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PCGAF: Past 10 Years of Intel Processors Compared

Pleased to still see so much love for the 2500k. There's a sad moment every generation where I have to accept that my current set up is out of date - my 2500k has kept that moment at bay for, what, four years, and still going strong? Amazing.
 
I bought an i7 930 in 2010 and it was still extremely viable @ 3.9 Ghz when I replaced it and the i7 920 which for all intents and purposes is the same chip was actually released at the end of 2008.

I STILL have this cpu. I put it in a build for my wife and it still holds up. She only plays MMO's and my old 780 is in there not and she can maxe everything out when she plays. It's one of the best values I've gotten from any sub $300 electronic purchases I've ever made. Great CPU. Looking to replace it this coming black friday and just have it as a dedicated streaming PC.
 
Silicon has reached it's limits and competition is mostly in mobile. We'll see big jumps in performance with newer technologies, starting around 5 years from now I think. There's a lot of applications that need 100x faster compute, like advanced AI and genetics. Even mobile computing is going to drive faster performance soon when 5G needs crazy fast CPUs to process large RF bands and synchronize millions of devices in our every day lives. Really we're in the dark ages of performance - once germanium and graphene replace/augment silicon we're back to the 80s and in months stuff will get obsolete.

Mostly the reason to upgrade from an 1st generation i7 to a Haswell or Skylake has been chipset features. PCIe, USB, and SATA have advanced quite a bit even if single threaded performance is barely 30% faster.
 
I got my i7-970 as some kind of promotional deal by working for Geek Squad (nabbed it for $200, came with a sweet heat sink/fan), so it's interesting to see that the difference between that (I assume it sits slightly above the 870) and the 4790k still isn't all that much.
Intel retail edge? I think that's how i got mine and the gen2 sad I'm still using
 
I just recently built a new pc.

I went from an i5 750 to an i7 5820k.

The 5820k is at stock right now but in the future I may try to OC it to 4.0Ghz if my Hyper 212 Evo will allow it.

I still use my old pc for web browsing and on the rare occasion a family member wants to play a game it's the system I let them use.

I expect my 5820k to last me a long time. It was a noticeable step up from my i5 750.

But I don't think I'll ever see another performance jump like I did the last time I upgraded.

I went from a Pentium 4 to the i5 750. Saying it was a big step up would be an understatement.
 
Was a 2600k user myself until I was witching to an mATX SLI build.
I was able to get a great SLI mATX mainboard for cheap (almost got the previous gen model with a 1155 sockel but someone was faster) and I had to sell my old cpu and mainboard.
The differences between my old i7 2600k @4,4ghz and my i7 4790k @stock are minimal at best (in gaming at least).
Maybe there are a few programs that run a bit better and faster but honestly it's not worth the money in my opinion.
Do not upgrade if you have an 2500k or above is my recommendation especially overclocked and with the current situation with X12.
Wait until it's absolute and invest into a better other hardware (like a screen, equipment or gpu).
 
I've had my 2500k since May 2011, first OC'd it to 4GHz back then and eventually bumped it to 4.5 I think a couple years ago. I know they're out there but I think I've only played one or two games that have really taxed it and one is Cities: Skylines for obvious reasons.

It's crazy to me that this CPU could be good (or good enough) for gaming four another three to five years. Thanks current console gen!
 
I have an core i5 750 2.61ghz, 12gb of ram and the gtx680 2gb. I noticed sometimes some games have issues, stuttering frames. considered that maybe I have a bottle neck on my processor/mobo. would it worth the 500$ for me to get a new mobo/cpu right now? or should I wait longer to consider upgrading?

I just updated to Windows 10 and I noticed that some games are slower fps when using multiple monitors and running 1080p video steams (GDQ hehe) so I figured it would be important to update the CPU to make sure I get the best performance for win 10. or maybe the 680 isn't up for it? I dunno.
 
Just built an i7 5820k build yesterday. Even if Gen 6 i7 is around the corner I know that my Gen 4 will last for a numbers of years especially if things get more multi threaded.
 
You will have to take my i5 2500K from my dead, cold fingers.

I finally OC'ed it (@4.3 - not max, but I get to keep my original vcore) last year, I couldnt believe how easy it was nor how significant the gain has been since then.
 
I5/I7 chips are freaking brilliant. I love Intel I am a horrible die hard fan. I wish they had better competition they need to be driven and motivated more.
 
I5/I7 chips are freaking brilliant. I love Intel I am a horrible die hard fan. I wish they had better competition they need to be driven and motivated more.

yes, Intel basically haven't had any real competition since the core2(in the speed department) :-(


also the graph in OP is wrong since it only covers 8 years
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600
Launch Date Q3'06

Intel® Core™ i7-4790K Processor
Launch Date Q2'14
 
I didn't think that when I bought my Q9450 in 2008 that I'd still be using it in 2015.
 
i7 930 @ 4.2 Ghz since 2010, before that a q6600 @ 3.2 Ghz. I really see no reason to upgrade for quite some time unless I am getting below 60fps in some games due to the proc (only happens with one game so far)
 
Impressive that 2011 CPUs still run everything fine even now.
With DX12 I wonder what kind of transformation the CPU landscape will undergo. I assume 2011- CPUs will be enough (even at stock clocks) to shift the bottleneck to the GPU unless devs take advantage of that new CPU headroom for some crazy CPU intensive effects.
 
2600k oced to 4.4ghz owner. I'm really just buying Skylake for the hell of it and for VR. Barring part failure, this PC will probably last me at least another 6 years for day to day computing such as web browsing.
 
Home desktop had a i7 920 since 2012 or 2011.
Don't really feel the need to upgrade, I would just like more RAM.

That might change next week though.
I should be getting a new PC at work (some i7 5xxx 24GB DDR4 monster) to replace my i7 870 and I might suddenly become unhappy about my home PC.
 
Been using an i7 3770K in my latest build and so far I love it. I don't think I'll have to upgrade my CPU for years to come.
 
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