Hi chaps, some advice please System is i7 920 d0 2.6ghz overclocked to 4ghz (5 years old now) (3x4) 12GB DDR3 Tri chan 780ti Windforce In the last 5 or 6 months, possibly since a clean install of windows on a nice fresh SSD, I've been getting the odd random total system lockup, mouse stutters for a bit then total lockup. Looking at the dmp file and its error It seems its a hardware fault. Could be cpu, could be ram. Anyway, Ive not even put a clean install of win 7 on yet to try to narrow down was the crash is all about as I am lazy as **** Should I just bite the bullet and grab a nice new mobo/cpu? something along the lines of the 4970K? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-008-MS&groupid=701&catid=6 I play a lot of games and have little to no interest in video compression or editing. Seems a lot of games are still cpu bound these days and usually to far less than the 4/8 cores available to the system so was looking for at least 4ghz stock speed just incase this does not change in the near future. Would I notice much, if any, performance increase from the new Devils Canyon over my old overclocked from 2.6 to 4ghz for almost 5 years bloomfield? How are the stock coolers on the 4970ks these days? and will these cpus drop in price anytime soon due to Haswell E? Or should I just hang about for a bit and wait for the Haswell E series to drop in price and spunk a bit more money due to DDR4 costs? cheers in advance for any advice
Any upgrade from a 4ghz 920 is going to be a good upgrade however a fully working 920 without the problems that your experiencing is fine for games aslong as you have a decent GPU. So in short, yes its worth upgrading but not essential if your a gamer. You could also drop an X58 6 core Xeon cpu in there as there dirt cheap like £50 - £100. Saying that i see no difference in gaming on my 4ghz 930 compared to my 4930k at 4.2ghz. I get the same frame rates as its my GPU that does all the work, the cpu is just there to eliminate any bottleneck for the GPU in gaming.
That really depends on the games you play though - i was using a 920 at 3.8 ghz before i upgraded to my 4930k at 4.5 ghz, and there is a MASSIVE difference in several games, such as total war rome 2, planetside 2, and other very cpu heavy games.
I tend to play MMO games which almost always end up being CPU bound for some reason. As well as most of the new games each year. Steam sales are lethal!
Yeah, in that case i think youll find the difference to be rather large - the difference in single core performance between 4930k at 4,5 ghz and 920 at 3,8 ghz is roughly 50%. As would the difference between a 4790k at 4,5 ghz vs a 920 at 4 ghz be roughly 50%. In crysis 3 for instance, my 920 could pull roughly 50 fps with max settings, where as my 4930k can pull about 90 fps (this is ofc also due to the 2 additional cores).
Interesting thanks for the info Dorlor. I will keep my eyes out for a 4790 then. I don't intend on overclocking this time though. Prolly will end up sticking with the stock cooler (or are they that bad these days?
If your gonna spend money just go for x99. While your there get yourself a good watercooling setup that will give you longevity of your hardware.
Well, as Veteran says, you might aswell go for a x99 based system - 5820k seems to be the sweetspot. But you deffo dont want to use a stock cooler - spend a bit and get a proper cooler, be it air or Water.
I second this 100 times over. This will be the very best possible upgrade option for you right now. The new Haswell-E chips are great and the lower end model the i7 5820K comes in pretty cheap to be honest for what it gives you. Six core, 12 threads, 3.3 base and 3.6 turbo out the box and it also uses much better TIM under the heat spreader if not solder (not too sure if that is correct) Also get the best AIO your case can house, such as the H100i, H110, or NZXT Kraken X61 and overclock to 4.2GHz+ easily. Just bare in mind that DDR4 right now is painfully expensive, and hold next to no benefits for gaming. But it will mature and speeds will increase and price will come down over time.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/motherboardbundles/view/mbb-4790a.html look anygood Not wanting to spend a lot of money since the increase in performance for games on the new chips wont be very dramatic. I have an Antec 1200 case btw
