I5 or I7 for gaming?

[karl751]

So which would you choose? Also which motherboard would you choose to go with it?
I have a 7970, xfx850w psu, sammy greens (2x4gb), samsung ssd. Possibly add another 7970/R9280X at a later date.
Arctic cooler 13 which will probably also need upgrading to something else at somepoint.
SLI option would be nice but obviously not essential.
So what do you all recommend?

[kalniel]

I5. Any of the Z87s from gigabyte, asus or MSI really. Just pick the one with the features that are relevant to you - I have my own soundcard for eg. so don't care about onboard audio, which most of them are using to distinguish themselves.

[pastymuncher]

Normally it would be the 4670k for gaming but BF3 and even more with BF4 (if you play them) can get better results with a 4770k, especially when running dual cards. With that in mind and the likelihood of more games making use of the HT in the 4770k that's what i would recommend. There have been some good deals around lately too with special offers bringing the price down to £229 but you have to be quick to pick them up.

Motherboard wise the Gigabyte Z87X-D3H is a cracking board for the money as it supports both crossfire and SLI. You can spend more but a Haswell cpu will run out of headroom long before you run out of options in the bios.

You will get good results from your Sammy greens because Z87 is a joy for clocking memory. I have 4x 4Gb sticks of Sammy greens running at 2133mhz 9-10-10-21-1T with only 1.5v and no other voltages touched.

[karl751]

Definetly best off getting haswell then? That's what I thought.
Is it worth spending the extra on the Z87X-OC? I would prefer Gigabyte but wouldn't be against Asus or MSI if they were better for the money.
I think the 4770k will be the better one for me.

[theanalyzer]

i7 is the way to go. With AMD having a hold on console games now, expect more of multi-threaded games to come up.

[aidanjt]

Save the money from the CPU and put it into the GPU, that's by far the most important piece of hardware for gaming.

[Fyter]

Currently it is i5, however games like BF4 and Crisis 3 can utilise additional cores above 4. With AMD holding onto consoles now, in the future we may see i7 being a justifiable purchase. However, at this moment in times its just speculation. I would personally save the money now and get a better GPU or upgrade to a newer generation i7 when that time does come.

[starkyller]

i7 is the way to go. With AMD having a hold on console games now, expect more of multi-threaded games to come up.

i7 sucks for gaming get the i5. Save the money from the difference of the i7 and get a gpu. Remember that you can only CrossFireX a new R9280X with a 7970 GHz edition
ps: Sli is for nVidia only

[HalloweenJack]

AMD FX6350 or an 8350 , and the money saved over the i7 for a better GPU - the 8350 and an i7 are a close match in BF4

[starkyller]

AMD FX6350 or an 8350 , and the money saved over the i7 for a better GPU - the 8350 and an i7 are a close match in BF4

He would need a new mobo for AM3+ socket

[kweiming]

all reviews and websites point to buying the 4670k (i5) for just gaming use and the 4770k (i7) for uses which need actual computing power like photo or video editing.

In case you wanted to know I'm planning on getting the 4670k (OC it to 4.4-4.6Ghz) and placing that on an Asus Maximus VI Formula with 16gb (2x8gb) G skill Trident ram plus a Asus R9 280x GPU (single GPU.... for now). Later on I plan to add water cooling and a second gpu.

[qazzaq2004]

i5 for gaming if you're on a budget, the extra 100 quid could be used on getting a stronger GPU.
Even though i say this if you got cash to spare why not go i7

[HalloweenJack]

He would need a new mobo for AM3+ socket

he needs a new board anyway.


AMD FX 6350 - and get an R2290X instead

[pp05]

i5, unless tdp is important.

[Wam7]

..Possibly add another 7970/R9280X at a later date...

You should definitely go I7, you might regret not paying the little extra now, so you won't feel the itch to upgrade the CPU later. As it's been previously said, there are popular games out now that already take advantage of the extra threads and that will only increase. Plus more importantly if you do go Crossfire/SLI at some point then you should definitely go I7 as a little research will highlight where an I5 is bottlenecking Crossfire/SLI.

It can sometimes be unwise to plan too far a head when it comes to computing but in this respect I think it would be better to..

[scaryjim]

Dunno when the OP last updated their system specs, but apparently they've currently got an FX-6300. At which point I don't really see any point in upgrading to an i5, even with a 7970 in the slot. An 8350 or i7 would help out in modern well threaded games like BF4, but otherwise put your money back in your pocket

Of course, that's assuming the 6300 isn't a new purchase since this thread was started (which was 3 weeks ago after all).