[SOLVED] Gaming CPU Build Advice

LandoCommando

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May 1, 2013
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I am planning a new build this year by taking advantage of the Black Friday deals. I am currently running a MINI ITX system with an i5 4570, GTX 760, 8 GBs of Ram, and 550 Watt PSU. I want to upgrade to a system that will be able to last me at least 5 years and can play games at 1440p with 60 FPS on high settings now and into the future.


What CPU do you think can handle that task without running into potential FUTURE bottleneck issues? I already purchased an intel Z390 mini itx mobo so I'm ONLY looking at intel CPU options.

Thank You,

Landon
 
Solution
i5 8400 and above. At 60 fps you are not stressing a modern CPU. The i5 8600K is probably worth the extra for the higher clock speeds and overclocking potential but if you check the benchmarks you'll usually see the 8400 hanging out just below all the high end CPUs by a very small margin.

I'm starting to realise I have a habit of overkill with CPUs, I went for an i7 3770, then 6700K, then a Ryzen 7 2700X and none of them has ever worked hard for gaming or been a noticeable upgrade over my previous one at the time. building them is half the fun for me though :)

Dugimodo

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i5 8400 and above. At 60 fps you are not stressing a modern CPU. The i5 8600K is probably worth the extra for the higher clock speeds and overclocking potential but if you check the benchmarks you'll usually see the 8400 hanging out just below all the high end CPUs by a very small margin.

I'm starting to realise I have a habit of overkill with CPUs, I went for an i7 3770, then 6700K, then a Ryzen 7 2700X and none of them has ever worked hard for gaming or been a noticeable upgrade over my previous one at the time. building them is half the fun for me though :)
 
Solution

LandoCommando

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May 1, 2013
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So you're saying the 8400 will give me the 5 years I'm looking for? I have a 4570 now and (from what I've seen on other forum posts here) I believe the 4570 is bottlenecking ANY GPU over a 1070. As I said, I just want to make sure that "if" I decide to upgrade the GPU 3-5 years from now, the GPU won't bottleneck the 2170ti, 2180, or whatever the high end card(s) are at that time.
 

Dugimodo

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I don't have a crystal ball so it's all guesswork, Your 5 year old i5 non K CPU is just now starting to struggle, that's the closest to a prediction I can come.
If you had gone with a 4690K or 4790K back then how much better off would you be now? I suspect you might have got another 6-12 months out of it, maybe.

I would personally go for the i5 8600K (or 9600K) but I tend to not worry too much about price.