Cheapest future-proof processor?

The_Prince2017 · Mar 26, 2016

My budget is not a lot but I want to be future proof. Future games on low settings with atleast 30 FPS. So, which is the cheapest future proof processor available?

ThatVietGuy · Mar 26, 2016

And what is this budget of yours?

Archaic59 · Mar 26, 2016

Skylake i5-6500 will be good for several years at least, the i3 probably less.

Dan425811923 · Mar 26, 2016

Any good i5 will do the job. I am planning to run my 4460 for over 5 years.

The_Prince2017 · Mar 26, 2016

I want one which is overclockable (K-series) so that I can get every bit of performance. I will not purchase another processor for 5 years or so. So, I need to get the most performance out of my CPU.

Archaic59 · Mar 26, 2016

The i5-6500 can be overclocked with the right board-

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asrock-non-z170-bclk-overclocking-motherboards,31362.html

Arronleeds · Mar 26, 2016

id suggest a new i5, because you get ddr4, and it will become more helpful as the years go on.

DonkeyOatie · Mar 26, 2016

Are you in the USA? In some places, a Haswell i5 4690K is available for $200. It can be overclocked well and will do what you want, if it is possible, for the next five years.

Five year old i5s are still capable of meeting the 30FPS, low standard, fairly easily.

There mayy, in the future, be some very highly threaded CPU intensive games that any i5 will struggle with (or there may not, the future is like that)

ac13044 · Mar 26, 2016

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/432d4D

My build is sweet for gaming also music Production.
Recommend it slight issuers with mobo who doesn't Doe.

Ecky · Mar 26, 2016

I don't consider overclocking to be a good value. After you finish buying a more expensive motherboard (to allow overclocking), an aftermarket cooler, a slightly larger power supply, and possibly an unlocked "K" CPU, you might as well have just purchased an i7 instead of an i5. You're only looking at being able to get 10-15% more out of your CPU, and will probably spend around $100 getting that.

Regarding what is future-proof, that's hard to say, and it depends heavily on what you're doing. I expect an i3 6100 to deliver 30+ fps in most games for the foreseeable future, but one could well make the argument that it's better to just get an i7 now, because CPUs are replaced so infrequently, the extra $80-100 amortized over 5 years is a modest $16-20 per year, and up-front, and an extra $100 in a $1000 build is only 10% of your total cost.

ac13044 · Mar 26, 2016

Ecky :

Hmm makes sense in a way i was going for the H series but i needed a couple of x 4 usb 3.0 x4 satas on a mobo all above my budget at the time if i had the extra money then i would of purchase a k cpu im happy as it will hope fingers crossed serve me 4 a gd 5yrs +

DonkeyOatie · Mar 26, 2016

Ecky :

Although I agree, in general, with your sentiment in the present and short term future, the overclocking may be the only way to make 28FPS up to 30FPS in the distant future, to meet the OP's needs, and a locked chip of any sort can't do that.

I'd rather build a slightly cheaper system and hope it will last three good years and one less good year and put the money saved aside for upgrades.

In the OP's situation, it will be the GPU that is the main limiting factor anyway. No one wants to be using a five year old GPU to run the best modern games and get a good experience. I think that 30FPS low is unrealistically low. The OP's reality might change and if they want, say, 90FPS Low VR, they will be SOOL.

PhysX_HW · Mar 26, 2016

Definitely socket 1151, and one of the i3s or i5s that fits your budget. You may want an i5 if you are running a gtx960 / R9 380 or faster card as the i3s are not fast enough for these cards.

The_Prince2017 · Mar 26, 2016

So should I get an i5 or an i3? I am currentky running a GTX 750 TI OC. So, if I get an i3 there will be no bottlenecking issue with this. But, i5 can get me atmost 5 years(?). 6th gen or other gen?

And no, overclocking a locked Skylake CPU is no longer possible.
http://www.pcgamer.com/intel-puts-a-stop-to-overclocking-on-non-k-skylake-cpus/

DonkeyOatie · Mar 26, 2016

The problem is it may be a challenge to get 30FPS low on that GPU with future games, it should be OK, but who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?. If you are wedded to that GPU, then an i3 is a good choice.

The main issue come with you changing your mind, should that occur. What you say you want to do is not especially sensible. Five years is too far in the future.

The_Prince2017 · Mar 26, 2016

I bought a Core 2 Duo E7500 when it came out and I still play new games at medium to high settings at 25-30 FPS. Well, no one knows what will happen in the future. I owned an AMD Radeon HD 4650 a month before. Should I wait for the AMD Zen CPU's?

Ecky · Mar 26, 2016

My vote is for the i5.

I doubt Zen CPUs will drastically change things. AMD is hemorrhaging money right now and it's a hard sell to convince me that, given their dire financial situation, they're going to significantly undercut Intel CPUs at a given performance level. More likely, they'll price the CPUs similarly to Intel CPUs of a given performance, and we'll have more options. Given that, I don't think buying Intel today is a bad option.

Alan Caldwell · Mar 26, 2016

Get an i5 6600k with a good Z170 mobo. Best for performance and the future

DonkeyOatie · Mar 26, 2016

Haswell is only 5% slower and less expensive, so I think that's a better answer to the OP's cheapest question.

ac13044 · Mar 26, 2016

Get a i5 6600k unlocked or u cud get the i5 6500and a n Asus pro gaming as mobo has default bios installed when the board is sent to u. It is only not possible to overclock after doing a bios update to latest update. So in terms do not update bios if u plan to o/c with a i5 6500 hope this helps

The_Prince2017 · Mar 26, 2016

In my country Haswell and Skylake, both are of the same price. So, which one should I go for? I am thinking for the i5 6600k and a Z170 board but what about the H110 board?

Alan Caldwell · Mar 26, 2016

Better a Z170 mobo for a K proccy.

ac13044 · Mar 26, 2016

iF YOU PLAN TO GET THE I5 6600K GO FOR THE Z170 MOBO AS THEY HAVE OVERCLOCK FUNCTIONS IN BIOS AND SOFTWARE 2 THAT COME WITH MOBO. , dEPENDING ON MOBO MANUFACTURE. H110 WELL IT DEPEND ON WHAT YOU ALSO WANT AS STORAGE ETC XSATAS PORTS XUSB XM.2 SUPPORT LIKE SSD. AS SOMEBOARDS HAVE LESS AND SOME HAVE MORE READ ARTICLE The H170 and H110 chipsets serve two main purposes. First, although they are consumer-oriented, they also support some business features not found on the Z170 motherboard. They lack some of the more advanced features that the business-oriented chipsets have though, like vPro and SIPP. Second, they are used as budget friendly alternatives to the more expensive enthusiast Z170 chipset.

The H170 chipset lacks features that the enthusiast Z170 chipset offers, such as overclocking support and the ability to divide the CPU’s PCI-E 3.0 lanes between multiple GPUs. It also loses a few USB 3.0 ports and HSIO lanes, but is otherwise feature complete. RAID, memory and SATA support is identical between the Z170 and H170 chipsets. As the H170 is a more budget friendly solution, and it’s expected to fill the middle of the LGA 1151 market.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-100-series-chipsets,news-51149.html

Ecky · Mar 27, 2016

I would pick i7 6700 + H110 or B150 over 6600K + Z170 if they were similarly priced.

The_Prince2017 · Mar 31, 2016

Here, an i7 6700k is of ~437 USD. No non-K one from my trusted website. That's too much. I want to keep the prices below ~200 USD.

Cheapest future-proof processor?

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