Worth upgrading only CPU from i5-750?

[bigass]

My audio/video production rig runs an i5-750 on an Asus P7P55D-E motherboard.

I'm not cursing and swearing at it, but just curious whether there's a newer CPU I could pop in there to replace the i5-750 that would be worth buying for a performance boost. I'm not interested in upgrading anything more right now, even though a full motherboard-CPU-RAM upgrade would be ideal.


FWIW, I use Sony Vegas for my video editing and most of my encoding.


Yes, I know, the answer is probably "do some research," but I know there are bright minds around here who have the answer in their heads right now.


current CPU: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215
current mobo: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131620

[usually_quiet]

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/332/Intel_Core_i5_i5-750_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-870.html

You have to be the judge as to whether it is worthwhile to spend $180-$200 to buy a used i7-870 (more for new old stock) or put that money aside for a new Haswell or Broadwell based system in the next few years.

[Baldrick]

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/socketType.html#id2

And click on socket lga 1156 to compare the CPUs you might be able to use with your motherboard.




I'm considering upgrading to http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4960X+%40+3.60GHz&id=2026 but it's a bit too expensive so far and I need new motherboard also....

[bigass]

Thanks, guys. Baldrick, from the looks of things, my mobo has locked me into a set of now-obsolete chips. usually_quiet, good point. My current rig doesn't have me pulling my hair out... might as well keep cruising until I really need something with more bang. Looks like a CPU upgrade with this board won't really be worth the outlay. Thanks again.

[OllieTSB]

Big, we do audio-edits with perhaps 32-track compiles and the diff between i5s and i7s of that generation is based almost solely on the software, not the hardware. We can save maybe 10-minutes a compile (2 a day?) so maybe 2-hours a week, and we can cost-justify this within 10-12 days. However, if we taken a longer-view and consider a $1000+ upgrade (modern i7s, newest MBs, fastest mem), then we're cost-justifying that much larger expense in 2 months and will use that more efficiently for a year or so.

It's worth it, to us, to save our pennies and spend a lot.

However, there's one aspect that was mentioned - the Used CPU market. You may be able to use someone's "gotta have a new one!" mania and cut a CPU-upgrade cost more substantially.

[jagabo]

Thanks, guys. Baldrick, from the looks of things, my mobo has locked me into a set of now-obsolete chips.

Yes. Save up for an Ivy Bridge or Haswell CPU and motherboard instead. You'll get a much bigger performance bump.

[bigass]

Ollie, jagabo, thanks for the notes. For the pittance I make on my videos and production work, there's no cost-benefit analysis to do -- it only makes sense for me to consider this a hobby machine. If upgrading the CPU or video card were going to give me a big improvement in rendering times or preview smoothness, I'd consider dropping a few hundred dollars, but I'd get a greater benefit right now from using that money to pay for a cleaning lady.

[jagabo]

Have you tried using Vegas's GPU based filters and renderers?

[bigass]

Have you tried using Vegas's GPU based filters and renderers?

Yep. Didn't work with v11. I even bought a new video card, trying to make it go. Failed.


v12 works. I haven't done any speed tests, but the OpenCL-assisted mode appears to be significantly faster than CPU-only. Most of my renders are now "start it and go clean the house" or "start it and go to bed" length. Then uploading to YouTube is "start the upload and go to my day job" and wait for the "Your video is now online!" message.


Hey, it sure beats waiting for a program to load from cassette on the ZX81.

[deadrats]

I'm considering upgrading to http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4960X+%40+3.60GHz&id=2026 but it's a bit too expensive so far and I need new motherboard also....

i don't think the top of the line intel hexa core's offer a good value, for about half the price you can get the 4930k and these things overclock like a beast, their stock clock speed is only 200mhz less than the 4960x and they overclock like beasts.

hell, if things go right i plan on building a 4930k setup with 16gigs of ram by christmas and if things go really right i may just go with dual hexa core xeons...have to get ready for all the hevc encoders when they finally hit rtm status by 2014.

[Moontrash]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/109?vs=837

probably around $500 for the new processor and the board...whats more important...speed of video encoding or getting someone to clean your place?

[bigass]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/109?vs=837

probably around $500 for the new processor and the board...whats more important...speed of video encoding or getting someone to clean your place?

Given the state of my studio right now, I'd get the most mileage out of cleaning it up while doing a loooong encode.

[julitomg]

Please forgive if this is a silly question, but, for example, being in the same case (dedicated audio/video rig with reasonable but not outstanding performance and not being able to do a full CPU/MoBo/mem upgrade), could a mild overclocking for the current setup offer any advantage (small as it may be) in performance?

[jagabo]

could a mild overclocking for the current setup offer any advantage (small as it may be) in performance?

In theory, yes. Whether you can overclock or not, and by how much, will depend on your motherboard, CPU, and a bunch of other factors. But if you don't have an unlocked processor you probably won't be able overclock by more than single digit percentages. I don't think that's worth the trouble and risks.

[bigass]

Yeah, from what I've read, the i5-750 is easily overclocked....but I have enough hobbies right now. Dabbling in the OC world is not on my to-do list right now.

[classfour]

Big:

Looking at your machine specs: I would encourage you to upgrade your RAM. The 4GB you list doesn't really take advantage of the 64 bit OS.

As applications run in memory (RAM), much can be gained in that department. If your mobo supports 16 GB - that's what I'd stick in it. Still cheaper than the i7 (if it would work), and gains should be made in performance.

[bigass]

Good point, Classfour.

I bought another 4GB of the same RAM some time ago only to find that the motherboard can't handle four sticks in its most effective mode. Crap. I might go looking on Newegg today for some bigger sticks to replace the 2x2GB I'm running now. Good idea.