Quote:
Originally Posted by sclitheroe
We'll have to agree to disagree. X-Plane and FS X both heavily utilize multiple cores as an example. Civ 5 specifically listed a quad core CPU as a recommended system requirement. I'm cherry picking of course, but a lot of the discussion about multicore support in games centers around FPS type games, which are notorious for being single threaded.
I wouldn't be surprised to find out Simcity V likes multiple cores too - it makes no sense that they wouldn't have background threads for the various underlying simulation layers.
In the end I doubt it matters much, but for $100 either way you might as well get the big boost to on-die cache.
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i5s still have 4 physical cores, they just don't have 4 virtual cores that a program may or may not utilize.
And a 6MB cache vs 8MB cache makes a near 0 difference in gaming. It's really not a matter of opinion, it's been beaten to death over the last 2-3 years by enthusiasts.
The most improvement in the most optimized games you will see with an i7 @ $350-$360 is generously 5%-8% because of HT and the increased cache.
So an i5 @ $225 (on newegg atm) which would be a baseline of 100% performance in games vs a 3770k @ $330 (on newegg) at 108% =
i5-3570k = $225 = $2.25 per performance point
i7-3770k = $330 = $3.06 per performance point (best case scenario)
Especially in a new build, that extra $100 would be far better spent elsewhere, either on a better videocard (which for $100 will show far superior performance gains) or on an SSD (which will give better overall PC performance, though no FPS gains). This is really the best reason to get an i5 over an i7 if your primary function is gaming.
If I have $500 for my CPU/GPU budget, your PC would be far better with an i5-3570k ($225) and a 7870 ($260) at ~$500 after tax, rather than a 3770k ($330) and a 650 Ti ($160) at ~$500 after tax.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/548?vs=680
Especially considering the 7870 gives a 40+% FPS improvement over the 650 Ti.