Speed, Components and Bottlenecking.

[Jake-]

Hello,
This is my PC, Intel Core i5 2500K /-\ 32Gb 1600mhz RAM /-\ Asus P8Z68/GEN 3
2x 256Gb Crucial M4 /-\ Crossfire XFX HD Radeon 7950 Black DD
Sound blaster Z as seen in my signature.

I worry that my 3GB GPU's, 32GB ram and SSD's are being bottlenecked by my i5 2500k. What do you think?

I don't have endless money, but next month i should have enough to buy a i7 3770k, but then i worry that my Asus P8Z68/GEN 3 board wont handle it as effectively as it should? or is there little difference between this and a Z77?

I don't want to, but i will wait till next year (predicted august) for the 5th gen, and kit myself out with new mobo and CPU? but then will my other specs be lagging behind?

Opportunity Cost, need some help evaluating.

 

[BikerEcho]

The difference between Z68 and Z77 is almost nothing. you can put in the 3770K without problems.
If your manual (the one that came with your board) doesn't state anything about third gen CPU's, then you should properly check if you need a BIOS update before replacing the CPU. It would suck if you replaced the CPU and the PC didn't boot.... then you will have to switch back again to do a BIOS update.

I don't think your I5 is bottlenecking anything. it's still a good CPU. heck, i am still using my I7-920. (overclocked to 3,2 ghz) it might bottleneck my GPU a little.

Your i5 can't possible bottleneck your RAM. and your SSD is more depended on it's own performance and the SATA standard it's connected to than anything else.

 

[GhostGT]

Jake,

It all depends on what you're doing. In terms of anything "bottlenecking" your system, it does seem like the weakest link would be the i5. At the same time, however, I don't see many mainstream situations where your GPU, RAM, and HDs would be maxed out to their full potential, and where the i5 would be struggling.

I don't think you should upgrade anything at this time. If you really feel like the i5 is the problem, try overclocking it a bit. Back in the day, my Q6600 wasn't the fastest processor on the market, but I sure didn't consider it a bottleneck compared to my RAM/HD at the time.

 

[SethWilliams]

What programs are you running that are maxing out your machine? I would look at what is actually "bottlenecking" your machine when it is running slow. I would use Windows Resource Monitor. That should tell you a lot when your machine is running at its max load.