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
Gaming: Final Fantasy XV
Upon arriving to PC earlier this, Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition was given a graphical overhaul as it was ported over from console, fruits of their successful partnership with NVIDIA, with hardly any hint of the troubles during Final Fantasy XV's original production and development.
In preparation for the launch, Square Enix opted to release a standalone benchmark that they have since updated. Using the Final Fantasy XV standalone benchmark gives us a lengthy standardized sequence to record, although it should be noted that its heavy use of NVIDIA technology means that the Maximum setting has problems - it renders items off screen. To get around this, we use the standard preset which does not have these issues.
Square Enix has patched the benchmark with custom graphics settings and bugfixes to be much more accurate in profiling in-game performance and graphical options. For our testing, we run the standard benchmark with a FRAPs overlay, taking a 6 minute recording of the test.
| AnandTech CPU Gaming 2019 Game List | ||||||||
| Game | Genre | Release Date | API | IGP | Low | Med | High | |
| Final Fantasy XV | JRPG | Mar 2018 |
DX11 | 720p Standard |
1080p Standard |
4K Standard |
8K Standard |
|
All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
| AnandTech | IGP | Low | Medium | High |
| Average FPS |  |
 |
 |
 |
| 95th Percentile |  |
 |
 |
 |
For Final Fantasy, all chips performed essentially the same from 4K upwards (the OC run failed at 8K for some reason), but at 1080p resolutions the OC chip still sits between the 2600K/7700K at stock almost easily in the middle.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
213 Comments
View All Comments
fangdahai - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
Same here, 3770. It's still fast enough......at least no big difference with the last Intel CPU.Fallen Kell - Saturday, May 11, 2019 - link
Yeah. In many cases it is very sad when you look at this article. It has effectively taken a decade to finally get to the point that there is a worthwile upgrade in CPU performance. Prior to this, we were seeing CPU performance double every couple of years. A case in point is to look at an article from 2015 that did a comparison of CPUs over the last decade (i.e. ~2005 - 2015) and over that timeframe you saw a 6x performance increase in memory bandwidth and 8x - 10x CPU computational increase. But looking from 2011 to 2019 we barely see a doubling in performance (and then only on select use cases), while at the same time the price of said CPU is 25% more. It is no wonder why people have not been upgrading. Why spend $1000 for new CPU, motherboard, RAM to only gain 25-40% performance? We are just finally hitting that point now that people start to consider it worth that price.That all being said, it would have been nice to have included at least 1 AMD CPU in theses benchmarks for comparison. Sure, we can go to the review bench to get it, but having it here for some easy comparison would have been nice, especially given how Intel has seemed to have decided to innovating and purposely taking a dive (almost as if they feared regulatory actions from the USA/EU for effectively being a "monopoly" and to avoid such actions decided to simply stop releasing anything really competitive until AMD was able to get their act together again and have a competitive CPU...).
Zoomer - Thursday, June 13, 2019 - link
Funny thing is, last time it happened, Intel needed AMD to give it a kick in the nuts. Maybe this time too?mode_13h - Saturday, May 11, 2019 - link
I figured I'd wait for PCIe 4.0, to upgrade. With Zen2, I guess my chance is here.Wardrop - Saturday, May 11, 2019 - link
Yep, same. Hoping to replace my 3770k with Zen 2. Looking to down-size my chassis too with a Sliger case. Hopefully Zen 2 doesn't disappoint.Marlin1975 - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
Still running my 3770 as I have not seen that large a difference to upgrade. But Zen+ had me itching and Zen2 is what will finally replace my 3770/Z77 system.That and its not just about the CPU but also the upgrades in chipset/USB/etc... parts.
gambiting - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
Still have a 2600(not even the K model) running in a living room PC, paired with a GTX1050Ti and an SSD - runs everything without any issues, been playing Sekiro and Division 2 on it without any problems, locked 1080p@60fps. Progress is all good and fine, but these "old" CPUs have loads of life in them still.Potatooo - Wednesday, May 15, 2019 - link
Me too. I haven't had much time for video games the last couple of years to justify $$$, but putting a 1050ti in an old i2600 office PC has kept me happy the last 18 month's or so (eg 55ish fps for Far Cry 5 ND medium/1080, 70 fps+ Forza 7/FH4 high/1080). I'm about to try a S/H RX580 which will probably be a bridge too far, but at least I'll get freesync.GNUminex_l_cowsay - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
Dare I look at the CIV 6 benchmarks; knowing they are pointless? What sort of idiot tests cpu performance in CIV 6 using FPS rather than turn times? I don't know who specifically but they write for anandtech.RealBeast - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
Certainly not a Civ 6 player. ;)