Which processor to get for mid-to-high end gaming? i5 or i7?

[Googles]

Hey guys.

So I'm in the process of building my first gaming rig. From what I've learned so far the first thing to look for is the CPU.

So I've been browsing the net and it seems Intel's i5s and i7s are the best in the market at the moment for my needs. I need a PC to be able to run games like Planetside 2/Bioshock Infinite/Guild Wars 2 and perhaps the new titles coming this year on High (I probably don't have the budget to build a PC that can run everything on Ultra with all settings turned up so I'm going to settle on High).

I wont be multi-tasking much perhaps TS3 in the background and that's about it. Not much video editing either but will use Fraps to record footage.

Now from what I understand if they have a 'k' in their names it means they can be overclocked is this true? In that case I think I'm going to try overclocking even though I've never tried it before. Is it hard? Is it risky? Would the only thing extra I'd need to buy is an aftermarket heat fan/sink for the CPU? Is OCing worth the effort?

Do CPUs affect/effect (can never use these correctly. English aint my 1st ^^) the loading times or is that the HDD/SDD's job?

Lots of questions but I hope your answers will benefit me and others who are facing the same dilemma.

/thoughts

[inux94]

1. Always get the K version if you want something sturdy
2. OC'ing is almost always a beneficial thing

Now, the only difference between i5 and i7's in the market right now are hyperthreading, which isn't beneficial to you in any-way.

Fraps uses low CPU/GPU useage, provided you have a decent harddrive you should be fine.

[chazus]

From what I've learned so far the first thing to look for is the CPU.

Partly true. It just happens that WoW, one of th emore popular games (And incidentally the focus of this website) is very CPU heavy. So 95% of people posting on this forum usually comment on CPU being important. It certainly is for other games, but not nearly as much as WoW. This really doesn't change your choice, more just trivia.

In that case I think I'm going to try overclocking even though I've never tried it before. Is it hard? Is it risky? Would the only thing extra I'd need to buy is an aftermarket heat fan/sink for the CPU? Is OCing worth the effort?

The higher you overclock, the more 'difficult' it is. The only real things you need to do is get a good cooler (An 212 EVO, or Noctua), and make sure your ram fits under it. You might need 'low profile' ram... or at least not some ram with giant towering heatsinks.

The actual OC part is usually pretty straight forward. You need a Z77 chipset motherboard, and from there just go into bios and change the multiplier (default for the i5-3570K is 100mhz x34) to something higher. Like x38 (3.8ghz) or x42 (4.2ghz). once you get around that range, pushing higher may require you to change core voltages down a bit, or change ram timings. To be honest (coming from someone who has a 3570K and currently doesn't overclock), the most you can get for the least amount of work I think is best. Yeah, you could push it to 4.5, 4.6... But the biggest jump is from 3.4 to 4.0 with literally almost zero effort. Again, CPU locked games like WoW will make a difference.

I have a 3570K and geforce 660, and get about 70 fps on high. If I switch to Ultra (16x AA, Ultra Shadows and SSAO), it drops to about 45-50. If I overclock to 3.8 or so, Ultra runs at 60-65. Again, remember that those differences may not be representative of other games. Stuff like BF3 is more video card dependant, I've heard. But, realistically, 400-600mhz for free is worth it most of the time.[COLOR="red"]

1. Always get the K version if you want something sturdy

More trivia, what he means by that is that K and Non-K CPU's are identical... The difference is, overclockable CPU's have proven to be stronger during stress tests, and are pretty much the cream of the crop coming off the manufacturing line. Those that don't 'cut it' are made non-overclockable, or worse, relegated to the new budget Pentium line. It's almost like computer darwinism. The strong ones get bought, the weak ones get demoted in market line.

[inux94]

Oh yeah, I should'be gone more into what the difference between non-k and K versions are.

[Deleted]

@Chazus Technically there are some differences in features but those are not important for most people.

[Googles]

Thank you all for your replies.

Should I be worried that from the page linked by Notarget it seems that the K version is the only one without "Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)" and "Intel® Trusted Execution Technology"?

I couldn't clearly understand what those are but will they drastically effect performance or are they negligible?

[n0cturnal]

Those are some extra features for running virtual machines, it has nothing to do with gaming or every day usage.