Intel K or not-K, i7 or i5 for gaming?

[Juanito Jones]

I'm building my new PC (mostly for gaming) and I'm not quite sure about the OC. I never did OC (I'm old school, I did not play modern video games for many years). So my question is: How important it is that the processor is K or not-K for gaming? Is it really necessary for "good results"? Do you currently have to install an i7 for optimum quality, or an i5 is enough? Thanks guys!

 

[Suztera]

Overclocking is not important for gaming. It is not necessary, it's only worth it if you interested in it.
For gaming, an i5 is fine but you can get an i7 if you want.

 

[Elemential]

An i5 is enough for today's gaming. Go with an i7 if you're going to be do heavy editing or going to be gaming at high resolutions.

Something like the i5-4690 or i5-4590 would be enough if you don't plan on overclocking

 

[spdragoo]

Getting a "K" processor is only important if you plan OC'ing the CPU. If you don't plan on attempting to OC your CPU, don't bother with the extra expense of the unlocked "K" version.

As for i5 vs. i7, unless you're talking about a 3rd (or maybe even 4th) generation i7, the i7 chips don't really provide any benefit in gameplay over the i5 versions. The i7's HyperThreading only rears its head as a performance enhancement for content creation & streaming. That may change in the future, but again getting an i5 instead of an i7 saves you cash that you can better spend on other hardware.

 

[D_Perk]

i have an i5 4690k slapped into an MSI gaming 7 mobo. I also will stream on twitch when i feel like it. i have 0 problems with game play at max settings while i stream via OBS and in the back ground. i will have 2 stream assistants running as well as other things on my second monitor. plus a HD web cam. the only thing as of right now i see the i7 being a better choice is for the video rendering if you choose to post videos of game play on youtube. something i forgot so mention with everything i have running on my PC my CPU usage hits about 40-45%

 

[Tchota]

the i5 will be good enough for you, since you don't play modern games. Even if you did, right now you would get same performance. I would recommend you to go E3-1231, its 12$ more expensive than an i5-4690k, and it gives you the extra virtual cores an i7 would give you, so it will be better at multitasking scenario, and its probably more future proof.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

K version processor usually have higher clocks but still, I agree, don't buy one if you don't plan on overclocking.

 

[Juanito Jones]

Thanks everyone for your opinions and wisdom! You have helped me to rethink my budget. I'll go for i5 4690K (I will overclock only when performance begins to falter). Thanks again!

 

[D_Perk]

With my i5 i also picked up the MSI gaming 7 mobo. it comes with an app that allows you to hit a button that will OC your CPU to i think 4ghz the temps run about 5-10c higher. i don't really notice a difference but the option is there. You can play EVERY game out there on max settings, it would just come down to can your graphics card run them at high lol. i use a GTX 970 and have 0 problems