CPU - Help me decide!

[qwiksilvertrav]

So I came across a bunch of different PC's and plan on picking the fastest set up for gaming given the parts I have available.

I currently run a I5 3470 with a Evga GTX 970 SSC.

I have two different CPU's to choose from for the new setup.

I7 2600 (locked version) or I5 4440. Both are obviously better than the I5 3470. Which one wins out between these two? They seem damn close.

I plan on getting another GTX 970 SSC to run SLI and I'm afraid both of the CPU's might become a bottle neck at some point down the road with a max 4k game or something. So thinking I might just sell all of this and run a better CPU.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Karadjgne]

To run the i5-4440 you'd need to also swap mobo's, different lga entirely, which could very well be a nightmare with windows concerns for extremely little gain. The better option, requiring no windows/mobo/driver or other changes other than the cpu cooler is the i7-2600. However, the i5-3470 is slightly stronger at 1-4 thread use, has higher IPC and clocks, but that can be offset by multiple thread games use where 8thread optimization will punish a 4thread i5 with close to 100% usage.

Honestly, the move to Haswell isn't worth the difference in performance, and you'll only see any gains with the Sandy in multi-thread games.

At 4k, the cpus won't be near as big an issue as sli 970's. The 3.5Gb of faster ram and 0.5Gb of slower ram is going to be an issue where games are using upto 11Gb of ram. Sli 970's are more suited to higher fps 1080p/144Hz games where the cpu is capable of the fps, but a single gpu can't get the details and high fps.

To run 4k/60Hz decently requires a minimum of a gtx1080 (your 970 is somewhat equivalent to a gtx1060) and a 6th gen or newer i7 or 8th gen i5 or better. 4k gaming simply isn't worth the price tag on a 4 thread cpu.

 

[qwiksilvertrav]

Should have clarified, I already have the motherboards for each CPU. I have 5 different fully functional machines at the moment so that isn't really an issue.
I'll probably still run with the dual 970's for now. Maybe a few years down the road I'll sell them and upgrade.

More concerned about which CPU is the best to go with. OR if I should just sell it all and get a newer gen intel with motherboard.

 

[Karadjgne]

Do both. Check out pricing for fully functional pc's, at that age you should be looking at @$150-$200 depending on exactly what's in each. That'd give you @$750-$1000, which would be a serious good start on a new pc, if not a complete one if going with something like a Rx580/gtx1070 on a Ryzen platform.

If not, then swap your cpu for the i7-2600, and sell just the 4 working pc's and your current 970, using whatever you can get for them towards a single better gpu like a 1070/ti or maybe even a 1080, which will put you in much better standing than sli 970's ever will.

 

[qwiksilvertrav]

Regarding the 970 sli's, I've seen a lot of comparison's advising the opposite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TJZsbeQWk0 And my versions are the SSC over this video making it close. I can get another GTX 970 SSC for under $200. Not sure if forking out another 500 on top of that is the best choice.

Regardless of that my question is more on the CPU's. Looks like I might sell all of these (keeping one tower which is a coolermaster case) and upgrade CPU/Motherboard.

 

[Karadjgne]

Sli is dieing out. It's last is on DX11 titles, has no support at all for DX12 titles as that's mgpu based (devs aren't making mgpu available), and at best it's only @70% power of the second card. Most games run @40-50% but many have none to worse than none. So don't rely on YouTube as that'll be a best case scenario for only a few games, everything else won't see the same results.