See title.  I was having a discussion with Naz about me looking into getting an i5 vs. not, and it occurred to me that I have no idea to what degree CPUs act as limiting factors on modern gaming rigs.

So somebody help me out here. Where does performance begin to actually matter?

For the most part, few games are CPU limited at this point in time; and it will probably be several years before the i5 is not adequate to play new games.

PC Gaming is more video card than CPU these days. Which Core i5 are you looking at? Hell, if you are only going to game for the most part, any AMD Quad core can easily do the job at really good prices.

I saw you PM'd me so I figured I'd post some findings on the 560 Ti in your thread as well as give my take on CPU bottleneck.

CPU as bottleneck is not really an issue if you're playing on 1920x1080 or lower. Even if you have a phenom II or an older I5 or even I3...it won't hold you back to 60 frames per second gaming for many years. Just make sure that the CPU is 3 ghz or higher (overclock slightly if you have to) as a lot of older games utilize single or dual cores only. Where CPUs do hold you back is if you want to do benchmarks and have to render something at 150 frames per second (3DMark for example)

I have my Phenom II 940 overclocked to 3.8 ghz (from 3.0) using a pretty good aftermarket air cooler and its been stable and solid for 2 years now. It absolutely handles all my needs (3 monitors, 3D vision) so there is no reason for me to upgrade yet.

However if you are buying a brand new CPU and want to make your machine "futureproof", there is only one option right now...sandy bridge i5 2500K. That CPU runs neck and neck with the more expensive I7 CPUs when it comes to gaming and in blows AMD chips out of the water. Its not even that much more expensive than AMD, who really have to step up their game these days.

As far as the 560 Ti I purchased, it is absolutely awesome. Single one will max out Crysis 2 with occasional dips to 50 frames from constand 60. In SLI, they run maxed out crysis 2 on 3 monitors at 1080p at 40-50 fps. The gigabyte version I bought gives a 570 a run for its money since they are factory overclocked to 950mhz. My buddy bought a stock PNY one same day cause it was 20 bucks cheaper (cheapskate! :) ) and his overclocks to 940 mhz before things start going whacky, so even the stock versions have good overclock potential. Asus Direct CU, MSi 560 Ti GTX Hawk and Gigabyte Superoverclock are the ones to look for if you're looking for a GTX560... 

Just be aware of the new GTX560 minus Ti...it is not the same card as Nvidia released a downgraded version.

@HappySquirrel:

The question was if it would be overkill.

@dahuman:

2500k, and yeah it would just be for gaming.

@disolitude:

All right, I guess going all-in on a processor would be a bit over-the-top, considering you run in much higher-load than any other user on the forums.

Also glad to hear that about the graphics card. Another thing  I was discussing with Naz was the merits of the 560 Ti vs. the 470. I'm largely drawn to the 560 Ti because it apparently runs so cool and quiet  (it's an issue for me), but if the performance difference isn't much and the price is much higher then I don't know.

One can make a solid argument for both cards.

560Ti advantages over 470:

- Cooler with stock cooler (much cooler with non stock)

- More efficient (500 Watt vs 650 watt requirement I believe)

- equal or better benchmarks in games

- Better SLI scaling

470 advantages over 560Ti:

- Better overclocking potential. Is only clocked at 600 MHZ stock (vs 822 for 560) and can go as high as 850 (on aftermarket cooler)

- 250 megs more memory than 560Ti. Comes handy for higher resolutions.

- Tri SLI support vs 2 SLI (huge deal breaker right here for most users :) )

- Cheaper! Seen em as low as 160 vs 199 for the cheapest 560 Ti

And BTW...there is no "overkill" when it comes to PC gaming. :)

I thought I was committing overkill 2 years ago when I bought a tri sLI mobo and 1000 watt PSU. Now it barely meets my needs...in 6 months I see myself getting a new rig (Battlefield 3 will be rough on my current AMD Phenom II/DDR2 RAM architecture on 3 screens)

The idea that any part can be really "future-proofed" in a PC is interesting to me, but I was looking at the i5 2500k anyway.

Sucks that prices in Canada are higher than the US - can't find a 560 Ti below ~235 dollars - but that is what it is.

Suppose I wanted to get an i5 2500k and a 560 Ti.  What kind of motherboard would I want for that?

Oh damn...I always forget you are a fellow Canadian.

Last week NCIX had MSI hawk 560 with like 5 games for 219 as well as the superoverclock one I bought... This week sadly, it looks like 560s have gone up.

However there is 1 video card deal right now that Canadians shouldnt pass on. I'd get 3 of these and plug em in jsut to see what happens (explosion, power outage?)...if I didn't get those gtx560s last week.

http://www.vuugo.com/en/Brand/Zotac/ZOTAC-GeForce-GTX-480-1536MB-GDDR5-PCI-E-SLI-Ready-Video-Card.aspx

As far as mobo, an i5 2500k bundle like this is fairly decently priced and futureproof unless you plan on going 3 monitor 3D surround...

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=61150&vpn=2500K&GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3&manufacture=Bundle Deals&promoid=1324

how much money can you spend?

About a thousand dollars, give or take fifty.