Am I getting old or is the i7 920 just that good?

[JayDeeHobbit]

For a long time I would upgrade every 1 1/2 - 2 years but I've had my i7 920 for 4 years in January and still find no fault with it.

I can OC it to 3.6ghz without hitting the voltages and I've never had any stability issues at all in those four years.

The newest game I've played is Skyrim with no issues. My everyday game is LOTRO and it isn't very demanding so no problems there at all.

I've thought about upgrading just for the fun of it but the 920 still purrs like a kitten... So am I just getting old or is the ole 920 just that good?
I'm going to say it's that good.

Dang... I need to change my Depends...

[sswilson]

The last few years haven't really produced a game changer on the CPU front. Most of the improvements since i7 have been incremental (although I suspect power usage differences would be huge... ;) ).

[jibz]

People sell 920 platforms (920/mobo/6gb ram) for around 250 and I still have no problem picking them up and making a gaming rig from them. Definitely still good CPUs.

[JJThomp]

Still pretty good CPU's in certain games you might wish you had something a little better (GW2 is actually the only one I can think of off hand) but any FPS and most MMO's it will rock hard.

[AkG]

The X58 + 920 combo was very potent. The only reason to start thinking about upgrading is for native SATA 6GB/s ports....with TRIM support (ie x58 sata 3gb/s are TRIM enabled...but all sata 6gb/s ports are via 3rd party controllers). THAT and the mega reduction in power and heat output. I know my 920 is one HOT running mofo.

[chrisk]

Heh....I got a 970@4.0 and have been looking to upgrade it just because as well. Just can't bring myself to do it.

At least with a 920 you can make the excuse to get a few extra cores in a 3930k for some transcoding/folding etc.

[Bond007]

As has been said, all CPU upgrades have been incremental because of the focus to reduce power consumption and improve integrated graphics over the last few years. If you aren't feeling the need to upgrade, then don't. An upgrade to a new i7 at this point would get you double digit performance improvement, along with lowered power consumption and support for all the advances in tech over the last few years. Nothing night and day though.

[Photograph]

I feel the same way about the three year old i7 860 in my workstation, even the i5 750 in my gaming rig is still able to handle anything I throw at it with ease. I too upgraded every 18-24 months for the last 15 years and I can not remember going for so long without the need for more CPU power*. I do not foresee upgrading to a new platform for at least another year or two, unless I suddenly come across a pile of money I don't know what else to do with. Good job Intel.


*outside of folding and rendering of course

[Raviolissimo]

it's hard to notice a difference between a 920 and a 3930K (or Xeon Equivalent) on CPU intensive tasks.

on combined CPU/GPU intensive tasks (e.g. scrubbing playhead in animation program like 3D Max), the new GPU's do combine with the CPU to give a better ... well it's just better.


anyway, yeah, the 920 is GREAT ! - except maybe for power consumption.

80 watt E5645 Xeon (6 core with HT) keeps up with 125 watt (or is it 150 ?) 920.

whether that is relevant depends on the season, what kind of heat you have in your office/ house, how much you pay, whether you're "off-grid" (100% solar or steam-powered), etc.

[Soullessone21]

I just "Drop down to a i7 920" from my last few rigs of a 3770k 3570k 1090t 8150 and 16core C32 and you know what.. they all feel the exact same. they all maxed out every game and load up fast and do everything without a single slow down.

The only time I see a difference in my 16core rig slows down if I forget to set node 8-15 to OS only and 0-7 for the game I'm playing. plus the 16 core can edit video's and music far faster then any of the others.

Stick with the 920 its damn good still. For me its the GPU that changes the game and a good SSD.

All my rigs run on high end SSD's Neutron GTX's are awesome. Cards wise I went from a 3870 x2 - 6870 - 6970 xfire and that runs great. in my gaming rig I run a 660ti OC and its bullet proof have zero issues with it and maxing games out.

Keep the CPU upgrade the GPU and hdd :)