Which Intel CPU best for gaming?

Skyfall74

Is there potential that games in the future may use more cores?

In that case going with the 2066 pin CPU's maybe still a feasible option today, knowing they will support future gaming well?

Uplift

How do you know if a CPU is a bottleneck?

I have a Skylake i5 6600k and GTX 1080, I can play most games maxed and even some on 4k without it skipping a beat...

Are there any games that can push high-end PCs to their limit?

EntryLevel

The concept of a perfectly balanced PC is a bit of a myth IMHO. Different games tax CPU and GPU differently, so one game may be "bottlenecked" by the CPU and another by the GPU. Obviously extreme pairings (pentium with 1080Ti) are examples of potential genuine bottlenecks, but I would suggest these are rare. What people mostly mean is "i have 'n' FPS and could theoretically get 'n 5' FPS from my GPU". The indication would be 100% CPU usage in task manager with less than 100% GPU usage (although I'm sure there are more technical measures).

Open world games at max settings with all the shiny stuff on (Witcher 3 with hairworks comes to mind) are the most likely to tax high end-PCs I think.

Skyfall74

I think its clear that the coffee lake is the best option for the PRESENT, but which is more likely to future proof?

1) Buy a 2066 CPU pin motherboard capable of supporting the fastest 2066 CPU, potential for many more cores, quad memory control, 128Gb RAM max. Though of course the clock speed slightly less compared with coffee lake.

OR

2) Go with coffee lake, smaller number of cores, only dual memory control and 64Gb RAM max but of course slightly faster clock speed.

When I say future proof, I thinking very long term, as in, I'd rather not need to upgrade my m/b for up to a decade if possible.

EndlessWaves

Money in the bank.

You'll get a far better experience in four years time spending half the money now and half then then trying to buy something twice as expensive now.

The best argument for buying high end kit is if you want to chase the cutting edge, in which case you'll be replacing it every couple of years. As 'future proofing' it is, and always has been, the case that you're spending a lot extra just to avoid changing hardware for another couple of years.

EntryLevel

That is not a realistic expectation. At best the intel motherboards will support two generations of cpu. AMD has longer chipset (as in motherboard) support, but even then it won't be 10 years.