What is the most powerful CPU I can pair with a DDR3 motherboard/memory ram?

[SeriousGaming101]

What is the fastest/most powerful CPU that I can put into a motherboard that uses DDR3 memory ram? It doesn't matter if its AMD or Intel.

 

[captaincharisma]

well the only AMD CPU's left on the AMD side are the FX series CPU's which can eaily be beat by an intel core i3 CPU. i would say the powerful CPU's would be in intel's devil's canyon CPU's

 

[Phaaze88]

A 4790k. But the motherboard needs to support said chip(bios compatible), as well as needing proper cooling. Those Intel stock coolers won't cut it, especially if you overclock.

 

[BFG-9000]

If you include overclocking, then easily it's the Broadwell Core i7-5775C thanks to its enormous 128MB L4 cache. It overclocks to just as high as a 4790K will, and even manages to beat the 4790K from its low stock 3.7GHz turbo speed in many benchmarks thanks to all that cache.

Of course this performance costs more money, which is why the 5775C goes for about double what the 4790K does, used on eBay.

 

[xeon_fan]

Well I would say anything from Xeon / i7 2011 @x79 - list:
- 4960x (6c/12th) or 1660 v2 (6c/12th) (both are more or less the same) - 15MB cache L3 - I had this one & it was great
- 4930k (6c/12th) or 1650 v2 (6c/12th) (both are more or less the same) - 12MB cache L3
- 1680 v2 (8c / 16th !)very powerful one yet very expensive and was not available back then (was always too expensive for me) - now 300$ @ ebay

Above for gaming + raw power with QUAD Channel (I assume you asks as you have a lot of memory sticks ) and overclock ability !

More power could be obtained from dual processors Xeon's from E5-26xx series like :
Xeon E5-2697 v2 with 12c/24th (2.7 with Turbo at 3.5 ghz)
Note E5-26xx - series is not overclockable !

 

[captaincharisma]

Well I would say anything from Xeon / i7 2011 @x79 - list:
- 4960x (6c/12th) or 1660 v2 (6c/12th) (both are more or less the same) - I had this one & it was great
- 4930k (6c/12th) or 1650 v2 (6c/12th) (both are more or less the same)
- 1680 v2 (8c / 16th !)very powerful one yet very expensive and was not available back then (was always too expensive for me) - now 300$ @ ebay

compatibility is always a problem when you're trying to use a server based CPU in a motherboard designed for a desktop PC

 

[xeon_fan]

Well I would say anything from Xeon / i7 2011 @x79 - list:
- 4960x (6c/12th) or 1660 v2 (6c/12th) (both are more or less the same) - 15MB cache L3 - I had this one & it was great
- 4930k (6c/12th) or 1650 v2 (6c/12th) (both are more or less the same) - 12MB cache L3
- 1680 v2 (8c / 16th !)very powerful one yet very expensive and was not available back then (was always too expensive for me) - now 300$ @ ebay

Above for gaming + raw power with QUAD Channel (I assume you asks as you have a lot of memory sticks ) and overclock ability !

More power could be obtained from dual processors Xeon's from E5-26XX series like :
Xeon E5-2697 v2 with 12c/24th (2.7 with Turbo at 3.5 ghz)
Note E5-26XX - series is not overclockable !

compatibility is always a problem when you're trying to use a server based CPU in a motherboard designed for a desktop PC

I cannot agree. I used Asus Sabertooth x79 with following processors :
- e5-2670
- e5-2680
- e5-1650 v2
- i7-4960x

all without any problems

 

[BFG-9000]

I think it depends on if your application can use more slower cores instead of fewer faster ones. For games, generally higher single-core performance is better which is why HEDT and Bulldozer were usually slower.

I wasn't able to find an Ivy Bridge-E comparison but here is Sandy Bridge-E performing worse than both Haswell and the much lower clocked Broadwell:

Note how much slower the Broadwell is in this CPU test when the IGP is used (which uses the 128MB as vRAM instead of L4 cache). Haswell-E platform (5960X) of course uses DDR4

 

[xeon_fan]

I think it depends on if your application can use more slower cores instead of fewer faster ones. For games, generally higher single-core performance is better which is why HEDT and Bulldozer were usually slower.

I wasn't able to find an Ivy Bridge-E comparison but here is Sandy Bridge-E performing worse than both Haswell and the much lower clocked Broadwell:

Note how much slower the Broadwell is in this CPU test when the IGP is used (which uses the 128MB as vRAM instead of L4 cache). Haswell-E platform (5960X) of course uses DDR4

Yes, in general HEDT CPUs were slower in single core performance, but the difference was not that big [except this 128 L4 cache thing ] and if you want to have "more" future proof gaming CPU you need to go with more cores as more and more games will be heading into this direction due to Ryzen revolution.