Question when future games require 8 cores will the i7 6700k still hold up for 60 fps Gaming ?

[lilian242ra]

I mean will the i7 6700k hold up for 60 fps 1080p and 1440p gaming when 8 cores will be the min for Gaming ?
or it's time to upgrade ?

 

[sizzling]

For 60 FPS gaming the 6700k should still be doing good. You ideally want it paired with 2x8gb RAM. If you have a Z170/Z270 motherboard and half decent cooler as suggested above you can overclock which can give a nice performance boost. I’d say the best time to upgrade is when you find your system lacking in performance, if it still meets your needs/expectations then no need to upgrade yet.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I mean will the i7 6700k hold up for 60 fps 1080p and 1440p gaming when 8 cores will be the min for Gaming ?
or it's time to upgrade ?

I don't think it's a fair assumption that games will ever 'require' 8 full CPU cores, especially with SMT. To be sure more cores can help but only up to a point. Games will always depend on the one primary thread for performance because action-based elements in the scene have to be processed in sequence or bullets hit target before the target moves in range. So if the CPU is capable enough how ever many other cores/threads there are will probably be enough to keep up. In fact, I've read where too many threads can actually get in the way of the gaming experience if developers aren't careful.

Where more cores/threads will definitely be helpful is allowing other processes to be running at the same time without affecting the game. So discording or streaming, performance monitoring, web browsers and e-mail open and active on another screen won't interfere with the gaming action. I'd like to think creative developers will invent new apps to have open along with games just because they can now.

So the point is: so long as you resist temptation to run simultaneous apps you may find the gaming experience still good if the CPU single-thread performance is still good. In that case the thing to focus on would be the GPU, especially for 1440p gaming, and memory. If you find you just can't get adequate performance with a modern GPU and 8 or more GB memory only then worry about a CPU/mobo upgrade.