1440p - should I upgrade my CPU?

[ricknos]

I've been gaming on the same 1080p 60Hz monitor for 4 years, when I first bought it I kinda planned on going to a triple monitor setup but that never happened. So now I'm looking into going with a 1440p ultrawide monitor. I'm kinda set on the Asus ROG PG348Q.

Right now I'm running a FX8350 which I also picked up 4 years ago, and an EVGA GTX 980. Most games run pretty well at 1080p, but with The Witcher 3 I've had some cooling issues with my CPU, idk how hot is bad but I get warnings that the temp has hit 65C and it's gone over 70 if I didn't do something right away. My solution has been to remove the side panel, as turning down settings didn't cure it. It also happened once in GTA5 but only once.

My current CPU cooler is a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, and I'm definitely upgrading - thinking the Corsair 100i V2. 

 

So my main concerns are will this run 1440p at acceptable frame rates, will liquid cooling solve the overheating, or should I get a new CPU right away?

I have been looking at CPUs and was considering either the i7 7700k or i5 6600k, though I don't think I know much about them, so any thoughts on this are appreciated.

I will definitely upgrade both my GPU and CPU within a couple years anyway, but I'm trying to not blow my budget right away.

[MeepLikesToBuildPc's]

Yes. That 980 is also being bottlenecked by the FX chip for sure. get a new chip ASAP, maybe a kaby lake i5 or something. Or Ryzen. 

[Adreyu]

I think it might be time to get a new CPU. as that one is pretty old. Zen is coming out next month though, so maybe wait for their offering, as our information about their lineup says we will probably get an 8 core i7 competitor.

[ricknos]

17 minutes ago, Adreyu said:

I think it might be time to get a new CPU. as that one is pretty old. Zen is coming out next month though, so maybe wait for their offering, as our information about their lineup says we will probably get an 8 core i7 competitor.

Thanks, I'm not that up on tech news so I didn't know about Zen, I'll look into that.

[Adreyu]

1 minute ago, ricknos said:

Thanks, I'm not that up on tech news so I didn't know about Zen, I'll look into that.

No worries, as far as I have heard I think there will be a 4 core 8 thread $250 i5 competitor, the $350 i7 obviously will be 8 true cores and a $500 offering of an 8 core 16 thread processor. I am not sure what is competing with the i3 but I have a feeling it will be just a quad core.