Is Intel I5 4460 a good gaming CPU?

[Quette]

My Intel Pentium G3240 IS Bottlnecking my Geforce GTX 1050 ti and i was wanting to get the Intel 4460 Because it fits my socket and i was wondering was that CPU good for gaming?

 

[Ecky]

It's an upgrade for sure. You might want to go with a higher clocked i5 though if it's not too much more, something like a 4590, 4670 or 4690.

 

[227qed]

Long answer: depends on your future gpu plans, monitor, and games.

Short answer: with a 1050 ti it'll be great.

I've been running a 1070 and i5 4460 at 1080p 60 hz, for the last year or so, but just recently got a TV that does 2160p @ 60 hz or 1080p @120 hz. The i5 4460 will hit steady 60 fps in everything, including cpu intensive games like battlefield 1 multiplayer at either resolution. However, switching to 1080p 120 hz, I noticed my framerate will dip to as low as 80 ish, which I can without a doubt, attribute to the cpu.

All the posted benchmarks will tell you a similar story. The i5 4460 isn't the cpu you want if you plan on diving into 120+ hz gaming at some point. But it will definitely not bottleneck for the next few years if you're planning on sticking to 60 fps at any resolution. Maybe in rare cases it'll dip below, but that can be considered more if a fault with the game than the cpu.

Lastly, for what it's worth, I've got a 1080 ti on the way and am not going to upgrade my cpu any time soon. I vastly prefer 4k 60 hz to anything I've experienced and know the i5 4460 will be more than adequate for giving me a stable 60 fps experience.

Imho, it's easy to be overly critical of components based on reviews, benchmarks, etc. The reality is that the 4460 is a great gaming cpu for the money.

 

[Lester23]

It is a considerable upgrade, so no worries buying it. I have it and does a good job, some people says it will show its age @2019-2020.
Happy upgrade !

 

[SENOR BURTOS]

Yeah it's a nice CPU even three years after its release. 4 cores 4 threads is still the sweet spot for gaming.

That CPU is going to do great paired with a 1050 ti

But just like other people effectively said, whenever you upgrade your graphics card it may become a little bit of a problem.

I mean, not at a certain degree to make it unplayable but as always lower clocks and older CPU architectures do affect gaming performance.

Like they said it comes down to how CPU-intensive the game and situation is.

Firstly let's talk about graphics, if you mostly plan on playing at 60 FPS or below, most CPUs will do very well, since you are limited by your graphics card. Wether it's 1050 ti or 1080 ti getting 60 FPS or below means that you are pushing the VGA to the limit, the CPU only needs to draw 60 frames per second so it makes little difference. What makes the difference is how the graphics card is coping with high resolutions and effects

It goes without saying don't run it on a pentium 4 but people really have to be less concerned about the CPU, because most of them don't have a high refresh rate monitor.

However, if you are a competitive gamer and play games at 144 hz or more the situation becomes more CPU-limited. This time the GPU is not being stressed but the CPU has to draw as many FPS as possible and here clocks and improved architectures play a key-role in gaming performance.

Don't get me wrong, most people have the enormous misconception that they need a $1000 dollar CPU for gaming, a 7900X won't go any faster than a 7700K because games can't fully utilize the 10 cores the 7900X has. And by the time more games start to take advantage of more cores the 7900X won't have been that huge of a deal, at the end of the day no matter if the game uses 2, 4 or 8 cores. Fast single-core speed is always going to be important the whenever 10 cores becomes a standard, you'll probably be able to buy a more affordable 10 core CPU so it makes absolutely no sense to buy the 7900X now. At least for gaming

On the contrary, having a CPU which is a little bit better than the standard does help a little bit, especially when investing more money on a GPU becomes innecesary.

SOME GAMES, EVEN AT 60 FPS OR BELOW are very CPU intensive or poorly optimized which means that a good CPU could give you 60 FPS while a slower one stays at 40. Also the reason why people have been moving on to the i7 rather than an i5 for high-end gaming is partly because those $100 are making a difference as time passes and CPU utilization is higher.

But like i said that's not to say you have to go crazy and buy a 10 core for future proofing. But the thing is sometimes there's little difference between buying a 1080 ti or a titan but those extra $100 paid for the i7 are better in the long term.


If possible get a 4670K/4690K since it is overclockeable

You might get it new, but they are so expensive that you'll be better off with kaby lake and an entry level DDR3 motherboard for the same price