Question Need help with CPU Upgrade

[Brandbjorn]

Alright lads, it's that time of the year again and I'm looking around for new bits and bobs for my PC.

Currently running:

ASUS H81M PLUS (Micro ATX I believe?)
I3 4160 @ 3.6
Nvidia GTX 970
16 GB of DDR3 Kingston
Some SSDs


I'm looking to upgrade the CPU, I play some games but I don't do a lot of high intensity gaming (I mainly stick to games such as Mordhau, Garry's Mod, Vermintide, some Total War games), and I'm looking at potential boosts I can get to help my PC out a bit.

I've heard things around the web about grabbing an I5 4960K, but then hear that the BIOS for the 81M doesn't allow for overclock, so I should go for an I5 4690.
I then got people telling me that if I go for an I5 4690 that with it running at 3.5 freq that it would be slightly poorer in performance, yet some websites like the Benchmarker say it's a tiny improvement in single core speeds.

I'm not really looking to improve the graphics card at this stage, but if the worst comes to worst I am aware I may have to upgrade the motherboard in order to break past the limitations on CPUs I can use, however, I don't really have the money 'nor play the games to really warrant that cash dump yet.

Any advice on CPU change? Or perhaps would it be best to stick to that processor until the day comes where I may as well upgrade everything else?

I would also ask at what sort of CPU coolers I should be looking for, as I did check, and my CPU constantly hits 80 - high 90s degrees Celsius, which is not ideal.

I just realised there's a much shorter way of saying what I meant to say:

Without needing to upgrade my motherboard or graphics card, what's a decent processor I can get for online and single player games like the ones stated above?

 

[gingerrankin]

Indeed, with this mobo you cannot do OC. Then I5-4690k has no advantage over the 4690.

The i5-4690 is much better than your current cpu. The 3.5 GHz is the base frequency, but the turbo is 3.9. And it has 4 cores.

Before making the change, make sure you need it. Use some program like afterburner to know the load of cpu and gpu when playing. If the cpu is usually 100%, the change can be useful.

Surely the i5-4690 is enough for your GTX 970. Anything above is wasted.

 

[Brandbjorn]

Indeed, with this mobo you cannot do OC. Then I5-4690k has no advantage over the 4690.

The i5-4690 is much better than your current cpu. The 3.5 GHz is the base frequency, but the turbo is 3.9. And it has 4 cores.

Before making the change, make sure you need it. Use some program like afterburner to know the load of cpu and gpu when playing. If the cpu is usually 100%, the change can be useful.

Surely the i5-4690 is enough for your GTX 970. Anything above is wasted.

Thank you so much for the reply,

I take it I'd need to look at better cooling etc etc... With it being a more powerful CPU?

Also, will boosting it affect it's temp, lifespan, etc? I've never boosted CPUs before.

And to add to the myriad of questions I'm asking: Where can I get said CPU for a decent price?