Intel i5 or i7 for gaming? Or even AMD?

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Rob94hawk

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Not a fanboy of either. I've built AMD and Intel rigs. But what is the best cpu for gaming? I'm a little out of the loop since I haven't built a rig in over 5 years. So I'm gonna build a gaming rig for my son. (He's into Railworks, Trainz 2012) Thanx
 
For gaming? Get i5-3570K.
And if you can find any deal for older I5-2500K under $100, take it!
 
No, past the Intel i7 3820 those are Sandy Bridge E only compatible with Socket 2011
 
dhappy said:
No, past the Intel i7 3820 those are Sandy Bridge E only compatible with Socket 2011
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I see that there's socket 1155 and 2011. Obviously socket 2011 is the latest. I'll have to do my research. Any new sockets or cpu's on the way by June? I'm in the planning phase.
 
Gaming? I5. The the i7's hyperthreading doesn't do much for games, and the clockspeed boost can easily be made-up for by a mild OC.
 
Now I'm reading about Haswell... lol

I'm guessing it's not using DDR4 yet.

Might make more financial sense to do i5 since it's only for gaming.
 
Now I'm reading about Haswell... lol I'm guessing it's not using DDR4 yet.
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lga1150 haswell will not support DDR4. 2015 will be the year for AMD and Intel to release new sockets with DDR4 for the mainstream. Before that in Q3 or Q4 2014 Intel may release a new lga2011 platform (again incompatible with any current platform) that will use DDR4.
 
Tsumi said:
Yes.

And the HD4000 is included on all LGA 1155 -K model CPUs. All Intel 1155 CPUs have an integrated GPU.
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If its the ivy bridge k it has hd4000, the sb k's did not have that. And there are are few 1155 cpus that don't have integrated graphics such as the i5 3350P
 
Drop the DDR3 2133 memory unless its the almost the same price as DDR3 1600. Faster memory does not improve performance by much (less than 3% on average).
 
You want the 3570K. Only the K-variant CPU's have an unlocked multiplier which is pretty much the only thing you need to change to overclock these processors.

The MSI GD65 looks like a great option. Here are some other viable options for your motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138364
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128558
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157344
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130660

No need to waste money on "faster" memory. Especially for gaming purposes, RAM frequency plays no part here. 99% of programs show little to no performance to be gained with speeds over 1600Mhz. These Crucial Ballistix seem like a good deal: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148544

More options:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161452
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313342
 
Definitely go for the K model. Free performance (well for a few dollars more) is always nice.
 
I've also had this question (3570k vs 3770k) burning in my mind as the upgrade itch has basically become king. Wouldn't the 3770k overclock better though since it's "binned" higher? just a thought I guess.
 
If you don't want to do overclocking, don't require multiple threads for intense processing applications, an i5 will be plenty. Otherwise bang for buck cpu on 1155 is the 3770k.
 
Matthew Kane said:
If you don't want to do overclocking, don't require multiple threads for intense processing applications, an i5 will be plenty. Otherwise bang for buck cpu on 1155 is the 3770k.
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It's a gaming rig but if OC'ing will help frame rate significantly then what's a good cpu paired up with a Corsair H90?
 
OC'ing will help to overcome CPU limited bottlenecks if you're running powerful cards in certain games at certain resolution/settings. You benefit a gain for free, so in this case I would recommend you getting the 3770/k. A H90 would be plenty as cooling even if you have the 3770 at 4.3+.
 
Matthew Kane said:
OC'ing will help to overcome CPU limited bottlenecks if you're running powerful cards in certain games at certain resolution/settings. You benefit a gain for free, so in this case I would recommend you getting the 3770/k. A H90 would be plenty as cooling even if you have the 3770 at 4.3+.
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Then a GTX 690 and a 3770 looks like a good combo. That is if the 3770 is up to the task of a 24/7 OC...
 
I have an Intel® Core™ i5-3570K sitting on my desk here and I think it is one of the best gaming processors you can get your hands on. Matched up with a good board maybe something like the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 or the MSI Z77-GD65 and 8GB of DDR 3 1600 and you are going to have a good solid system.
 
I've had my 3770K set to a "permanent" 4.5ghz for more than a year sans any issues. A $30 Coolermaster 212 will keep it at that speed without even raising the temperature over stock cooling/speed, too.
It might not be the absolute best value, but it's trouble-free and easy to just set it and forget it.
 
Domingo said:
I've had my 3770K set to a "permanent" 4.5ghz for more than a year sans any issues. A $30 Coolermaster 212 will keep it at that speed without even raising the temperature over stock cooling/speed, too.
It might not be the absolute best value, but it's trouble-free and easy to just set it and forget it.
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Thanks for the heads up. What ram are you using? Don't see it in your sig.
 
Domingo said:
I've had my 3770K set to a "permanent" 4.5ghz for more than a year sans any issues. A $30 Coolermaster 212 will keep it at that speed without even raising the temperature over stock cooling/speed, too.
It might not be the absolute best value, but it's trouble-free and easy to just set it and forget it.
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Same boat here just haven't had the 3770k that long. As far as value it just depends where you buy. I bought my 3770k at Micro Center for $230 compared to $320 at Tiger Direct. That to me is great value.
 
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A i5-3570K will be overkill for Railworks and Trainz 2012, even at stock.

Is this gaming rig just for your son?
 
Rob94hawk said:
Thanks for the heads up. What ram are you using? Don't see it in your sig.
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I'm running 8GB of Corsair Vengeance 1600. I'm sure there are better varieties around these days, but I've always liked Corsair and this was a good bang-for-the-buck purchase back when I built my system. You can probably go bigger/faster for the same price now.

Oh yeah - for MicroCenter, they have CPU deals constantly, although often they're in-store only. Well worth the trek in some cases. They tend to have probably the best brick and mortar PC section of any stores I've ever seen. Like CompUSA used to be, but bigger and geekier.
 
dhappy said:
A i5-3570K will be overkill for Railworks and Trainz 2012, even at stock.

Is this gaming rig just for your son?
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Yeah it's for him. Haven't picked a monitor yet. He's on an old 20" Dell 2001FP 1600x1200. He was hoping for a bigger monitor with much better resolution. He wants to crank up all the setting. lol
 
WeaponX said:
At what speed does the 3770K OC'd become no longer a bottleneck?
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Depends on the game. Starcraft II custom maps, no amount of overclock will remove the CPU bottleneck. Battlefield 3 single player, GPU is always the bottleneck.
 
oChaos Nine said:
Definitely go for the K model. Free performance (well for a few dollars more) is always nice.
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+1

If you have been out the loop for awhile then you will be amazed by how easy that have made overclocking on these boards.

Literally, on my asus board switching from standard to turbo boosted my clocks to 4.3ghz.

1 button.

If you want to fine tune it, you can go even further.

EDIT

Here is a hot deal for ya: ASUS P8Z77-V LK + i5-3570K for only 299 with 15 MIR.
 
i7 I just replaced my i5 3570 @ 4.4 with i7 3770k @ 4.5 and I definitely have seen improvments across the board. Some benchmarks don't show huge improvements but overall it's more responsive and offers that extra edge when playing todays demanding DX 11 games.
 
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