How long will 2500K be good enough for games?

[futurefields]

How long do you guys think a 2500K will be good enough to not bottleneck games too bad?

Like as long as you upgrade the GPU every couple years do you think this CPU could be good for games for the next 5-6 years?

At what point will games be more CPU intesive than what the 2500K can handle?

 

[Kristijonas]

I can only say one objective thing - don't plan for 5-6 years.

 

[pelov]

Wait till the next gen consoles come out and you'll have your answer.

Though the answer is almost certainly a very long time regardless of the thread counts

 

[ShintaiDK]

In 5-6 years it will be as good as a 2.4Ghz Q6600 is today. Games today can already limit a 2500K.

 

[BrightCandle]

We just don't know. When the Core 2 Duo came out it marked the end of the clock speed race and instead the core increase race. The Core 2 Quad quickly put an end to the core count race and now we are in the instruction per clock cycle/efficiency of cache race. Each successive conclusion of easy scaling has been followed by something much harder. But we don't really know what breakthroughs are coming or if there are none at all.

Your CPU could be good for 5+ years, it could last 15 because the scaling stops or in 3 years we may all need AVX to get decent performance. The problem with the future is its what it used to be.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Stock or OCed?

 

[tigersty1e]

pcie 2.0 will become more a bottleneck in 5-6 years.

 

[Borealis7]

you will love it long time

 

[lehtv]

pcie 2.0 will become more a bottleneck in 5-6 years.

I'd say exactly the opposite. 2500K already bottlenecks a high end GPU in CPU-limited games, but games aren't demanding enough for that to really matter yet. When they become more demanding, 2500K will be the bottleneck, not PCIe bandwidth. As it stands, PCIe 3.0 on LGA1155 is only useful for tri-SLI and quad-SLI, possibly SLI as well (haven't seen 2.0 vs 3.0 benchmarks for SLI)

 

[borisvodofsky]

I'd say exactly the opposite. 2500K already bottlenecks a high end GPU in CPU-limited games, but games aren't demanding enough for that to really matter yet. When they become more demanding, 2500K will be the bottleneck, not PCIe bandwidth. As it stands, PCIe 3.0 on LGA1155 is only useful for tri-SLI and quad-SLI, possibly SLI as well (haven't seen 2.0 vs 3.0 benchmarks for SLI)

You mean when games become more poorly balanced between performance and visual quality. :whiste:

 

[SlowSpyder]

I still feel my Thuban is 'good enough'. I imagine a 2500K with some clock speed will do just fine for some time to come.

 

[Ben90]

On January 17th 2014 at 6:08PM PST a 2500k will no longer be good enough for playing games.

 

[gevorg]

Wait till the next gen consoles come out and you'll have your answer.

Though the answer is almost certainly a very long time regardless of the thread counts

this!

 

[Barfo]

yes

 

[SHAQ]

I think the 2500K would die before it wouldn't be fast enough. Unless, of course, AVX2 revolutionizes gaming, but that would take awhile as well.

 

[Puppies04]

Too many variable to even start to formulate an answer, if we are talking about 1080P res though it shouldn't be a problem for several years.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'd say exactly the opposite. 2500K already bottlenecks a high end GPU in CPU-limited games, but games aren't demanding enough for that to really matter yet. When they become more demanding, 2500K will be the bottleneck, not PCIe bandwidth. As it stands, PCIe 3.0 on LGA1155 is only useful for tri-SLI and quad-SLI, possibly SLI as well (haven't seen 2.0 vs 3.0 benchmarks for SLI)

2.0 vs 3.0 SLI...I swear I saw some test somewhere for that. Can't find it.

Anyway maybe I'll run that test myself someday.

 

[jacktesterson]

I honestly think for at least another couple years, it would be fine for gaming. I said in another thread the 2500k will end up being the CPU I own for the longest amount of time in my life. Ivy offers no reason to upgrade unless money is plentiful, which for me its not. (I also like using a 2500k @ 4.5 on a $20 cooler)

Haswell will probably be my next CPU upgrade.

There is no answer.

I had a G530 pushing a 5870 for a while and at 1080p it could max out majority of games. (select few high end titles needed turned down a little)

Consoles that will be released in 2014 are not as powerful as todays gaming Rigs, so the days of needing to upgrade constantly are slowing down big time. (as long as ports are coded well)

 

[Red Hawk]

If you OC it, it should last quite a long time. I personally plan on using it at least until Skylake, the architectural successor to Haswell, comes out. Then again, I don't plan on using Crossfire/SLI to play at crazy resolutions of 1440p or more. If you plan on doing stuff like that maybe it won't last as long.

 

[cmdrdredd]

If you OC it, it should last quite a long time. I personally plan on using it at least until Skylake, the architectural successor to Haswell, comes out. Then again, I don't plan on using Crossfire/SLI to play at crazy resolutions of 1440p or more. If you plan on doing stuff like that maybe it won't last as long.

I think even then at 4.5Ghz+ it will be fine for a while. Unless you start running 3 cards then the PCIe 2.0 might limit things. It is possible however, that cards next year or the following year really do show a benefit from PCIe 3.0. We cannot predict the future though.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Well, right now I dont see anything coming out that will be remarkably faster, so it better be good for a while. Maybe haswell, if AVX2 becomes a big deal, but seems CPU progress has kind of maxed out, unless games start to use more threads and Intel finally decides to make a mainstream hex core.

 

[greenhawk]

personally, given how long the q6600 lasted, the slowing of software "needs" might give the 2500K several years.

but for gaming, it will probably be clearer 2 years after the next consoles come out (and developers have time to work with and take advantage of the new hardware).

the rumour is 6 times the performance for the xbox 720 over the 360, not into consoles enough to say what that means in terms of PC performance.

 

[Don Karnage]

Its already obsolete :whiste:

 

[nitromullet]

"Good Enough"? ...I'd say at least 3 years.

I actually enjoy upgrades, but I'm still happily using a Nahelam cpu. When Sandy Bridge launched the general consensus was that Sandy wasn't really a compelling reason for an LGA 1366 user to upgrade in terms of performance, and Ivy didn't raise the bar very much and added additional cooling challenges for over clockers.

 

[2is]

Until Battlefield 4 is released