bad time to upgrade?

[Davegod]

I have some money and am due rewarding myself. Games are tolerable right now but I'd like some more fps and/or increasing the quality settings.

Currently have i5 2500K @4.2ghz and a 6950 @ some factory oc. I've not been paying much attention to HW since I bought that.

Had a look at the GPU bench and looked like there was a lot of performance to be had (maybe 290 or 7800). But had a look into the video forum here and the impression I got was a big step up is coming, which isn't reflected in the pricing. Naturally, "coming" seems to be in enough months to be an annoying wait and not enough that I won't be annoyed about it if I buy now (I saw Q4 2014 which I assume is more likely to be nearer the end of the year).

So I had a look at CPUs, but there just didn't seem to be any significant performance gains, even at stock and I presume nothing is going to OC as well at the 2500K.

Any thoughts? I don't like to buy s/h

 

[DSF]

I definitely wouldn't bother upgrading the CPU.

I guess the thing to do is look up benchmarks for the games you play. You say you're looking for FPS/quality increases, so measure the FPS you're getting now and compare to the benchmarks you can find.

If the increase sounds worth it to you, upgrade the GPU. If not, I'd wait.

 

[Freddy1765]

I've got a 2500k as well and also find myself debating whether to upgrade it. It's pretty difficult to justify given no games can be said to be bottlenecked by an OC'd 2500k; I'm holding out for the "next-gen" games coming out in September/October to see how they run on the 4790k. Hopefully that'll give me the excuse to upgrade I'm looking for

I'd also hold out for the GPU upgrade. Every day seems to bring a new rumor about the GTX 800 Series releasing in Q3. That means the GPU release will mostly coincide with game releases, so you might as well upgrade your 6950 at the same time and either save some money on the current high-end cards or by going with the new ones.

 

[sm625]

28nm is long in the tooth. 20nm cards should be out within a year. I would expect a huge jump in performance, especially from maxwell based designs. Though I also expect AMD to make a big jump in efficiency as well.

 

[Davegod]

Thanks for replies.

It's pretty sad that there still isn't anything out to warrant upgrading a 3.5 year old CPU, even if acknowledging it was a good buy at the time.

GPU side of things more bad timing on my part I guess, should have upgraded earlier really. Crossing fingers for that Q3 release...

 

[goobernoodles]

I upgraded from an O/C'd 2500k to a O/C'd 4770k and didn't really notice much of a difference at all in games. I only upgraded because my gf needed a computer and I gave her the 2500k.

If you're going to upgrade anything, sell your 6950 and get a graphics card. You can always sell the card you get when a new line comes out.

 

[mfenn]

If you're not happy with performance, then it is always a good time to upgrade. Yeah there may be something faster just around the corner, but there is always something faster just around the corner.

I agree with the other posters than your CPU is fine, especially since it is overclocked, but the GPU isn't as fast as it could be. The questions are: what games are you having trouble with and how much are you willing to spend?

 

[Davegod]

Sorry for late reply

I'd be budgeting around 290 maybe 7800 prices. For that kind of money I don't want to be getting something "last gen" that isn't going to be a priority in driver updates and might struggle with games also being released on the consoles.

 

[mfenn]

Sorry for late reply

I'd be budgeting around 290 maybe 7800 prices. For that kind of money I don't want to be getting something "last gen" that isn't going to be a priority in driver updates and might struggle with games also being released on the consoles.

By 7800, I assume you mean 780? As in GTX 780?

Both the R9 290 and GTX 780 are part of the most current generation of GPUs from their respective manufacturers. Both are also 3-4 times more powerful than the GPUs available in consoles.

 

[alcoholbob]

The GTX 880 is expected to come out in mid-September and it's not expected to be much more than 10% faster than the 780 Ti, but coming out at a $499 price tag. If that's up your alley then you can wait a month, if you are expecting more performance you'll have to wait until at least 2H 2015 before the first 20nm cards come out.

 

[MoJoSoDOPE]

just wait for black friday its arouidn the corner =D

 

[Zorander]

Upgrade the GPU. I myself am sporting an even older CPU (i7-860) and been incrementally upgrading my GPU (5850 -> 6970 -> 7950). Every GPU upgrade always brings about noticable improvement, especially since I game at 1600p.

 

[Davegod]

ah I had thought we were in for a new chip in September. Guess I'll wait for the early reviews and think about what's what then. Cheers folks