i5 or i7 for games ?

[char Mario]

i7 > i5......End of the story.

[DirkW]

Whether or not an i7 will increase your game's performance over an i5 (being able to use more than 4 threads isn't the same as maxing out more than 4 threads), it does certainly allow you to run more things in the background without influencing your gaming performance. If that is really worth another 100€ or so... that's actually one of the things anyone needs to decide for her-/himself.

[Faceman]

When at the same speed, i5 = i7 for ALL games except one, Watch Dogs, which is a smishsmorsion of a game.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8227/devils-canyon-review-intel-core-i7-4790k-and-i5-4690k/5

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7189/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-september-2013/10

 

Don't confuse usage with performance.  Just because the i7s usage is lower, doesn't mean it performs better.

 

I play BF4(64p Ultra, Conquest Large Online) + Netflix/iTunes + Skype/Teamspeak/Ventrillo + Overwolf + Web Browsing + HWiNFO + MSI Afterburner + RivaStats RTSS/FRAPS and my usage is in the 80s, but the game plays just as well as an i7.

 

For gaming, you buy an i5 + most expensive GPU you can afford, unless you have a massive budget and can get the i7.

 

If you do content creation, then an i7 is going to really shine in that area.

[i_build_nanosuits]