Upgrading to i3-3220 Ivy from i3-2100 Sandy,worth it?

shinigami8671 · 07 Oct 2012

i can't find anything solid when i looked it up on google. Every forum i saw was BEFORE the release of ivy i3's and they are simply speculating but even then they say it is 10% faster.
Anyways,i can sell my current i3 2100 which i bought barely 2 months ago for about 106 US$ and get an i3 322- @3.3Ghz for about 129$. The question is,should i?
Previously i had an Asrock Extreme 4 gen motherboard and it had a few Pci 3.0 slots and everywhere i read it said that all supported GPU like 7770 will give twice the performance on 3.0 slot IF the processor was Ivy.
Im always looking to experiment with these things,ive tried countless GPUs,CPU's and motherboards in hope's to find that perfect build which will cost the LEAST for a new PC gamer and give maximum performance . I think this might just be it. Even with the 2100 it never "bottleneck'ed" my system,it was always my GTX 460 which was lacking.
Anyways need your opinion,and would LOVE to hear from someone who has actually had experience with both or at least the i3-3220 processor.

My current system is as mentioned in my profile,what im hoping to build is:
i3-3220
Any motherboard good for Ivy bridge processors
8GB (2x4GB) Crosair XMS3 DDR3 1600Fsb Ram
either 7750 or 7770 depending on the availability and budget left

What i hope to achieve is about 40% increase in performance OVERALL because the processor is faster as it is,GPU will run at much higher speeds,Rams will also run at 1600Fsb on stock etc and everything is for ivy i.e new tech ya know.

essenbe · 07 Oct 2012

The short answer to your question is it's not worth the expense if you already have a Sandy Bridge. The processers are not faster, they are 10% more efficient. The speeds are a few 100MHz faster, but that is nothing. I have a 2500K, 2600K and a 3770K and had a 3570K. I can tell you they are more efficient but not enough to justify the change. Oh, and yes they will overclock as well as Sandy (contrary to the reviews), but you better invest in a top quality cooler, they will get 10-15C hotter than Sandy, running stress tests. I know that is not what you want to hear, but it is true. I can do nothing with the 3770K I could not do with the 2600K, or the 2500K for that matter. And the PCIe 3.0 won't make much, if any difference to your graphics cards. The new cards are PCIe 3.0, but they still are not faster than PCIe 2.0 is capable of. My experience with a GTX 670 is you may see a few points in a benchmark, but actual usage, no difference. In fact, my highest Mark 3D 11 score was with a 2600K and the 670.

Pedroc1999 · 07 Oct 2012

^great answer +1

essenbe · 07 Oct 2012

Thanks.

bigmck · 07 Oct 2012

Use that money you were going to spend and buy a SSD. You will see more speed from that.

shinigami8671 · 08 Oct 2012

damn,i really thought i was onto something here

SSD it is then!