Shaun

I've been a geek in the past but wouldn't mind some practical experiences from others, as it's never just about the benchmarks when looking at PC spec's for everyday computing needs.

I have the following:
i7 920 clocked at 4ghz on air
12GB RAM
xfire HD7970's (clocked)
Win7 Ultimate

I game at 2560x1600 and also do normal computing tasks along with video rendering.

In the real world is it really worth me upgrading to a i7 2700k or 4770k set-up, maintaining the existing xfire set-up?

My gut feeling is no if I'm not looking at pub benchmarks - which I'm not.

The basis of this set-up (not the GFX) is some 4yrs old (iirc), but performs extremely well imo.

Comments appreciated.

Tidgy

im running

i7-920
6gb ram
gtx 570 (high ram version)
vertex 4 ssd

i'm getting tot eh stage of putting more ram at it, but i'm yet to find a game it wont run at full settings.

Personal i'd say wait till the revised haswell (cant reemeber what they call it) comes out then do the lot.

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

I had an i7 920 clocked at 4ghz and upgraded to an i7 3820 running at 4.3 and it did make a significant improvement in game feel at 2560x1600 (running dual gtx580's, 16gb DDR3)

mrtheedge2u2

I am running the following

Intel® Core™ i7 3970X Six Core 3.5GHz 15MB Cache (12 Threads) Extreme Edition
Corsair XMS3 64GB (8x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz
Corsair Force 3 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive SATA 3 550MB/s Read 510MB/s Write
2 x nVidia GeForce GTX 780 3GB in SLi Mode


I find it powerful enough so that I can watch youporn, play solitaire and take over the world in one go.

CREWJ

I can't see it make a significant difference. Games are GFX throttled these days.

Shaun

Tidgy,
I'm inclined to agree with you..... there's a first!

Galifrey,
I find it difficult to understand your "significant" remark. Could you put that into context please?

mrtheedge2u2,
I struggle to run Solitaire so you've won me over on that one!

CREWJ,
In all honesty I don't think gaming is any issue with my current set-up. IMO anything over 60fps on a 60hz monitor is like having a 49" donger. It might sound good, but a total waste of "'s.

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

It removed the jerkiness in some games and just felt fluid, it is about how the game felt, so kinda hard to explain unless you know what rough feels like.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

Just out of interest what PSU are you running those Xfire HD7970's with ?

Personally i don't think you have any need to upgrade, your spec seems pretty good for what you use a PC for especially GPU wise. You don't really need a higher end CPU if its mainly gaming you do, if your having no probs at the min with video rendering using your current CPU then i wouldn't bother changing.

Wait to see what Intel come out with after Haswell as that isn't worth upgrading too as its not a major leap technology wise.

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

Are you experiencing problems at all Shaun? If so, what are they?

A better processor will run your 7970's faster as the mobo and processor are the bottleneck for controlling the PCIe lanes but again, it's not normally going to be measurable if your not already hitting the bottleneck pretty hard.

I so wanted to upgrade to Haswell from my 3770k but its just not worth it, so am awaiting the next generation... That said, I need another mobo to add a 4th 7970 to my rig... So might be forced to upgrades tad as I've almost been pushed out of the UK top 10 overclocking league on HWbot by those damn Titan's so i need a tad more firepower lol

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

Just remember if your overlocked, more ram may make it more unstable As the processors IMC is the most unstable part of most overclocks. Are you really using more than 6gb? Rare most people do, and of course you need to run a 64bit OS to actually use more than 3gb, just in case anyone reading doesn't know that.

**edited to correct fat finger errors**

Tidgy

cheers for the info,

Already running 64bit play game on it mostly. tbh prob just chuck extra 6gb in it then wait for a couple of years and do the full daddy lol

Shaun

Rob,
HX1000W Corsair PSU.

I don't have problems per se with video rendering. I use Sony Vegas and utilise the GPU using OpenCL for encoding. Of course I would always like it to be quicker at rendering, but suspect speed would not be drastically increased with a quicker CPU.

It currently takes up to 15mins to render 10mins of 1080p video at 25Mbps 30fps, resulting in a 2GB file. I'd like it to take about 5mins!

Stu,
No problems at all Stu, just interested in the reality of upgrading vs real return.

In all honesty I'm pretty impressed how long the 920 has lasted performance wise.

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

Hi Shaun,
I assumed it was mainly for gaming mate, if its for video encoding I would say yes, your going to recognise some improvements going to a fast overclocked 3770 or 4770k but perhaps not staggering because that 920 is pretty awesome when overclocked well.
A few lads on the overclocking forums I use have discussed this quite a lot, let me go and find you some relevant reading. BRB.

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

Have a read through these with a brew.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/551?vs=47

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/201...3770k-review/5

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

As an aside, make sure your on the latest 13.8 beta and marvel at how smooth crossfire games are with the new frame pacing software.
Infuriating it took them 18mths to get the 7970 to work properly, but it really is an improvement. Make sure you delete old cap packages and install the latest or the crossfire profiles may not work and you won't feel the benefit.