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Do "gaming" PCs require i5 procs?

Hey my Core2 E8600 @ 3.7Ghz paired with a 5870 does pretty well, though I do have to lower quality at 1920x1200 ;)
 
Well it all depends on what you play. CPU intensive games will benefit from more cores not threads. To that extent AMD.
That is to say a 6300 FX may do better as yes it has 6 cores, but majority of programming will ignore 1/3/5(6) core. It's using 1 core per module as a whole core. I've noticed this with my machines.
SO! A the 6300 will have 3 (used) cores vs 2 hyper threaded cores.
This all boils down to what you are doing, but something like a AAA title (Crysis 3) the more cores the better. In that case a 8350 or an i5 definitely.
 
yes if you want a proper gaming rig you need an i7
No, we need more optimized codes for PC games... I bet many of them are just poorly coded.
 
Its all relative. It depends on the game, the resolution and your definition of "playing"

Example WOW on at 900 i3 fine. BF4 on 1080 No. Well yes but I wouldn't. Too frustrating
 
with i3 it would fine but some people take i5 coz it has more cores and handling multitasking better than i3
 
Since we're on the topic of CPU's I would like to ask if my i7 940 @ 3.4ghz would bottleneck a GTX 770, R9 280X or anything higher? o_O
 
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To be honest i recently built a system for my dad an i3-3240 with 8Gb and a Gigabyte board and i put an old 8800GTS 512Mb i had and it is running most games on decent settings at 1080p. (not maxed out but still quite playable)
 
So if i were going to upgrade my beloved 2500k i should take an 4770 instead of an 4670k, i will love the 100bucks of difference to put them on a new GPU?
 
So if i were going to upgrade my beloved 2500k i should take an 4770 instead of an 4670k, i will love the 100bucks of difference to put them on a new GPU?

Id definitely put that 100 bucks towards a GPU and just get a 4670k
 
well minimum yes ... needed mostly no...

i bet my future AII X4 760K will give me enough frame to be smooth in every games i play ... heck even my 460 HAWK was able to give 45ish FPS in crysis 3
ok ... with a Xeon E3-1275v2 but now i am on a budget and a cheapish B85 + a I5-4670 would not even fit in the budget window ... a AII X4 760K + a ASRock A88M Ex4+ cost me 50chf under the price of a i5-4670 alone (219chf)

edit i mixed up 4570 and 4670 prices...
 
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my Kaveri(A10-7850k) Runs perfectly fine in 1920 x 1080, although i have to settle down with low setting.
Please define this "Gaming"

Do you want to play Ultra/Very High settings or you just want to GAME even the latest game with low setting(like me)?
 
IMO even a good C2Q will net you decent performance. I had no problems driving bc2, bf3 with 5850s and 6970s with decent fps at 1080p with a C2Q, I probably would have still been running that system too but a friend wanted a new pc for cheap and i got a massive tax refund at the same time so i sold it to him and went with a 2500k build. C2Qs might not be the best but they don't do too bad either pitty that the last good C2Q are not included in most cpu scaling reviews
 
it is what it is... its all about the balance of your system - you as a system builder decide. high rez skews videocard over cpu - it just depends.
 
probably need dual xeons nowadays.
 
Lion, your 940 will do just fine for the foreseeable future....
 
This might help

 
I had a 2.6GHz Sandy Bridge Celeron (G550) before this i5-2500K @ 4.4GHz what I have now, and all the fps drops and other crap are gone. And also everything other use on the PC is much faster. Good old GTX470 still goes on :D
 
Depends what games you play and what you expect. There's some games where anything less than a quad won't give you the best performance, but an i3 will still play them. We're talking the difference between a budget gaming build, and an enthusiast gaming build.
 
well i would never go under a Quad, but i do think a i5 can be replaced by a less performant quad ... for instance my Phenom X4 9600B @ 2.4 do just fine atm with my R9 270 until i get my X4 760K

i can play my usual games without too much compromise: FFXIVARR all to the max (easy) TR2013 high no AA (a bit less easy) BF4 med/high (drop under 40fps sometime but rarely) Crysis 3 high (some scene make a lag spike but not too often)

PX4 9600B : 50chf 2nd hand with a Asus M3N78-CM and 4 gb DDR2 800
ASRock FM2A88M Ex4+ and a Athlon II X4 760K new : 160chf

a i5-4670 alone 219.90 a K version 234chf a good µATX Z87 between 119.90 and 199.90

it is all a matter of budget but when you are an enthusiast bound by a budget... its pretty painful...
 
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