Upgrading from an Intel Core i7-2600K: Testing Sandy Bridge in 2019
by Ian Cutress on May 10, 2019 10:30 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Sandy Bridge
- Overclocking
- 7700K
- Coffee Lake
- i7-2600K
- 9700K
Test Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
| Test Setup | |||||
| Intel | i7-9700K | ASRock Z370 Pro Gaming i7 |
P3.20 | TRUE Copper | Corsair Vengeance 4x8GB DDR4-2666 |
| Intel | i7-7700K | GIGABYTE X170 Extreme-ECC |
F21e | Silverstone AR10-115XS* |
G.Skill RipjawsV 2x16GB DDR4-2400 |
| Intel | i7-2600K (OC) | ASRock Z77 OC Formula |
P2.40 | TRUE Copper | GeIL Evo Veloce 2x8GB DDR3-2400 |
| Intel | i7-2600K | ASRock Z77 OC Formula |
P2.40 | TRUE Copper | G.Skill Ares 4x4 GB DDR3-1333 |
| GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
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| PSU | Corsair AX860i Corsair AX1200i |
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| SSD | Crucial MX200 1TB | ||||
| OS | Windows 10 x64 RS3 1709 Spectre and Meltdown Patched |
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| *VRM Supplimented with SST-FHP141-VF 173 CFM fans | |||||
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.
| Hardware Providers | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Silverstone Fans |
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xrror - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
I'd wait and see how Zen2 clocks later this year if you're itching to upgrade. If they can manage some 12 and 16 thread parts with base speeds over 4.5Ghz around the $300 mark it's going to get rather interesting ;)Mind you, I don't honestly know if that will happen. If it's more "4Ghz base, 5.xGhz turbo" then that's... process node disappointment again. More notebook chips that can't crunch full thread loads (again).
Worst case though, the 4790K you have now isn't a bad chip at all to be "stuck" with. Unless your paranoid about power, overclock that to 4.5Ghz and you'll probably be good to wait another year or two if zen2 doesn't end up being compelling to you.
Targon - Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - link
What's the base speed on Intel chips? What do you see for the base speed on second generation Ryzen chips? If AMD has a BASE speed of 4.0GHz with boost to 4.8-5.0GHz, that is going to be a lot better than anything Intel has on the desktop.gglaw - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
Very fun article to read since most of us here very likely went through a 2600K phase or still have one, but why did you not include super popular newer games that are known to scale better with memory bandwidth, thread count, etc? Overwatch and BF5 to name a couple. Especially OW has gotten very big in the competitive scene and there is so much out there on every type of setting and scaling to compare and scales almost infinitely with memory bandwidth so just the change from DDR3 to DDR4 is drastic.TelstarTOS - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
8700k and 9900k missing from the comparison. Anyway i did upgrade from my 2600k@4.8 to a 9900k@5.2. Doubling cores AND threads makes a huge difference. The SB platform is really old.mode_13h - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
Thanks for this. It's relevant to my interests.Awful - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
Great article. Still running a 2500K @ 4.8GHz- talk about good value! Holding out for Zen 2 / Ryzen 3000 to replace it with what will hopefully be another long lasting winner...Joshthornton - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
"Intel also launched its first overclockable dual core with hyperthreading, the Core i3-7350K". If I remember correctly , the 655k was multiplier unlocked and the entire westmere line was bclk overclockable making this statement not quite true. It should say, "their first overclockable dual core with hyperthreading in almost 9 years", or "the first modern dual core with hyperthreading that is truly overclockable/unlocked."xrror - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
I had to look that up, the 655K keeps showing up as an i5 though?Rajinder Gill's Anandtech article:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/3742/intels-core-i5...
Joshthornton - Saturday, May 11, 2019 - link
Yep, but it's also a dual core w/HT. The first gen core i series was a but different . The 750 is when you stepped up to 4 cores.Peskarik - Saturday, May 11, 2019 - link
Reading this article on 2600K. Ha!