i7 950 at 4.2ghz to 4770K.

[pacho108]

Hi everyone,
I would like some opinions. The itch to upgrade has been really bad lately. I have read so many should I upgrade threads, but still can't make up my mind. If I do, I would only be upgrading the cpu(4770K), mobo, ram and ssd(sata 3); no plans on gpu.

My current system has served me well for the past 3 years and a half with exception of the video card which I got on August last year. I use it mostly for general windows tasks, gaming and some audio/video editing.

Will I see any significant improvements? This putting into account a few things. I'm looking to delid and overclock the 4770K to 4.5Ghz+. I will be moving from a sata2 ssd to a sata3 one, and increase ram from 6gb to 16gb.

If I do end up upgrading, I would keep the 4770K until Skylake or Skymont. If I don't, I will most probably wait for Broadwell or Haswell-e and their respective new chipsets. Maybe get a cheapo 3x4gb ram kit to get me by until then.

 

[DSF]

Sure, you'd clearly see a performance increase in theory. Only you can decide whether that's worth the money.

Can you give more details about what kind of editing you do, and how unhappy you are with your current performance?

The upgrades you're making probably aren't going to make a whole lot of difference for gaming.

 

[Essence_of_War]

As far as gaming goes, an OC i7 950 is probably good for at least a year or two more before you'll be able to see a reasonable difference in gaming by upgrading. Tom's recommends waiting to upgrade CPU until you can jump at least 3 tiers, and there is no 3rd tier above the i7-950 yet .

 

[pacho108]

Sure, you'd clearly see a performance increase in theory. Only you can decide whether that's worth the money.

Can you give more details about what kind of editing you do, and how unhappy you are with your current performance?

The upgrades you're making probably aren't going to make a whole lot of difference for gaming.

It's nothing fancy or professional, all family videos; basic cutting and pasting, some effects, mostly H.264.

I'm not unhappy with my current setup because like I said, it has been working great since I put it together 3 years ago. I could use a faster overall system though, the problem is how much "faster" is it going to be. I just need some convincing.

Gaming performance wise I understand that it is mostly gpu dependant, but I'm quite content with the GTX 670 FTW I currently have; I'm thinking of keeping it until Maxwell or whatever AMD has after the 9000 series. Although I hope it's fast enough for BF4.
I upgrade gpus more frequent than anything else, but seeing that I'm a few generations behind on the cpu, the itch to upgrade has come strong in the past couple of weeks.

 

[pacho108]

I have always noticed some stuttering during 64 players matches in BF3. Some people have said it is because the cpu is not fast enough or not enough ram, so which one is it truly?

 

[Termie]

I have always noticed some stuttering during 64 players matches in BF3. Some people have said it is because the cpu is not fast enough or not enough ram, so which one is it truly?

What resolution and settings? That's your first potential issue.

It could also be the CPU. Although the average framerates provided by the 950@4.2 should be very close to a stock 4770K, the minimums could be significantly lower. I found that when I jumped from an i7-860 to a 3770K, minimums were quite different at equal clock speeds. I couldn't get my 860 nearly as high as your 950 though, so that could make up the difference.

It's not the RAM.

 

[tynopik]

it's not worthwhile to upgrade

 

[pacho108]

What resolution and settings? That's your first potential issue.

It could also be the CPU. Although the average framerates provided by the 950@4.2 should be very close to a stock 4770K, the minimums could be significantly lower. I found that when I jumped from an i7-860 to a 3770K, minimums were quite different at equal clock speeds. I couldn't get my 860 nearly as high as your 950 though, so that could make up the difference.

It's not the RAM.

I run BF3 at 2560x1600, low AA, everything else maxed out. The stuttering only happens during 64 players sessions, runs smoothly on any other mode.

 

[Termie]

I run BF3 at 2560x1600, low AA, everything else maxed out. The stuttering only happens during 64 players sessions, runs smoothly on any other mode.

The GTX670 isn't enough for that. I'd estimate you're hitting 50-55fps average.

 

[mfenn]

I run BF3 at 2560x1600, low AA, everything else maxed out. The stuttering only happens during 64 players sessions, runs smoothly on any other mode.

Try dropping the resolution to 1280x800 or something similarly low and joining a 64-player match. If the game still stutters, it's probably your CPU. If the stuttering goes away, then your GPU can't keep up at that resolution and LOD.