Worth the money?

[iskout]

So I recently bought an EVGA GTX 770 (Just before Black Friday-- got it for $300 on Newegg), and I've been struggling to get it to come into it's own ever since.

I'm talking scoring half of what I was scoring with my 470 on 3DMark Vantage, getting 40 FPS on lowest settings at 1920x1080 in GW2 (with fresh drivers, fresh install, on an SSD, etc.). I tried swapping my PSU, running with only a single screen, nothing seemed to work. Finally out of pure curiosity, I changed the PCI-E slot that I was using on my ASRock P67 Professional Fatal1ty. Shouldn't have changed anything, but for some reason, it seemed to work. I'm not getting what I expected, but I'm doing significantly better. I can at least run Diablo 3 on Maximum settings without AA.

During this time, I realized that my overclock on my 2500k had become unstable. I was running at 4.5 with 1.32v, and it was always solid. I've since had to remove the OC, since I started getting BSODs while testing it under Prime95 (I was curious to see if it was unstable, and causing my performance issues).

So, my motherboard might be having issues. It seems to be running reasonably at all stock and using a different PCI-E slot, but I'm fairly certain I'll be getting rid of it soon.


So my question is, is it worth jumping to a new chipset/socket (specifically the 4770k/Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H) for about $515, or do you guys think I should just pick up a new 1155 board? I've been out of the game for a while, and I've come across a lot of conflicting reports about the performance of Haswell, so I figured I'd go to the people I've trusted for years with advice.


One small advantage of getting a new setup is that my mother's computer is in dire need of an upgrade. If I upgrade my own, I can then drop the CPU into hers, if I pick up a cheap H67/H77 motherboard. I was originally only going to get her a modest setup, as she's coming from an E8400 and would appreciate anything more modern, but I haven't decided yet. Really just looking for some input.

[wevsspot]

If your main purpose is gaming you could save money by just going with an i5 4670K and mating it up to a decent Z87 board.  Another alternative to save even more money would be an i5 3570K mated to a decent Z77 board.

 

If you don't have any real need for hyperthreading, you can save the cash and just get one of the i5 series.

 

In the end, there isn't anything wrong continuing to use your 2500K if you could find a board worth your while.  But the fact that you appear to be experiencing some degradation of the processor would make me lean towards "donating" it to your mom at stock settings and getting some new toys for yourself  

[RedFury77]

I don't know if it's worth the money, not for gaming anyway.  

 

How about $65 instead:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-P8P67-PRO-REV-3-0-LGA-1155-Intel-P67-SATA-6Gb-s-USB-3-0-/151223593294?pt=Motherboards&hash=item2335a0e94e

 

 

[dr_bowtie]

have you tried updating the BIOS... you might see if there were issues with newer cards and a new BIOS was released for card functionality...

[iskout]

If your main purpose is gaming you could save money by just going with an i5 4670K and mating it up to a decent Z87 board.  Another alternative to save even more money would be an i5 3570K mated to a decent Z77 board.

 

If you don't have any real need for hyperthreading, you can save the cash and just get one of the i5 series.

 

In the end, there isn't anything wrong continuing to use your 2500K if you could find a board worth your while.  But the fact that you appear to be experiencing some degradation of the processor would make me lean towards "donating" it to your mom at stock settings and getting some new toys for yourself  

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I've been bouncing between a 4670k and a 4770k since last night, and can't decide. I have the money for a 4770k, but I've been considering the 4670k for the same reason I got the 2500k over the 2600k: Save that extra $100 because I don't have any real NEED for hyperthreading. That said, last time I jumped processors it was from an E8400 to a 2500k, so it might be worth spending the extra bit to get a that tiny bit of longevity out of it. I was hoping for my 2500k to last me another year or so, but I don't see any real reason to spend the money on a P67 board, used or not, if I'm just going to replace the CPU in another year anyway.

 

I don't know if it's worth the money, not for gaming anyway.  

 

How about $65 instead:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-P8P67-PRO-REV-3-0-LGA-1155-Intel-P67-SATA-6Gb-s-USB-3-0-/151223593294?pt=Motherboards&hash=item2335a0e94e

That's very tempting, and were I doing a build for a second PC or a backup or something, I'd probably go for it. That said, there's very little that feels as nice as getting brand new hardware.

 

have you tried updating the BIOS... you might see if there were issues with newer cards and a new BIOS was released for card functionality...

That's a good point. I'll look into it tonight.

 

[IVIYTH0S]

Definitely keep your 2500K (or give it to me ), great chip.

 

See what the bios does for ya and let us know

[iskout]

Well, ASRock hasn't released any BIOS updates since they updated to support Ivy Bridge, nor have I found anyone else reporting compatibility issues with my board.

On the bright side, I've gotten quite a bit of overtime this week, so I might be able to afford picking up a 4770k. Either way, I think I've convinced myself that upgrading is worth it lol

[iskout]

Decided to pick up the 4770k and the UD4H. Got it Wednesday, but I haven't had a chance to throw it in yet. Gonna be an all day affair, and between work and other obligations, I just haven't had the time.


It's a damn pretty board, though.

[wevsspot]

My last two builds have been based on Gigabyte boards.  I had the Z68-UD4 and I sold it off with my 2700K and picked up a Z77-UD5H.  I've loved both of the boards.  Rock solid, problem free.  Hope that you have the same experience and congrats on the new hardware!

[iskout]

My last two builds have been based on Gigabyte boards.  I had the Z68-UD4 and I sold it off with my 2700K and pick up a Z77-UD5H.  I've loved both of the boards.  Rock solid, problem free.  Hope that you have the same experience and congrats on the new hardware!

I'm gonna install them tomorrow (Saturday), since it's the first day off I've had since I got the hardware. I've been so excited that I've set the Gigabyte board next to my desk so I can look at it when I have a minute and just admire it's beauty.

[wevsspot]

IMHO GB usually makes some darn sexy boards.

[iskout]

It's definitely a pretty board.

That said, I'm getting quite frustrated.

I don't consider myself a novice builder. I've built, tested, and repaired in the range of 50-75 systems. I'm having quite the issue with getting this up and running. I can't get any display out of my 770. I know the 770 works, I was literally just using it earlier today. I've got display out of the IGP, but not the GPU. I've even gone so far as to pull the CPU to check for any damage. Everything looks fine. Tried setting UEFI to output first to PCIE 1, but no change. There's a few things that I'm going to try, like swapping PCIE slots, and/or using an older GPU to test, but any suggestions would definitely be welcome.