What is the best CPU for gaming for these three categories?

phyneas

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Nov 18, 2011
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Hi,

My preferred build will be Win8.1 / 500GB Samsung EVO 840 / 16 GB 1866MHz G.Skill RAM / 2x GTX 780 Ti in SLI. Cooler, PSU, Case etc are not relevant as I have flexibility on them. This is for a desktop.

I've been reading lots of reviews across several boards, individual reviews and comparisons, focusing on the 3770k, 4770k, 4820k, 4930k, 4960k, all i7 processors, even comparing them to previous generation Sandy Bridge and SB-E processors. I am currently on a 2700k, but for one reason or another I have to upgade, and want to as well. Regardless of quality or efficiency I am not really interested in going with i5 processors, though I have looked at the 3570k and 4670k. Onboard graphics on the CPU is not a huge concern for me.

As the title reads, I am primarily interested in gaming, but I do some medium-level multitasking and a bit of video editing and compiling. I am comfortable with either the X79 or the Z87 mobos, and I know all about the quad channel and 40 PCIe lanes advantages of the X79 et cetera, but I'm not too fussed over them. I am planning on using this build, and not upgrading it, for 3-4 years and I don't think that the games I'll be using, or my GPU setup (not more than two GPU's), need the dual 16X PCIe lanes or the improved RAM - I don't plan on going over 1866MHz on the RAM so I can get a better CAS anyway and I don't mind dual channel in a 2x8GB config.

I plan on overclocking the CPU to its limit which for the above models seems to be around 4.5 in general, and some modest-high overclocking on the GPU. I use water cooling, Corsair H100i rather than the Noctua NH-DH14 even though i know it gets great reviews. I've read about things like the overclocking potential, gaming benchmarks and so on, but I am interested in the communities experience, not just the raw numbers.

Anyway, I have three questions:
1) Regardless of cost, in terms of quality and performance, what is the absolute best i7 gaming CPU, keeping in mind which socket it would go into?
2) At the higher end of CPU's, Ivy Bridge and up, in the i7 class, what is the best value for money, the sweet spot in terms of price and binning and overclocking, for gaming?
3) From Ivy Bridge up to current Haswell, from i5 to i7, what is the most cost-efficient price/performance gaming CPU?

A fourth question would be far more speculative - is Haswell-E going to kick enough ass, for gaming, that it is worth waiting until whenever in 2014 for the X99 board and the new CPU. I know that if you constantly wait for something better to come out you'll never buy anything, but with the lukewam reviews of Ivy-E and Haswell, is there more impetus to wait?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

Z1NONLY

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If you don't intend to upgrade to a 6-core intel, and your current MB chipset will give you PCI-E 3.0 with a 3770k, that's the most cost effective upgrade path for you.

When I upgrade from my 2600k, it will be a 3770K (for PCI-E 3.0 and an SLI setup) or a 6-core Intel.

Neither Ivy nor Haswell is that big of a performance gain from SB.

I'm not even interested in PCI-E 3.0 unless I decide to SLI two beastly GPU's.