CPU Selection i5 2500K 1155 or i7 960 1366

2500k will smash the 960 in gaming alone. Considering you can clock it up to rediculous speeds with relative ease and the architecture is far more advanced.

The 2500k will be by a small margin. It's also a current gen chip, the 1366 platform is a couple years old already. Unless you can get a really good deal on the 960, don't bother and go with socket 1155 and the 2500K. Oh, the 2500k overclocks better as well.

Overclocked the 2500k will be approximately 1/3 faster than an overclocked 960.

^ That completely depends on the frequency of the two chips. SB is about 15 percent faster clock for clock than socket 1366.

Yes, and I'm assuming that the average 2500k can go to 4.6GHz while the average 960 could go to 4.1GHz, so that is a 12% improvement in clock speeds.

1.12 * 1.15 = 1.29, hence approx. 1/3 faster.

Of course his mileage may differ depending on the exact chips that he gets.

i5 2500k on 68 series chipset = dual videocards
I7 cpus on X58 series chipset = tri/quad videocards

Best answer selected by grimey.

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey