Time = money
I guess. I think most people are buying into the i7 and expecting an increase in gaming
performance. It will not run games faster, and if your buying into i7/x58 for this purpose it's a waste.
 
DWade said:
I can see professionals who do heavy encoding / etc. benefiting from this processor. Time = money
I guess. I think most people are buying into the i7 and expecting an increase in gaming
performance. It will not run games faster, and if your buying into i7/x58 for this purpose it's a waste.
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MultiGPU gaming does love i7 so gaming under those conditions will give you reallife benefits even if you are GPU-limited.
You dont buy i7 for singelGPU gaming, then you are under the influence of something as you need multiGPU to call it usefull.
 
magoo said:
Yes. Just do it.
Get the EVGA X58 and clock the shit out of a 920.:D
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If I decided to go ahead and move to an i7 platform, what makes you think i would get the cheapest i7? ;)
 
No need to upgrade if you play on high res (2560x1600)
In some cases QX9770 kicks i7 965 ass http://techgage.com/article/intel_core_i7_performance_preview/11
I realy wanted to upgrade, but the only thing i use my desktop for are games, going to i7 would be a downgrade games wise.
And the games that benefit from it would gain 5-8 fps, to less to justify the € 1600,- upgrade.
I wish the i7 had more under the hood, always nice to jump on the new hardware bandwagon and overclock the hell out of it.
This time around I wait for the Sandy Bridge, and let's hope this will bring some notable performance gains to gaming.
 
Justifire said:
No need to upgrade if you play on high res (2560x1600)
In some cases QX9770 kicks i7 965 ass http://techgage.com/article/intel_core_i7_performance_preview/11
I realy wanted to upgrade, but the only thing i use my desktop for are games, going to i7 would be a downgrade games wise.
And the games that benefit from it would gain 5-8 fps, to less to justify the € 1600,- upgrade.
I wish the i7 had more under the hood, always nice to jump on the new hardware bandwagon and overclock the hell out of it.
This time around I wait for the Sandy Bridge, and let's hope this will bring some notable performance gains to gaming.
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That "review" is a big fat joke. First a 4870 512 that wont show any of the benefits of X58/i7, a 4870 is to slow for that. They should have done it with at least 4870 1GB CF/GTX260-core 216 SLI or better yet GTX280 SLI and 4870X2 CF so the difference really comes to the light.
I would not trust that for anything as it is a failure and your 3xGTX280 demands a better CPU.
i7 is no downgrade, it will be an upgrade for you so you out of any should trust this more that the techgage-crap that is made to fail by the stupid choise of GPU that dont need more power than a yorkie can give you.
To many trust the garbage that shows no difference just because it is rigged to fail when their realy is a notsiable difference on GTX280SLI or better GPU:s

Besides it would not be a 1600€ for you as you can get pretty mutch for a QX9650 and a 790i today as secondhand.
 
E.R said:
That "review" is a big fat joke. First a 4870 512 that wont show any of the benefits of X58/i7, a 4870 is to slow for that. They should have done it with at least 4870 1GB CF/GTX260-core 216 SLI or better yet GTX280 SLI and 4870X2 CF so the difference really comes to the light.
I would not trust that for anything as it is a failure and your 3xGTX280 demands a better CPU.
i7 is no downgrade, it will be an upgrade for you so you out of any should trust this more that the techgage-crap that is made to fail by the stupid choise of GPU that dont need more power than a yorkie can give you.
To many trust the garbage that shows no difference just because it is rigged to fail when their realy is a notsiable difference on GTX280SLI or better GPU:s

Besides it would not be a 1600€ for you as you can get pretty mutch for a QX9650 and a 790i today as secondhand.
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I'm talking about 2560x1600 resolution here.
As i mentioned above on that resolution, the best you get is 5-8 fps more, not worth the upgrade.
Maybe when better gpu's showing up we see some more difference, i think that's around same time as Sandy Bridge ;)
 
Justifire said:
I'm talking about 2560x1600 resolution here.
As i mentioned above on that resolution, the best you get is 5-8 fps more, not worth the upgrade.
Maybe when better gpu's showing up we see some more difference, i think that's around same time as Sandy Bridge ;)
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I see 8-10fps in this chart and besides that can be what is needed and no one runs these on stock with powerfull GPU or the GPU it self, thats stupid and dont expect sanybridge to be anything major revelation as nehalem is the biggest step forward so far and another big step so close? I Hope am wrong but until then a i7 is the only way to fully unlech powerfull GFX.
 
E.R said:
I see 8-10fps in this chart and besides that can be what is needed and no one runs these on stock with powerfull GPU or the GPU it self, thats stupid and dont expect sanybridge to be anything major revelation as nehalem is the biggest step forward so far and another big step so close? I Hope am wrong but until then a i7 is the only way to fully unlech powerfull GFX.
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I absolutly agree that i7 is the way to go if you want the most out of your GFX.
But the question in this topic is : Is it worth to upgrade ?
In topicstarters and mine case, it simple ain't worth it.
And to find an i7 that does 4.5ghz 24/7 under water won't be easy, that's another thing to think about, altough a bit off-topic.
 
Justifire said:
I absolutly agree that i7 is the way to go if you want the most out of your GFX.
But the question in this topic is : Is it worth to upgrade ?
In topicstarters and mine case, it simple ain't worth it.
And to find an i7 that does 4.5ghz 24/7 under water won't be easy, that's another thing to think about, altough a bit off-topic.
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IIf it is worth it or not just depends on where the difference is, It might be that one game jumps from 55FPS to 62FPS and "everbody" can play it smoothly or it will be in the useless area above 60-70FPS, it is up to the game and the one that consider it.

Over 4,5Ghz 24/7 stabile might not be possible on anything less than a 965, a simple superpi or 3dmark run dont count as stabile enought for 24/7 to me. try 8hour++ prime/OCCT or something like that that loads core 100% then we talk stabile enought for my taste.
 
E.R said:
Over 4,5Ghz 24/7 stabile might not be possible on anything less than a 965, a simple superpi or 3dmark run dont count as stabile enought for 24/7 to me. try 8hour++ prime/OCCT or something like that that loads core 100% then we talk stabile enought for my taste.
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Amen ;)
 
The core i7 is a great chip and so are the core2/core2q 45nm. I paid about 200 dollars less at the time building my Q9550 setup and I wanted a little more memory so I was able to get 8GB. My next upgrade will most likely be when the switch happens with 22nm chips (or perhaps ~19nm depending how long 3.9GHz holds out).
 
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