I7-920 vs I7-960

[RickSinGA 1]

I am currently using a I7-920 running at 3.864 using a H-50 cooler. The system is stable, no BS in over 6 months. In FSX I see it occasionally hit 4.1, but just for a brief second or two. I have added 13 Saitek USB devices and the most recent 6 Flight Information Panels have reduce my FPS significantly running high video settings. I know I am CPU bound and am considering the least expensive upgrade path. I have considered water-cooling but would rather not get into that if a simple CPU change would give me equal or better results. I see Microcenter has 960's available for $179. Could I expect to be able to get the same boost for the 906 that I am getting from the 920; stock 2.6G to 3.8G? That would mean 4.3 to 4.5 on the 960 with the same cooler?Thanks for any help.Rick S.GTX-480; 6g TripleChannel, Win-7 64

[alainneedle1 97]

The least expensive upgrade you can do to your rig is to overclock your 920 to 4.2GHz, from 3.8GHz to 4.2GHz you'll see a difference in FSX, the 920 can get there easy.If you are not satisfied after that you can always buy something new.

[RickSinGA 1]

The least expensive upgrade you can do to your rig is to overclock your 920 to 4.2GHz, from 3.8GHz to 4.2GHz you'll see a difference in FSX, the 920 can get there easy.If you are not satisfy after that you can always buy something new.

I cannot keep it stable with my current hardware any where close to 4.0. I have used the guides avail here for the 920 OC'ing but can't get those speeds?My understanding is that I should be able to get at least 4.3 and maybe 4.5 with my hardware on the 960, that should help shouldn't it?ThanksRick S.

[dazz 69]

I cannot keep it stable with my current hardware any where close to 4.0. I have used the guides avail here for the 920 OC'ing but can't get those speeds?My understanding is that I should be able to get at least 4.3 and maybe 4.5 with my hardware on the 960, that should help shouldn't it?ThanksRick S.

What stepping is your 920? if it's a C0 that could explain your difficulties to hit 4+GHzA 960 is still a 45nm chip, you'd have to be very lucky and invest in a good custom WC loop to hit 4.3 - 4.5GHzA 960 costs $280, and for just a bit more you can get a 2500K + P67 board that will do 4.5 - 4.8GHz, and with a 15% higher IPC

[RickSinGA 1]

What stepping is your 920? if it's a C0 that could explain your difficulties to hit 4+GHzA 960 is still a 45nm chip, you'd have to be very lucky and invest in a good custom WC loop to hit 4.3 - 4.5GHzA 960 costs $280, and for just a bit more you can get a 2500K + P67 board that will do 4.5 - 4.8GHz, and with a 15% higher IPC

It's a DO and Microcenter has the 960's for $179.184 is as far as I could take it and be stable.Rick S.

[rightseater 0]

Hi Rick,I have a 960 DO on an MSI Pro-e CrossfireX motherboard, and I have been thrilled with it since day one. It came stock at 3.2GhZ, which I swiftly knocked up to 4.5GhZ very stable. I was later told that I was stretching it to push for 4.5, but it has run very stable and cool for me under water. I even had it checked out Friday by AEM in Jacksonville just to make sure, and they confirmed with a 24 hour stress test (done due to unrelated restart issues) that my temps and stability are fantastic, especially given the big overclock for that CPU. However, as I am re-clocking my system due to having sent it back to stock for unrelated reasons, I have decided to stick with 4.0. It's not that I ever had any problem with 4.5, it's just that I never noticed enough of a difference between 4.0 and 4.5 on that particular rig. Most of the applications I use it for are more GPU dependant. However, I recently built an i7 2600 rig on an Asus board, and it is my opinion that it was well worth the extra cash. I just finished my first overclock to 4.5. If I had to choose, I'd keep the i7 2600 rig.@ Dazz,You might be interested to know that I got my restart issue figured out. It turned out to be a problem with the clock switch on the MSI board. One of the tabs had an issue where it's internal components was loose, and over a period of time vibration would cause it to move slightly. Still not sure why there was no BSOD or error message on startup, but I'm over it.

[dazz 69]

It's a DO and Microcenter has the 960's for $179.184 is as far as I could take it and be stable.Rick S.

What's your memory set to (speed + timings) and what's it rated at?

Hi Rick,I have a 960 DO on an MSI Pro-e CrossfireX motherboard, and I have been thrilled with it since day one. It came stock at 3.2GhZ, which I swiftly knocked up to 4.5GhZ very stable. I was later told that I was stretching it to push for 4.5, but it has run very stable and cool for me under water. I even had it checked out Friday by AEM in Jacksonville just to make sure, and they confirmed with a 24 hour stress test (done due to unrelated restart issues) that my temps and stability are fantastic, especially given the big overclock for that CPU. However, as I am re-clocking my system due to having sent it back to stock for unrelated reasons, I have decided to stick with 4.0. It's not that I ever had any problem with 4.5, it's just that I never noticed enough of a difference between 4.0 and 4.5 on that particular rig. Most of the applications I use it for are more GPU dependant. However, I recently built an i7 2600 rig on an Asus board, and it is my opinion that it was well worth the extra cash. I just finished my first overclock to 4.5. If I had to choose, I'd keep the i7 2600 rig.@ Dazz,You might be interested to know that I got my restart issue figured out. It turned out to be a problem with the clock switch on the MSI board. One of the tabs had an issue where it's internal components was loose, and over a period of time vibration would cause it to move slightly. Still not sure why there was no BSOD or error message on startup, but I'm over it.

Great to hear Jeremy. Glad you got it sorted out.

[RickSinGA 1]

Well Guys, I have done something really stupid. Without waiting for mor more replys I drove 2 hrs to Microcenter in Atlanta, and bought the 960. Well, the bigger more stupid part was upgrading the bios on my Asus P6t V2, going to v 275.33 Whql nVidia drivers from 260.99 on my EVGA GTX480 and going to the latest Rom and software updates from Matrox for my TH2Go de. They all seemed to run okay on the 920?I replaced the chip and used the same upgrade thread I used for the 920 http://www.clunk.org...-beginners.html but am unable to reach the 3.861 marks I had with the 920 without bombing? The most stable I can get it to run is around 3.79 with high temps around 75' C on Prime95. I also updated my H-50 cooler to twin fans with a little more CFM than the stock single. Oh yaeh, upgraded from 6G of Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D to 12G of Kingston Genisis KHX1600C9D3K3. I had the same results with either memory installed.I had to go to 1.2625 v/core and it doesn't seem to matter how I get to the 3.8 range with 158/25 or changing the the ratio's from to 24 or 23 and uping the BCLK frequency to get it up 3.8.To top all of this FSX looks like crap, shimmer & jitters, and my FPS are down! (Resolved; reinstalled Inspecter with NickN's settings.)Thinking about reverting to the 920.Color me super frustratedRick S

Edited June 13, 2011 by RickSinGA