How far ahead of the game is the i5 3570k?

[Dubnoman]

I bought a nice PC last year with an i5 3570k. It also has a Radeon HD 7950 with 3 GB and 8 GB 1600 RAM and runs on Windows 7 64-bit. I sought advice on my build and people told me that an i7 just wouldn't be utilized for PC gaming.

 

Next year, around the time The Witcher 3 hits, I want to upgrade some components. I don't think getting a new motherboard and CPU will be necessary. I will put in an 8 GB stick of RAM to give my computer 16 GB of RAM and then get a very good GPU by mid or late 2014 standards (whenever The Witcher 3 hits).

 

Do you think that an i5 will still be pretty good for PC gaming by late 2014? Do you guys expect it to run The Witcher 3 very well, or might I be wishing I went for an i7 in 2012? Do you think the i7 will still be underutilized for PC gaming all through next year?

 

 

I should note that if The Witcher 3 can run very well with both my current CPU and current GPU but benefits from 8 GB of RAM (let's say that they did that), I may just keep the same GPU I have now for all of 2014 and just double my RAM in 2014. My current specs should be able to run The Witcher 3 pretty well, so it is possible I may just double my RAM only next year.

[Vagrant0]

Shouldn't have any trouble running anything within the next generation of gaming baring some sudden massive breakthrough. You may not be able to run everything on ultra, but should be able to manage just about anything coming out on medium or high settings.

[hoofhearted4]

the extra 8gb still be completely useless in gaming. i have 16gb but only cause i like to run virtual machines. the CPU will be fine. at this point CPU are far ahead of games. upgrading CPUs only leads to a few fps increase. more cores don't do anything as games don't utilize then and more GHz is what leads to those few fps more. your GPU is still very good. if you want more power you're better off buying a second GPU and putting it in xfire. upgrading won't get you the increase that a second gpu will and getting a second one will be cheaper.

[Rennn]

The cpu is not as important for games as one would think, and it'll be even less important for next-gen games... My quad core Phenom II at 3.2Ghz ranges from 10% to 40% load in most games, meaning even most dual core games aren't using 2 cores to capacity. Games optimized for more than 2 cores are even less cpu bound with anything remotely modern. Upgrading from your 3570k will get you a couple fps just from a slightly faster system overall, but nothing substantial, barring some unforeseen turn of events where the Witcher 3 is optimized for a single core (lol).

 

Upgrading your RAM isn't really needed. I have 8GB of Ripjaw RAM at 1600mhz, and it never, ever reaches capacity from a single game.

 

If your mobo supports crossfire and you have power to spare, I recommend that since the 7xxx series gets very efficient returns.

If you can't crossfire, your graphics card is the most important bit to upgrade, assuming you're not happy with the 7950. The cash saved from not upgrading your RAM or CPU would be enough to get a very elite 2014 GPU, and you'd get better gaming performance than if you upgraded your 3570k and RAM.

 

The thing to remember is that next-gen console CPUs are nothing special. They focus more on the video card, just like the exclusive PC titles generally do. That means CPU requirements will not increase by much over the next few years.

[Vindekarr]

Aye, I was a bit heavy-handed on my last build, threw in an i7 3770K and then tuned it up to 4.1 GHZ-I've subsequently dialed it back down to it's default 3.91 GHZ and even then it's making mincemeat of everything I "feed" it. There is literally no need for more than 3 GHZ of processor power right now, a 3570K is a monster, you'll probably be using it for a very long time.

 

I did a similar goofball thing with RAM; I dumped 32GB of G-Skill's top-range Sniper kit in, and I'm yet to go past 50%. As a matter of fact, my motherboard actually rarely runs my systems at full power, it normally limits me to 16GB RAM to conserve power and reduce thermal bleed. Graphics cards? you want more punch, don't bother upgrading. Quantity kicks quality up the proverbial right now, so just grab another 7950, crossfire 'er up, and you'll have a PC that not only annihilates ENB on max, but giggles while doing it.

[Dubnoman]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I wasn't thinking of upgrading my CPU when The Witcher 3 hits, I was just wondering how good the CPU might be by the second half of 2014.

 

If I ever did crossfire, would it really be better than buying an upper-mid-range GPU (something around $350-$400 in 2014)? Would I have to worry about power consumption? I have a 850 watt PSU (good model from a good brand, I forgot who atm).

 

I'd have to see if my motherboard does crossfire, too.

[Vindekarr]

Dub-OK, here we go.

 

Will a top-spec i5 still be good late 2014? short answer yes, long answer, hell-freakin'-yes. It's well overpowered for what's around now, and PC games are actually moving away from being CPU based and mostly rely on the graphics card and RAM. An i5 from the late 2000s will still be good in late 2014, let alone your new one.

 

Crossfire VS one ultra-high end GPU? I ran a similar topic recently, and with any sort of modern ATI, just go Crossfire. They can run very, very efficiently in Crossfire, and the power advantage is much, much larger than simply upgrading what you have. As an example, if you upgrade a 1 GB card to a 3 GB card, you get an extra 2GB. When you replace a 1 GB card with TWO 2 GB cards, you get 3 extra GB.

 

Power? very unlikely, 850W is a LOT, you should have no issues.

 

Compatible? if your motherboard can handle an i5 and a 7950, it can handle crossfire. Almost any modern board can outside of a laptop of micro-ITX(a type of tissue-box sized micro-case)

Edited July 28, 2013 by Vindekarr

[cicala]

upgrading CPUs only leads to a few fps increase.

 

On that note... (keep in mind GPU is a GTX 560 Non-TI 1GB GDDR5)

 

Before CPU Upgrade: Skyrim with a heavy ENB mod on launcher preset LOW = 10-20 fps

After CPU Upgrade: Skyrim with same ENB mod on launcher preset ULTRA = 50-120 fps

 

I bought a Intel Q8200 back in 2008 and it lasted me for sometime UP UNTIL all the games started to be ported from console to PC, recently bought a new motherboard, 2x4gb of ram and an Intel i7-4770K stock clock setting.... difference in Skyrim and other games was AMAZING

[Vindekarr]

Yes but we're talking about a single very specific model and spec of CPU, and the only way you could increase it's power would be to overclock it, and even then it's still got ~ 3.6GHZ which is more than enough power. Yes, obviously, if you upgrade from a Q8200 to an i7 you'll get a massive improvement, but i5 to i7, the only palpable difference comes post-overclock, and I don't think this person wants to do that.

 

I recently upgraded from a 2007 i7 to a new i7 3770K and got a 3 FPS difference out of almost a GHZ of extra grunt. I went from 3.1 GHZ to 4.2 GHZ and only went from 118 to 121 FPS in ENB Skyrim(on ultra). (With 32 GB RAM and dual Crossfire 7870s)

[hoofhearted4]

I was dtalking about going from say an ivy bridge to Haswell.