how good is i5 for gaming?

[pkm]

So i been looking at i5 prices and man i just cant afford it. Thinking of just getting a new AMD cpu that matches i5 i guess... but i am really sick of AMD. I dont wanna purchase 2nd hand parts either...

[Cyanotical]

So i been looking at i5 prices and man i just cant afford it. Thinking of just getting a new AMD cpu that matches i5 i guess... but i am really sick of AMD. I dont wanna purchase 2nd hand parts either...

the CPU that comes close to matching the i5 is the FX-8350

both are the same price

[pkm]

Well than no point getting another AMD...

[glo]

Well it should be 35 bucks cheaper. Usually 189.99.

[noteworthynerd]

Well it should be 35 bucks cheaper. Usually 189.99.

The OP can pickup a 3570K for the same price if they live near a Microcenter, which could be another option.

[Faithh]

So i been looking at i5 prices and man i just cant afford it. Thinking of just getting a new AMD cpu that matches i5 i guess... but i am really sick of AMD. I dont wanna purchase 2nd hand parts either...

There's nothing wrong buying 2nd hand cpu's, I mean they don't lose their performance. A board should be bought new.

[Lathais]

I'm not going to argue with you that CPU isn't important for WoW but it really doesn't require as much as it used to do. I mean, even my friend sitting on a stock clocked Phenom 9550 can easily turn up WoW to high without significant FPS loss in raids. If you want to up that to maximum a Phenom II 965 will suffice for 60+ fps even in the most intense raids. Although it's probably not a wise deal to buy either of these two mentioned CPU's since there are more games out there than WoW that actually do require a decent CPU :P

Umm, no. Not true. I have a AMD Phenon II x4 965 BE, stock clocked, and even in Cata could not hold 60 FPS in 25m raids. Video card is a Radeon 6850, so pretty good card. Now, my FPS was good in Cata, but could not hold 60+ reliably in raids as you state. MoP requirements have gone up and will be even less possible. This is on setting somewhere between medium and high btw. Can't remember exactly as it has been quite some time since I've played, but I remember setting it to medium and bumping a few things up slightly.

[Zyzzyx]

Umm, no. Not true. I have a AMD Phenon II x4 965 BE, stock clocked, and even in Cata could not hold 60 FPS in 25m raids. Video card is a Radeon 6850, so pretty good card. Now, my FPS was good in Cata, but could not hold 60+ reliably in raids as you state. MoP requirements have gone up and will be even less possible. This is on setting somewhere between medium and high btw. Can't remember exactly as it has been quite some time since I've played, but I remember setting it to medium and bumping a few things up slightly.

Agreed, a 965 be, even over clicked, will not max settings in intense raids. The difference between it at 3.8ghz and the i5 3570k at 4+ ghz is significant.

Edit: will not max at constant 60+, because someone will complain about that omission.

[skrump]

Anyone stating that modern CPUs aren't needed for WoW at near highest settings clearly either:

A. Do not raid (especially 25s)
B. Do not play the larger BGs
C. Keep shadows turned off
D. Keep AA off
E. Gimp their view distance

I dunno I made the jump from a athlonfx2 "dual core" last year to an i5-2500k and using the same video card geforce-520 series I saw maybe a 20fps improvement.
Popped a 550Ti in both machines a week later and gained another 30+ fps

So for the purposes of wow I could of easily kept the older machine for another couple of years, glad I didn't though doing 25m raids with all settings maxed including multisampling and still getting above 60fps is pretty sweet
(though I would love an option within wow to turn down the visibility of raid members spells before I have a seizure)

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

That is because a GT 520 is shit and it could not cope with the amount of instructions the 2500K was giving it. Chances are you would have seen pretty much the same FPS jump if you had just used the Intel HD integrated graphics.

[Majesticii]

I dunno I made the jump from a athlonfx2 "dual core" last year to an i5-2500k and using the same video card geforce-520 series I saw maybe a 20fps improvement.
Popped a 550Ti in both machines a week later and gained another 30+ fps

So for the purposes of wow I could of easily kept the older machine for another couple of years, glad I didn't though doing 25m raids with all settings maxed including multisampling and still getting above 60fps is pretty sweet
(though I would love an option within wow to turn down the visibility of raid members spells before I have a seizure)

That's some seriously flawed logic right there. You swap out 2 variables/devices and completely disregard they could be linked. It would be best to deliver the same statements next time with some data, especially gpu load. Your athlon was the bottleneck in the first setup probably, but when you replaced it with a 2500K your graphics card was holding the i5 back. That doesn't mean it didn't have any more potential.

[Lathais]

I dunno I made the jump from a athlonfx2 "dual core" last year to an i5-2500k and using the same video card geforce-520 series I saw maybe a 20fps improvement.
Popped a 550Ti in both machines a week later and gained another 30+ fps

So for the purposes of wow I could of easily kept the older machine for another couple of years, glad I didn't though doing 25m raids with all settings maxed including multisampling and still getting above 60fps is pretty sweet
(though I would love an option within wow to turn down the visibility of raid members spells before I have a seizure)

Only 20 FPS increase? 20 FPS increase for anyone running under 60 already is huge not only. Also, you were running a 520 which is not even a gaming card, just a media card, so it's not surprising you were getting crap frames with it, you would even with an i5 overclocked to the extreme.