buying new desktop i5 or i7

[Gohzerlock]

Hello,

I realize there has probably been countless threads on this already, but i'm getting a new desktop and recently i've seen a few games with recommended settings like watch dogs at i7 saying they're starting to utilize hyperthreading. I mostly play wow, but i'd like to be able to run pretty much anything else with ease. I'm getting a gtx 770 oc, the cooler for the cpu would be a decent liquid cooler high static fan if I decided to overclock.

It's just a big purchase for me and i'd hate to see a big performance dip because newer games are more reliant on i7s, I get that normally an i7 is usually just for multi-tasking video editing but it seems like either devs are posting recommended settings that are complete bs for newer games... or they're actually starting to use i7 and buying an i5 would screw me out of future proofing.

Thanks.

[Sheor]

If you can afford the extra amount for the i7 get it. Normally if your just gaming an i5 is good. If you plan to stream, do video editing stuff like that your going to want an i7.

[ComputerNerd]

For gaming you aren't going to see much difference.
For software which really takes advantage of multi-threading then you will likely see a benefit, such as streaming or video editing.
I have heard of few doing that yet in terms of games.

WoW is very much CPU bound, but barely utilises 2 cores, let alone more.
Since it does the bulk of its work on a single core, then that for example would benefit more from better single-core performance than lots of cores at a lower speed.

[Jakexe]

You need to practically ignore developer recommendations these days, they like to put expensive gear in their rec. because it makes the game look impressive. It's unfortunate.

With that out of the way if you plan to do nothing but game the i5 is the way to go, and will be for a few years at least. The advantages multithreading (i7) have in gaming are very minimal at best even when the developer takes advantage of the tech.

[Hellravager]

Well alot of games are looking to i7's it seems >.> Watch Dogs and Shadows of Mordor are two

[Gohzerlock]

Thanks guys, seems like the i5 would be a better solution for me as I don't stream/video edit or even do a lot of multitasking and also have a strict budget.

[chazus]

Well alot of games are looking to i7's it seems >.> Watch Dogs and Shadows of Mordor are two

Source? People saying 'it totally supports HT' and actually being useful are two different things

[Hellravager]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/...ments-unveiled
Recommended: Intel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz | AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/...44ddec5e000040
Recommended: Eight core - Intel Core i7-3770 @3.5 GHz or AMD FX-8350 X8 @ 4 GHz

[chazus]

Those mean nothing, really. The 'recommended requirements' are inaccurate or misleading at best, and false at worst.

Do you have actual benchmarks or statistical info that might indicate it would benefit from hyperthreading or more cores?

As I said... People saying 'it totally supports HT' and actually being useful are two different things

EXample: WoW's systems requirements for "Recommended" is a Core 2 Duo @ 2.2ghz "or better"... Yet if you actually followed that, raiding would be awful, and "Or Better" is a useless statement.