Should I upgrade to Sandybridge or some other card?

[Lusketrollet]

Hey. My current CPU is bottlenecking my two Radeon HD 6990s, so I'm thinking of upgrading. My current CPU is an "Intel® Core™ i7-950 Processor" and my motherboard is an "EVGA X58 3xSLI For The Win3, Socket-1366".

When I did my bit of research on finding out what the current very best CPUs are, I was alerted to a series of CPU's with the "Sandybridge" -moniker. All I know about them, is that they supposedly are some of the best out there, plus the fact that they are "2nd Generation" -cards. I don't know exactly what that entails, but I'm guessing it's rather important. (I was name-dropped one particular "Sandybridge" called "i7 2600k".)

As I later stubled upon this website, however, I saw this list: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Here it shows that the current highest quality CPU appears to be one called "Intel Core i7 990X @ 3.47GHz". (There is one higher up on the list - the "Intel Core i7 995X @ 3.60GHz", but its price is listed as "N/A", so I'm guessing it's not released, yet.) The Sandybridge i7 2600k, however, is no less than five places down, despite being "2nd Generation" and everything.

So which should I choose, you think? The Sandybridge i7 2600k, or the Intel Core i7 995X? (Or maybe some other card?) And why?

Thanks in advance. And pardon my confusion.

[David (PassMark)]

Your existing i7 950 CPU isn't that bad.
I would be tempted to hold on for another 3 months or so, as there will be lots of good stuff released over the next 6 months.

But if the money is burning a hole in your pocket. I would get the Intel Core i7 990X if you really didn't care about the money. Or the Intel Core i7-2600K otherwise (as it is much much better value compared to the 990X).

I assume this is a games machine. As such you find very little performance difference between the 990X and 2600K. In some cases the 2600K might even be quicker.

Intel made a few internal samples available of the 995X, but they haven't gone on sale.

[wonderwrench]

Keep in mind you can drop a i7 990X into your existing mother board but you will need a new mother board if you want to run a i7 2600k. As far as gaming goes the 6 cores in the 990x will not net you much if anything as few if any games out can use 6 cores. The only performance increase will be clock speed, 3.06 GHZ to 3.46 GHz. You do not say if you are overclocking but your i7 950 will easily hit 4 GHZ with decent cooling. If you got a extremely good i7 950 4.5 + GHZ. So I would say the i7 990X would be a waste of money. I run my i7 930 at 3.5 GHZ with EIST, C1, Turbo Boost enabled with stock voltage 24/7.

Bill

[Lusketrollet]

Keep in mind you can drop a i7 990X into your existing mother board but you will need a new mother board if you want to run a i7 2600k.

Aah, yes, I figured it wouldn't be that easy. It never bloody is. What gaming-related motherboard would you guys suggest to take advantage of the latest CPUs?