i7-960 build upgrade for gaming 2017

[Sochie]

Question is for whole system but for me seems to really come down to the CPU... I'm novice mostly for computers and advanced components, trying to understand. My friend built me a computer 2010
-i7 960 3.2GHz CPU (still sells for like $450 somehow-i know nothing for any overclocking also)
-Geforce GTX 570 GPU (can easily upgrade this with refurbished GTX 960 for $150-200)
-MOBO evga X58 SLI3
-seems to have 12GB DDR3 Ram / Solid state drive / not sure what power supply or fan or other little components needed/used...

For 2017 games the latest and greatest like witcher 3 for example says its minimum requirements are like a 4th gen i5 6700k 3.5GHz which to my understanding is alot better than my i7 960 3.2 GHz (so do I need a cheaper yet better i5 6700k 300-400$ and take out my i7 960??) and then do I need a new mobo? or more RAM? also? and therefore a new windows operating system purchase?? whats the deal with this i7 960 please help

 

[jowen3400]

4th Gen 6700K i5? I believe you mean the 6th Gen i7 6700k, Which has been passed by the 7700k for the same price. The 7600k i5 is still 7th Gen and what will be alot faster than your current setup. You will need a Z270 for all 7th Gen Procs and New Ram as well. Maybe a new PSU. Would recommend new Storage options as well. So like a new computer.

 

[jowen3400]

what is your price range? and will you be doing VR?

 

[MRBANG1]

You are looking at a new setup if you really want to get into new games. A GPU upgrade would net you some more FPS in a few games but you will find your old quad core having issues keeping up compared to the latest intel/amd offerings.

 

[Rakanyshu]

i7 960 and x58 mobo are expensive because those are enthusiast hardware and not easy to find, imo you can still play witcher 3 at 1080 at around 60fps with not too many drops using a new say 9604gb/10606gb gpu, my old build is an i7 950 Gigabyte x58 ud3r paired with a 960 4Gb witcher 3 was smooth at 1080 and i could even play ot on low/med with the old 660ti 2Gb.

Here is a benchmark that shows lower clock speed doesnt matter much in witcher 3 the use a lot of cpu unfortunately not the i7 960 but they even use the same i7 4790k at different clock speeds (from 2.5ghz up to 4.5ghz) without making a difference in fps.
http://www.techspot.com/review/1006-the-witcher-3-benchmarks/page5.html

 

[tomgang]

I dont know how much you will spend but X58 can be a kickass 1080P gamer.

Overclock that CPU to 4 GHz and maybe get a better cpu cooler if needed.

12 GB ram is fine for most parts.

New GPU like GTX 1060 or 1070 is great for this. GTX 960 is not that great, if you want it cheap still do you self a favor and get a GTX 970 at least, deffently worfh the ekstra money.

Since you have a SSD already i sse no reason to do more for gaming. un less you want to go the hole way and get a 6 core Xeon/I7 cpu as i dit with my X58 system. upgrade my I7 920 To an I7 980X and that helped in games aswell.

Old system config with I7 920.

http://peecee.dk/upload/view/467367/full

This is how it runs today.

http://peecee.dk/uploads/062017/M.2_Toms.jpg

Just for the fun I7 980X fire strike at 4.77 GHz

http://peecee.dk/uploads/062017/3Dmark_Fire_Strike_4.77_GHz.jpg

Game wise this rig runs every thing i throws at it in high/ultra settings. That is Witcher 3, BF1, DOOM, Dying light you name it. Have yet to try a game im forced to go down to medium settings yet.