ffomar

Honorable
Oct 6, 2013
28
0
10,530
I have an Intel Core i5-6500 processor with a MSI Intel Skylake B150 LGA 1151 DDR4 motherboard. I am looking to upgrade to an Intel Core i7 processor as my i5 bottlenecks my GTX 1070 when I play BF5. I looked into different i7 processors and they all seem to be around the same price $380 - $450. If I go for the i7 8th gen or higher, I must upgrade my motherboard too (according to some research I did).

My questions are, what is the best CPU upgrade I can make bang for buck? should I go for an i7 7th gen and not upgrade my motherboard or should I get an i7 8th gen or higher and upgrade my motherboard? Also, how drastic is the difference between an i7 7th gen and i7 8th gen (they seem to be around the same price)?

Processor:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010T6CWI2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s04?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Motherboard:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014YN64A8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Graphic card:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487265
 
Solution
Are you looking to overclock if you get a new board?
The I7 8700 and I7 7700 are both based on the 14nm architecture.
The 7700 is only a hyperthreaded 4 core CPU. The 8700 is a hyperthreaded 6 core.
The k skews of both can overclock to around 5.0ghz with proper cooling, however, you have a b series board that doesn't allow for overclocking even on the k skews.
Since BF5 loves threads and can utilize more than the 4 threads, your I5 struggles. A 7th generation 8 thread I7 will be better but not nearly the step up an 8700 or 8700k would be.
If you want to overclock I would buy a new Z370 motherboard and the 8700k since it performs better in nearly every instance compared to the I7 7700k.
If you don't want to overclock buy an H370 board...
Are you looking to overclock if you get a new board?
The I7 8700 and I7 7700 are both based on the 14nm architecture.
The 7700 is only a hyperthreaded 4 core CPU. The 8700 is a hyperthreaded 6 core.
The k skews of both can overclock to around 5.0ghz with proper cooling, however, you have a b series board that doesn't allow for overclocking even on the k skews.
Since BF5 loves threads and can utilize more than the 4 threads, your I5 struggles. A 7th generation 8 thread I7 will be better but not nearly the step up an 8700 or 8700k would be.
If you want to overclock I would buy a new Z370 motherboard and the 8700k since it performs better in nearly every instance compared to the I7 7700k.
If you don't want to overclock buy an H370 board and I7 8700.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ffomar
Solution
Just upgrade the BIOS on that board for 7th gen. and get a 6700/6700k/7700/7700k cheap from the used market. The 6th/7th gen. chips are still plenty good in gaming and the difference in most games are not that significant, barring some CPU demanding games.