i3-7350k for gaming?

[Jeff G]

For a pure gaming build, that wont see any other usage, is the 7350k a decent cpu?
Lots of reviews say it's not that great, but then have it compared against a series of i7's to show that it cant keep up. But who would be shopping a 7350k versus a 7700k at double the price?
Amazon has it for $141 new with free shipping right now, paired with a cheap z270 board like the Gigabyte one for $65 on Newegg and you're off to the races for $200 on an overclockable 4 thread setup. Seems pretty decent to me, is there any other cpu/mobo setup in this price range that is equivalent or better?

 

[Denpepe]

Well I would advise the i3 8350k which would be a true 4 core and should be similar in price once the coffee lake dust settles and stock lvl's get to normal.

Guess it also depends on what games you intend to play and what GPU you want to throw at it.

The 7350 beeing a 2 core 4 thread CPU while still decent is getting on the low end of the spectrum these days but I guess it also depends on how much you can/want to spend on hardware.

for a couple benchmarks

 

[Jeff G]

My only problem with coffee lake are the very limited amount of z370 boards, and the prices they carry.

 

[ZiggyDeath]

The i3-8350k is a stone's throw away from a i5-8400, which is 6c/6t. While a 8350k will clock higher than a 8400, it cannot beat it in applications that are thread sensitive.

OTOH, the 8350k is also far more expensive than a 7350k - a i3-8100 is closer in terms of pricing. You could have a 4c/4t 3.6ghz processor vs a 2c/4t 4.2ghz processor.

 

[Jeff G]

The only thing this would be used for is gaming, specifically gta v, fallout 4, and shadow of war. Being paired with a gtx 970 most likely.
Looking for the best cpu/mobo, new or used, in the $200 range.

 

[ZiggyDeath]

The only thing this would be used for is gaming, specifically gta v, fallout 4, and shadow of war. Being paired with a gtx 970 most likely.
Looking for the best cpu/mobo, new or used, in the $200 range.

Might need to qualify that with how long you expect the system to last.

At the 200$ range, basically the 8350k or 8400 are out of the equation since they are already ~$250.

So bringing that down to the 8100 vs the 7350K then becomes a question of how important do you think multithreading is in the future, will you overclock, etc.

That being said, if your emphasis is purely on gaming, and you need it soon, I would bank my bet on the 7350K with an OC over the 8100.

This is for several factors:

1. The cheapo 300 series boards aren't out yet, if you're not willing to wait
2. Currently games mostly favor higher clocks
3. By the time multithreading matters, your system is likely to be obsolete

If you can swing a slightly higher budget, and wait a bit longer, a 8400 with a non-Z 300 series (not out yet), will likely prove to be a much longer lasting system.

 

[Jeff G]

I'm also looking at used options, but older haswell gear is pretty much the limit in that price range as well.

 

[Furious_Styles]

I'm also looking at used options, but older haswell gear is pretty much the limit in that price range as well.

Used market is tough for intel. 4790K still go for well north of $200 because of how competitive they still are for gaming.

 

[Jeff G]

How about the 4690k? I see z97/4690k combos in the $200 range all the time. How would that compare to the 7350k?
Or xeon builds like the 1231v3? No overclocking, but lots of cores/threads. Not sure how that translates in games. Maybe the overclocked 4690k would be better?

 

[Darkswordz]

How about the 4690k? I see z97/4690k combos in the $200 range all the time. How would that compare to the 7350k?
Or xeon builds like the 1231v3? No overclocking, but lots of cores/threads. Not sure how that translates in games. Maybe the overclocked 4690k would be better?

The 4690k would do better in multi-threaded apps, and a little worse in single-threaded apps: https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1829?vs=1261

As to your original question...I wouldn't spend money on a 2C/4T cpu for gaming going forward. For about $30.00 more you can get a Ryzen 5 1500X (4C/8T).

 

[GhostWhite]

For a pure gaming build, that wont see any other usage, is the 7350k a decent cpu?
Lots of reviews say it's not that great, but then have it compared against a series of i7's to show that it cant keep up. But who would be shopping a 7350k versus a 7700k at double the price?
Amazon has it for $141 new with free shipping right now, paired with a cheap z270 board like the Gigabyte one for $65 on Newegg and you're off to the races for $200 on an overclockable 4 thread setup. Seems pretty decent to me, is there any other cpu/mobo setup in this price range that is equivalent or better?

If for gaming, then I would say that the i7 is still better. My husband said " don't waste money for i3 7350k ".

 

[Jeff G]

The closest to an i7 in the budget is going to be the xeon 1231v3. Even a 4770k is still nearly $200 for the cpu.
If not the 7350k, then my other options would be haswell i5 (4690k), haswell xeon (1231v3), or ryzen (1400) as the cpu and board need to be around $200. Ryzen just doesnt put up the numbers in games like the other two, so I'll most likely aim to find one of the haswell setups (purely a gaming build, not other usage at all).

 

[/dev/null]

I'm also looking at used options, but older haswell gear is pretty much the limit in that price range as well.

Ive see full haswell machines on Ebay go for $250...not bad at all.

4770
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Preci...619017?hash=item3d4d768909:g:GJIAAOSwO9JZ-oxD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/A-208-Dell...541254?hash=item1a39016086:g:WtkAAOSwnTdZ-dmy
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiP...223845?hash=item5901610125:g:i~8AAOSwevlaAMjE
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Preci...228154?hash=item59016111fa:g:klwAAOSwPpZaAMr-
etc etc etc.

4790
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optip...045909?hash=item5451961fd5:g:8AgAAOSw0exZ-PA3
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optip...588971?hash=item56a43c172b:g:qPYAAOSwh2RZ-PBV


If you can't win one @ $250'ish, here is one BIN for $300 with 16G ram and free shipping