I built my first computer about two and a half years ago and my build consists of an EVGA P67 FTW mobo, the i7 2600k, 16 GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM, and I had two EVGA GTX 660 Ti Superclocked cards at the time. I have since upgraded to two EVGA GTX 780 SCs and don't really know if the CPU would bottleneck or if I could get away with this for a few more years. I don't really overclock, hence my use of the factory superclocked cards. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
i7-2600k is competitive with current i7s. You wouldn't see much of a performance gain. It should handle a couple of cards comfortably.
Well, I figured I'd join in on this, Should I upgrade my i7-870? :p
You could justify an upgrade. However, the i7-870 has got plenty of performance for gaming. You wouldn't notice much of a difference with most single card configurations. You should only upgrade if you want the new interface stadnards. Some people say they require USB 3.0, but I am not so sure lol. I think most people would be happy to hold onto the 870 for another year or two.
Depends, what gpu do you have?
I want to get an 8350, But I am waiting because AMD needs to make a move and I'm waiting for that. ;)
For gaming, you wouldn't really see much performance difference, just a few FPS. I would wait for one or two more generations of Intel, or wait to see if AMD will continue their AM3+/high end cpus.
Apparently, AMD will make additions to the FX line in 2016. That might seem like a long time, but that's really 18 months away. Personally, I would wait until closer to that time. There won't be much of a performance improvement with anything from AMD nor Intel, currently.
Full specs on my page.
Ah. Your cpu is plenty fast for up to a 760 or so, I say. I've read several posts saying that first gen i7's arn't enough for a meaty card like a 770.
Yeah, In the future I plan on an 770 4GB FTW, or an 870 when they come out
Awesome. Thanks for the advice, guys.
okay, so we know upgrading from an i7 2600k to a current gen i7 based on cpu performance isn't really easily justifiable. but I have an i5 2500k overclocked to 4.3 ghz.... is the jump from a sandy bridge i5 to a haswell i7 justifiable? I run dual 7950's @ 950 mhz core. they are very close together though and the top card gets rather warm, maybe the change in mobo to one with an extra slot between the pci-e lanes justifies the upgrade?
I'm going to vote absolutely no.
Not realy worth to upgrade, i5-2500k and i7-2600k are still good cpu´s. you won´t gain much fps wenn you upgrade to the current gen i5 / i7´s. GPU is still the most important part wenn it comes to gaming.
I would say, wait for skylake, or the new upcomming AMD´s.
I'd say your money would be better spent on a decent aftermarket cooler and maybe experimenting with overclocking (might as well try it). Even if you don't over clock, a good cooler is nice to have.
I actually have a Zalman CPU cooler (can't remember which model off the top of my head).
2600k and that mobo..... drool. That is a f'n sick oc board OP! Cpu upgading can boot off, oc your 2600k to 5.0 and be done with it (with good cooling of course). Sandy's will be holding their head high for a long time yet.
My friend that helped me build it assured me I would be able to travel through time with it. I haven't experienced that yet, but I've definitely been happy with it.
I'd suggest just overclocking your 2600k and it will last a couple of more years for sure.