[SOLVED] i5 6600k struggling with games

[Jonas_11]

Hey there.
My i5 6600k is really struggling with games. I tried overclocking it to 4,2GHz, but there was almost no improvment, If I check task manager while gaming it always shows 100% CPU. It struggles so much that other programs like firefox and discord stop working because it can't handle a game and something else at the same time. In Cinebench r20 I got a score of around 1600. Max temps were 60 C. Firefox, discord and hwmonitor stopped responding during the test.
Relevant specs:
CPU: i5 6600k @ 4.2 GHz (Water-cooled)
GPU: GTX 1080
RAM: 16GB @ 2400MHz
Please help, I can't think of nothing else to do but ask you.

 

[OllympianGamer]

Sounds like you have an issue somewhere. Even if it maxes out, multiple programs shouldn't crash.
Just to maybe get a simple idea try running - https://www.userbenchmark.com/ might be able to point towards a component not running correctly.

 

[Supernova1138]

If you are playing newer AAA titles eg. the latest Assassin's Creed games, Battlefield 1 or 5 multiplayer and so on, then the 6600k will struggle, it only has 4 cores and 4 threads, and a lot of these newer AAA titles either need a 4 core/8 thread, or 6 core/6 thread CPU at minimum to run somewhat well and 6 cores/12 threads or 8 cores/16 threads can sometimes help in certain titles if chasing very high framerates with a high end GPU.

Overclocking won't help much as it's lack of threads that are hurting your performance. You're probably going to have to look at a CPU upgrade, and probably a new motherboard as well, the only upgrade option on your current platform is either a 6700k or 7700k which would give you 4 cores/ 8 threads, but even that might start to become marginal in the not too distant future.

 

[Jonas_11]

If you are playing newer AAA titles eg. the latest Assassin's Creed games, Battlefield 1 or 5 multiplayer and so on, then the 6600k will struggle, it only has 4 cores and 4 threads, and a lot of these newer AAA titles either need a 4 core/8 thread, or 6 core/6 thread CPU at minimum to run somewhat well and 6 cores/12 threads or 8 cores/16 threads can sometimes help in certain titles if chasing very high framerates with a high end GPU.

Overclocking won't help much as it's lack of threads that are hurting your performance. You're probably going to have to look at a CPU upgrade, and probably a new motherboard as well, the only upgrade option on your current platform is either a 6700k or 7700k which would give you 4 cores/ 8 threads, but even that might start to become marginal in the not too distant future.

Well then.
Would you recommend me a cpu which isn't terribly expensive, and would also last some time?

 

[Supernova1138]

The best value gaming CPU right now is probably AMD's R5 3600. It has 6 cores and 12 threads and offers pretty good (though not the absolute best) gaming performance right now. Intel is still top dog for gaming with the Core i9 9900k or the cheaper Core i7 9700k tending to lead the gaming benchmarks, but you generally won't see that performance advantage over AMD's current offerings unless you have a high refresh monitor and high end GPU eg. RTX 2080 or higher.