2nd-Gen Core i7 vs. 8th-Gen Core i7: RIP Sandy Bridge?

[ZackL04]

Hey Steve, great article. Do you think an overclocked 3770k with 2400mhz ram would narrow the gap another 10+ percent?

I know GTA 5 (a cpu limited game) responds well to overclocks and ram speeds. So that game would definitely see an improvement. These new games however I dont have not tested.

Great job as always, happy holidays.

 

[jukeyjunk]

Hey Steve, great article. Do you think an overclocked 3770k with 2400mhz ram would narrow the gap another 10+ percent?

I know GTA 5 (a cpu limited game) responds well to overclocks and ram speeds. So that game would definitely see an improvement. These new games however I dont have not tested.

Great job as always, happy holidays.

The 3770k seems to be right around the i5 8400 in most benchmarks I've seen, maybe being a tad generous here with that take but its close...
Tough to rationalize a complete rebuild back to the top for a relatively minor bump up in top end performance. Unless you want to be 6 years advanced again like the 3770k has gotten us (assuming that holds true).

 

[MonsterZero]

Sad day when an i5 (non K) keeps up with an i7K...

 

[OortCloud]

For me it tends to be less about the CPU being out of date but the motherboards that support it. New features like USB 3, NVMe PCIE slots, Faster RAM etc
Intel cunningly only add support for these in new non-pin-compatible motherboards at which time the old workhorse ends up going to another less fussy family member!

 

[Stingy McDuck]

I just bought an used core i7-4790k last year. I don't overclock it because my case is very small and even with a CryoRig cooling solution I'm just within safe numbers (and I'm guessing this CPU wasn't a good overclocker since it was put on sale). If I was buying today, a core i5-8600K would be a much better choice, but still I haven't seen a good reason to regret my purchase.

My next upgrade will be a faster GPU (I currently have a GTX 970) but I'm waiting for nVidia to release their next line of GPUs to buy the respective GTX xx70 model, which I'm hoping will perform almost as good as the current GTX 1080Ti at a much better price. Maybe a card like that will be bottlenecked by my CPU, but I'll worry about it when the time comes.

 

[oldikes]

Honestly it still seems like a perfectly worthy contender. if you have a 2600k, youre probably still at 1080p too and you certainly dont need a 1070 for 1080p. I personally plan at staying 1080p for a long while yet.

The biggest detriment though is lack of modern features, but honestly you can easily get by with sata drives and traditional USB.

Makes me think that at this point, an 8700k should last a long time, unless the core wars also become a IPC war if AMD can really start competing there too (it got competitively close with ryzen, but ryzen needs to break that voltage wall and get closer to 5GHz if it really wants this kind of longevity).

 

[ardaii]

This proves that Intel has done nothing for the past 7 years. Where is the next gen cpu. Stop selling us the same crap with upgraded ram (ddr4)

 

[DeGeth]

It's not dead yet, I was so kean on a full upgrade to i7 8700k for the last 2 months but then I decided to hold off and just "upgraded" from my old i5 2500k to an i7 2600k @4.5GHz a couple of weeks ago, my ram from 8gb to 16gb then from a GTX 770 Classified to Aorus GTX 1070 and this setup feels like I just built a whole new rig. All I wanted was to play games on high/ultra on my 1080p monitor once again while also having some form of sync enabled to prevent tearing and it does it perfectly. I do plan on upgrading to a new platform within a year or 2, just waiting to see how AMD does with Ryzen+, Ryzen2 (All they have to do is up the clock speeds, an 8 core 16HT capable of running at 4.5GHz would be perfect) and whether or not intel will offer an 8 core mainstream cpu.

 

[Unsweeticetea]

Thought this article was ripping off Hardware Unboxed, then I noticed the author...

 

[Ben Myers]

This article provides a good argument for all to avoid hopping immediately from one CPU generation to the very next one. I bet that Intel won't be thrilled with this comment either, but it is reality.

Between the i7-2600k and the i7-8700k, Intel focused more on reducing power consumption through smaller die processes and smarter on-chip power management. Now, 6 chip generations later, with power and heat dissipation under better control, it is time for Intel to crank up the clock speeds and cache memory.

 

[delrey]

I'm still rockin a i7 960, so I'm even a worse case than the 2600k. However, pair it up with a GPU it can handle (1060 for an example) and it's still a decent gaming rig. I can't run everything on ultra, but it allows me to play BF1 just fine.

 

[elites2012]

I would say, if your still running game well at over 70+fps with the i7 2600k, then their is no need to upgrade for another few years.

 

[Carmaine]

Alot cheaper to buy a new GPU to help push better frame rates. When it gets to a point where it doesn't help much and FPS averages less than 50-60 on medium settings, only then I would consider upgrading the whole thing.

 

[Mike st]

More than happy with my Legendary 2700K @4.6
and since I play everything on 1440 res....I can easily survive next wave of new cpus like 9700K and 2800X
A friend of mine who works at Intel HD1 building here in Hudson MA for 8 years , said everything that came after sandy was pure copy paste, nothing new. They consider 3770k and 7700k the worse of all the Core I cpus. Its IceLake the next sandy he told me, A Cpu that will easily stand the test of time much like sandy did with 2600K/2700K/ of 7+years !!
From what I can tell 8700K will only last for 4 years until it goes completely obsolete. Sad ! I wish I could say Ice lake Cpu arrive in 2018 but that would be a lie. So lets happily wait for 2019 shall we..?

 

[Potato Judge]

Anyone convinced to ditch their 2600k, please feel free to hand it down to me. lol.

 

[Spence1115]

So, on one hand my overclocked 4770K is now looking noticeably slower in some tests compared to an 8700K. On the other hand, with my GTX 1080 and games at max level quality, it seems that the GPU then becomes the bottleneck anyway. I won't be changing the GPU for a while, so I should be perfectly safe for many years to come.

 

[Reehahs]

Wow, this article shows how badly Intel have been shafting the consumers with sub-par improvements. Just 20-30% fps increase over 6 generations?

 

[wiyosaya]

Wow, this article shows how badly Intel have been shafting the consumers with sub-par improvements. Just 20-30% fps increase over 6 generations?

I was thinking along those lines, too. With a 4-core SB-E that I upgraded with a used 6-core Ivy Bridge-E that has 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes , I am set for a while.

The thing is, as I see it, it is pretty easy to say something like, "well, if you have one of these CPUs, you should upgrade your CPU in certain circumstances." However, that does not really tell the whole story.

For anyone with an SB proc, upgrading means new MB, perhaps new RAM, and if you are on Windows, a new license for the OS. IMO, this is not an inexpensive upgrade for just 40% improvement in some games at some resolutions - especially - say, if you have an older GPU. All I have to say to that is WTF? Upgrade? Now? For maybe 40% improvement? I don't think so.

I will wait perhaps a few more years when the improvement in speed is, with AMD back in the competition, something like 400%.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

This article strikes me as a bit odd. This website caters to enthusiasts more than average joe computer users, is that right? That's my understanding anyway. This article seems to be trying to make so-called enthusiasts feel good about a CPU they bought 7 years ago. If you still use a CPU you bought 7 years ago and you consider yourself an enthusiast you ought to be ashamed of yourself. I must not understand what an enthusiast PC user actually is. And this whole article is based upon games and frames-per-second taking into account nothing else. So, it seems to have a very narrow examination window.
I have sold a SandyBridge, an IvyBridge, and most recently a Haswell CPU so that I could use the latest technology without cluttering up my collection of PC relics even more.
As soon as lazy Intel releases their CFL chipsets (for home users) I'll probably be upgrading to that so that I'm not living 7 years in the past.
People are patting themselves on the back for saving a few pennies but are you really saving anything? What's the market value of a 7-year old quad-core CPU now that Ryzen has been released and i3 is the new i5? AMD just deflated the value of your 7-year old CPU by leaps and bounds.

Another thing that bothers me is how these articles are balanced over a single if/else premise as well. If you have X GPU then do nothing, else if you have GPU > X do something. It almost makes the question the whole article is attempting to answer irrelevant.

I'm not trying to be rude but this article just strikes me as odd and some of the responses in the thread. I'm sorry to have to be the bad guy but somebody has to play Devils advocate and keep these discussions honest.

There are probably "other" benefits to keeping/having a 7-year old Intel CPU but this very myopic viewpoint is not one I would use in making my decisions.

As an FYI article, this article is fine. Used as a guide to answer the question about whether or not to upgrade your system, it seems very very niche, narrow and out of place.

 

[Bullwinkle M]

We know that the 2600K still has some fight left in it, but just how much?

Enough to satisfy me.

We know that the 2600K still has some fight left in it, but just how much?

Enough to satisfy me.

You're easily satisfied though Cliffy! It's what we love about you and probably the main reason we've been able to keep you around all these years

Well, I'm not easily satisfied
Newer Computers are nothing more than Locked Down Game consoles with a web browser
Microsoft's Spyware Platform 10 lets you do only what Microsoft allows you to do
Sandy Bridge lets me run serious Pro Audio tools and record "what you hear" with directsound using Windows XP
Vista/7/8 and 10 do not let you use directsound, and XP virtual machines not only destroy Directsound and recording capability, but prevent many games and other useful tools from working properly

Get rid of the Spyware, bring back directsound, let me install "ALL" XP era applications (not just 70% of them) and let me install ANY X86 compatible Operating System on new hardware
THEN Sandy Bridge "MIGHT" be replaced

Untill then, who do you think your kidding?

 

[Bullwinkle M]

I am still rolling with my i5-2500k with a gtx 970 and doing just fine gaming at 1080p and I have no intention of upgrading for 2-3 years yet and maybe longer.

I hear ya
I'm using an Liquid Cooled i5-2500k with 8GB Ram and a 750Ti
Has a Blu-Ray Burner and Boots a stock install of Windows XP from a Samsung 850 Pro in 3 seconds flat
Stock installs of Windows 8 & 10 take 14 seconds or more to boot

Why 8GB Ram?
So I can swap SSD's and boot to Windows 7 / 8 / 10 or Linux whenever I want
Boot drive is on an ESATA+USB power cable for fast SSD swaps
I usually Run Windows 8 or 10 from a Thumbdrive though (Corsair GTX or Sandisk Extreme)

 

[Bullwinkle M]

More than happy with my Legendary 2700K @4.6
and since I play everything on 1440 res....I can easily survive next wave of new cpus like 9700K and 2800X
A friend of mine who works at Intel HD1 building here in Hudson MA for 8 years , said everything that came after sandy was pure copy paste, nothing new. They consider 3770k and 7700k the worse of all the Core I cpus. Its IceLake the next sandy he told me, A Cpu that will easily stand the test of time much like sandy did with 2600K/2700K/ of 7+years !!
From what I can tell 8700K will only last for 4 years until it goes completely obsolete. Sad ! I wish I could say Ice lake Cpu arrive in 2018 but that would be a lie. So lets happily wait for 2019 shall we..?

I Agree
I will most likely spring for an Ice Lake or later, not to replace my Sandy Bridge but to handle the new platform technology
When I can get DDR4 or 5
PCIe 4.0 or 5.0
10nm process or less
USB C / 3.1
Thunderzolt
NVME M.2 Boot drive (prolly Optane)
etc etc etc

In other words, when every single hardware component on my Sandy bridge has been rendered obsolete, THEN and ONLY THEN is it time to embrace the new standards

But a new machine could never "Replace" my Sandy Bridge, it can only provide support for future standards, gimped and Locked Down in hardware (by Intel) to only allow a Windows 10 Spyware Platform to run on it (Not my choice but whatcha gonna do?)

I of course will not honor the Microsoft License Agreement because Microsoft has not proven to me that the Windows closed source code is actually owned by Microsoft

I also consider Extortionware Agreements NULL and VOID!

I also found that man in the middle targeted attacks have only occurred "AFTER" getting Microsoft security updates (Not Before) because "Stock" non-updated copies of Windows MUST be secure for EVERYONE who installs them, but updates allow targeting individuals for attack

I also do not honor Copyrights to Software that Microsoft does not own for Extortionware / Spyware and Malware

Prove me wrong Microsoft !
P R O V E M E W R O N G!

Otherwise, I'll stick to my unlicensed DRM Free copy of Windows
If you don't like it, you know were to find me!

 

[cliffordcooley]

If you don't like it, you know were to find me!

Cartoon Network

 

[Bullwinkle M]

If you don't like it, you know were to find me!

Cartoon Network

Not really...
Windows 10 Fall Creators Update can be downloaded, installed and used without activating or paying for it

You still get updates if you want them
But why would you pay for your own enslavement?

I mean seriously, under the Licensing Agreement, you have FAR less rights than if you "found" a computer with Windows 10 preinstalled and never agreed to anything

What's wrong with this picture?

 

[cliffordcooley]

Not really...

lol - I was joking by referencing your ID.