Retro review: Core i7 2600K Tested in 2018 - Time to upgrade?

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Mar 22, 2018.

  1. waltc3

    waltc3 Maha Guru

    Messages:
    1,445
    Likes Received:
    562
    GPU:
    AMD 50th Ann 5700XT
    Who cares?...;) Don't like what the bar charts tell you, but you like the performance you get with your current hardware? Good--so stop reading the bar-chart, frames-per-second sections in cpu reviews. (Your insecurities are showing...) Sure, you may be right that most people still using older platforms/cpus do indeed OC--but you have forgotten that the same rule applies to people using the latest hardware as well, I guess. So...the approximate performance ratios hold, oc'ing included. I was happy with my FX-8320e for years, but overclocked or not, it is no match for my current R5 1600...(which overclocks to 3.8GHz with a simple multiplier change.)

    Still, as HH demonstrated, it's not just the cpu--the entire platform changes when upgrading. The good part of that is the performance increases--the bad part, of course, is the expense. Depending on which cpu you opt for, DDR4 ram can cost as much as the cpu, if not more. But even with older hardware, if you game at decent resolutions like 2560x1440 and up, you are limited to the performance of the GPU and it almost doesn't matter which cpu you use these days--or GPU, for that matter--as performance differences among GPUs at QHD and up are small indeed.

    But is ~$600 (for new motherboard, ram, and cpu) really too much to spend on a new computer? Replace just those three components--keep the rest--and a "new computer" is what you get.
     
    liesenberg and Dragondale13 like this.
  2. Muaddib

    Muaddib Guest

    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    Rx 470 8GB
    wow i cannot believe you guys didnt include the Legendary 2700K mine's still operational at 4.8 Ghz and its easily faster than my buddy's 4770K.
    Yes my newly AMD 2600X order will be way faster but only in multythreading and multitasking operations.
     
  3. Dragondale13

    Dragondale13 Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    1,527
    Likes Received:
    244
    GPU:
    GTX 1070 AMP! • H75
    Especially like that last part.
    If my current ddr3 2133 cl9 memory couldn't do 2400 cl10, yeah I'd be singing a different song.
     
  4. Angantyr

    Angantyr Master Guru

    Messages:
    901
    Likes Received:
    315
    GPU:
    MSI 2070 Super X
    Wouldn't it be more likely they had some Z77 boards laying around? If I remember right, the difference between Z68 & Z77 was USB 3.0 integration with the Z77 boards.
     
    Loophole35 likes this.

  5. H83

    H83 Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    5,465
    Likes Received:
    3,003
    GPU:
    XFX Black 6950XT
    Nice review. It´s always nice to read stuff like this to better understand how performance between several generations of CPUs have evolved.

    For me is no surprise to see the 2600K performing so well because an year ago i was still rocking an overclocked Q9550 and if that thing still performed like a champ, then a 2600K is going to perform even better. I was thinking about selling my Q9550 system but now i´m thinking about using again for something, don´w know what.

    Anyway great review and kudos for every 2600K owner still making use of this little beast!
     
    Brasky likes this.
  6. StewieTech

    StewieTech Chuck Norris

    Messages:
    2,537
    Likes Received:
    934
    GPU:
    MSI gtx 960 Gaming
    i5 4670k@4.4 here. Cant find a reason to upgrade just yet. Intel had no real competetion for far too long so great leaps of technology were not done. So im still fine.
     
  7. Robbo9999

    Robbo9999 Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    1,855
    Likes Received:
    442
    GPU:
    RTX 3080
    Interesting article & good to hear that you will be trying to include OC results in there when you update the board. I feel that the OC results are the only really relevant results though, because I can't believe there are any gamers here with a 2600K that they're not running at a maximum overclock, especially nowadays that it needs all the help in performance it can get. Even max overclocked 2600K vs stock more modern CPUs are a valid comparison because people are less likely to OC newer CPUs as they have enough power, so would be great to see this inclusion in this article - it's the only way to make it relevant for how people use their 2600K's (in my eyes).

    I had expected the 2600K to game at higher fps than what we saw in this article, I wonder if a healthy max overclock can go a long way to make up the difference. The RAM also looked like a slow variety. My Sandybridge laptop has got 1866Mhz DDR3 RAM, faster RAM should help the gaming performance, and might be interesting to see faster RAM in this article too.
     
  8. vbetts

    vbetts Don Vincenzo Staff Member

    Messages:
    15,140
    Likes Received:
    1,743
    GPU:
    GTX 1080 Ti
    You would be very surprised. My girlfriends brother bought a prebuilt with a 6850k, not only was it running on a tiny 120mm AIO closed loop, the fan controller wasn't even plugged in and there were no settings changed in the bios to overclock it at all. XMP wasn't even enabled.

    Aside from gearing towards overclocks, Intel marketed these CPU's are gamer cpu's even if you didn't overclock.
     
    fantaskarsef likes this.
  9. Robbo9999

    Robbo9999 Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    1,855
    Likes Received:
    442
    GPU:
    RTX 3080
    Yeah, but most people on here with 2600K's are definitely overclocking - this is an enthusiast site, so there are no stock 2600K's here, well maybe only a couple! :)
     
  10. vbetts

    vbetts Don Vincenzo Staff Member

    Messages:
    15,140
    Likes Received:
    1,743
    GPU:
    GTX 1080 Ti
    lol True but we aren't the majority. If we were, then the guru3d clan in games would be huge!!!!!!

    Which, we need to get started again in some games....
     

  11. DrCrow

    DrCrow Member

    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    2
    GPU:
    GB GTX 770
    2500K @4.5 / 2x4 1600Mhz DDR3 / Nvidia GTX 770 4GB It was enough for 1080p games in most cases. if you are game modding fan like a TES5 - Fallout4 - ETS 2 - DCS World - Prepar3D etc...sometimes you are dealing with graphics softwares and doing your own mods this system not enough trust me :)
     
  12. airbud7

    airbud7 Guest

    Messages:
    7,833
    Likes Received:
    4,797
    GPU:
    pny gtx 1060 xlr8
    I need that board Loop ...member sykozis gave me his 2600k 3 years ago its still in this
    ASRock H61ICAFE ....lol ...he said it would do 4.4 all day ...
     
    Loophole35 likes this.
  13. cowie

    cowie Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    13,276
    Likes Received:
    357
    GPU:
    GTX
    it sucks that the board don't clock because it would have been more interesting
    but pretty cool that you did test it old school
    I sorta miss the multi binning with sb the lowest I found was a 51 best was a 56 what a chip even with just cool air it would bench all weekend at max multi
    still have my p67 ud7 its got a busted ram slot but it worked before I got rid of the platform
    even today it would be fine day to day for me
     
  14. Loophole35

    Loophole35 Guest

    Messages:
    9,797
    Likes Received:
    1,161
    GPU:
    EVGA 1080ti SC
    I'll send it your way. PM me your info. Do you need some 1866Mhz 8GB x2 ram to go with it?
     
    airbud7 likes this.
  15. Koniakki

    Koniakki Guest

    Messages:
    2,843
    Likes Received:
    452
    GPU:
    ZOTAC GTX 1080Ti FE
    Thanks boss! Every time I've seen a performance comparison or a re-test of the 2600k in the last 4-5 years either on YT or tech sites, it's always been a pleasure to read and always end up thinking, damn what a cpu still!

    Can't explain why exactly but that CPU holds a special place in my mind. Could be because I had the most fun OCing it, up to that point in time. :p

    I think I spent most of the time I had it OCing/tweaking and benchmarking, up to the point that even the 3770K had been released by then. lol
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2018

  16. erm

    erm Guest

    Messages:
    396
    Likes Received:
    1
    GPU:
    GeForce GTX 560 1GB
    Nice review Hilbert ! if someone wanted to give me the 2600k with his motherboard, I would be really happy ... I really need it ... thanks guys, and excuse me for my audacity :(
     
  17. meran

    meran Guest

    Messages:
    281
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    sapphire 5850 2gb @850
    Nice review Hilbert, actually, I still have the 2500k running at 4.6GHZ with 24GB memory running at 2200 cas 10 I just ran CPU-z bench I got 1800 multicore and 465 single core performance...
     
  18. airbud7

    airbud7 Guest

    Messages:
    7,833
    Likes Received:
    4,797
    GPU:
    pny gtx 1060 xlr8
    Love you Bro! ...this is best computer hardware forum out there ...I truly love this place...

    Thanks Hilbert! ...
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2018
  19. BlackZero

    BlackZero Guest

    As you say, it's really a case of many people here being gaming minded, and so the only real bottleneck is the CPU's ability to feed the latest graphics cards at gaming resolutions, which a 30-40% overclock really should manage to do.

    So, well, is spending a minimum of £500 for effectively the same performance really necessary when you're not really concerned with many of the newer platform improvements.
     
    DeskStar likes this.
  20. Denial

    Denial Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    14,206
    Likes Received:
    4,118
    GPU:
    EVGA RTX 3080
    You guys have nearly the same avatar - just 2 frames apart.. I thought walt was responding to himself at first.
     
    fantaskarsef, airbud7 and Embra like this.

Share This Page