I know jack shit about this stuff but just from browsing Steam the last few days I can already see a lot of games recommending i7s. I imagine there will only be more in the future, so if the price jump isn't too bad I'd say go with that. I have an i5 I don't regret getting, but that was a couple years ago and on specs it's already starting to fall more on the 'minimum' side more than the 'recommended'.

>>51561317
I assume you're talking about Skylake or Haswell.

Comparing a quad i5 with a quad i7 in the same series, i7s are hyperthreaded and have more cache. i7s also run a bit faster.

Is it worth it? Depends on you and what games you want to play. Go look at some benchmarks.

Personally speaking I prefer HEDT line of i7s which now start from 6-core up.

>>51561423
Ive looked up some benchmarks and I seen that they show little difference in FPS all in the highest settings. What Id ont want is I dont want to buy a i5 and then it gets slow 2-3 years later ya know?

>>51561489
By then you'll probably want a new CPU/mobo anyway.

>>51561317
An unlocked i5 would more than do trick. Even at stock speed, the i5 is great for gaming. Get a decent z97 motherboard in the $150 range and a decent affordable cooler and you're set. I had an 8 core fx9370 and even with all its cores, it didn't run nearly as well as my current i5 4690k. I don't regret my purchasee.

>>51561369
Many games recommend an i7 because half the time, those games are terribly optmized. So they recommend overkill because otherwise the game people run like a turd. Very few games are made to run on more than 3 or 4 threads. So the 8 threads of an i7 are lost performance wise in 90% of games. Then only thing am i7 would offer is better multi tasking capabilities. For instance, playing a game on ultra AND recording said gameplay at the same time with recording software such as fraps. Recording is usually CPU intensive, so the extra threads help here.

Why do you think amd chips have such garbage performance in games half the time unless you overclock them to help and back? Terrible single core performance. But in any game that will use 6 to 8 threads? They'll compete with a top end i7 for half the price. It is a ways off still, but gaming and applications as a while will eventually have to make the move to proper multi threading support because optimising for single core performance will only get us so far.


>>51561489
Only if every game suddenly makes the move to perfect multi threaded support for processors with more than 4 threads sure. As it stands, there are people still running sandy bridge 2500k i5s. And they're still getting along fine.
Tl,Dr
An i5 will be more than enough to not bottleneck any top tier graphics card and will play any game well. For casual use, even an i3 would do a good job.

>>51561548
So I would be comfortable buying a i5 without worrying on bottle-necking in the future? My current CPU is AMD Phenom IIx4 955 so I know it will be an improvement to performance.

>>51561645
You should be fine for years to come with an i5. 6600k I presume? Even if it is a 4690k you'll be golden for a while. If you feel it isn't up to snuff, you can always overclock the CPU. Even if you're not looking to overclock right out of the box, it'll still be leaps and bounds better than your Phenom II.

>>51561683
Thank you so much Anon, its been a back and forth debate for me all day. Have a great day!

I'm going for a budget build, and don't plan on overclocking.
Is the 4460 a good CPU? It's $175 right now

>>51561317
>all these shitposting faggots trying to get OP to buy into a shit company
just goes to show how desperate and shitty intel must be if they need to spam the fuck out of every /g thread.

lets look at it realistically
you can get top of the line AMD cpu that will run every game without an issue (so long as it isn't some poorly coded shit like skyrim, but even then amd runs it at more than playable speeds)

with that, you get a cheaper CPU and a cheaper Motherboard, whereas for the same performance you'll be spending a fucktonne more on shitty intel on both the CPU and teh motherboard. preventing you from spending more money on a better GPU (which is what really matter when gaymen)

why buy AMD? because moar cores is actually hella usefull when optimized efficiently (GTAv and a number of other good game show this). they actually progress the market with great new tech. (vulkan, HBM, DDR etc etc)

what does intel do?
they spam 4chan and FORCE their customers to pay over 30% of the final product fee, just for the OPTION to fucking overclock... imagine that? putting more work into something, just so that your final product is worse. in the hopes that idiots will pay over 30% the price, for AT BEST 5% increase in performance...

disgusting market tactics. horrible for the consumer. and total fucking assholes.

/end rant

Don't buy an i7 for fucking video games. An i7 is for major multitasking and professional software. an i5 with a high clock will be much better, cost less, and use less power. god dammit

>>51561763
I guess the reason why I (Initially) wanted to buy a i7 was because I would not need to worry about upgrading the CPU and Mobo for maybe 4+ years? Ive had people tell me to get an i7 and thats why I was not sure.

>>51561763
Don't buy a Ferrari to drive around

But the real question is: DDR3 or DDR4?

>>51561884
DDR5