I recently upgraded from an AMD 955 CPU to an i5 3570k CPU, and I must say that Intel has gained another convert. This CPU will chew through any game, and I get much better performance than I ever did with the 955--the 3570k simply blows AMD out of the water. I do not do any sort of image editing or video encoding, so this review is written entirely from a gamer's perspective.
PROS:
-Great for extremely CPU-intensive games like the Total War games (Empire and Shogun 2 in particular). These games are fairly difficult to run smoothly at very high graphics settings due in large part to incredible (but demanding) particle effects, high unit density, shadow effects and many others, but the 3570k has no problems handling Empire at max settings (assuming you have a decent GPU to boot).
-I get much higher frame-rates and better performance in games like Crysis, Crysis 2, BF3, Max Payne 3, Empire: Total War, and Deus Ex 3 as well as older games like FEAR, Half-Life 2 and Rome: Total War.
-Achieves an overclock of 4.3-4.6GHz without much trouble at all (I've got mine at 4.5 GHz), at least on a Gigabyte Z77-UD3H motherboard.
-Using the Gigabyte Z77-UD3H MB I managed to OC to 4.3GHz with no stability issues at stock CPU Vcore voltage (1.13 V).
-Built-in Turbo boost feature clocks the 3570k up to 3.8GHz--which is a pretty decent boost and would be a good option for gamers who are uncomfortable with messing with BIOS settings to OC their CPUs.
-Almost identical to the 3770K in terms of gaming performance. Benchmark scores for a number of games show marginal (if any) improvements for the 3770k. Other benchmarks and certain games like the Total War series actually see improved frame-rates with the 3570k versus the 3770k.
CONS:
-It does run somewhat hot--I get temps in the high 70s, low 80s (deg C) with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (with Arctic Silver 5 TIM) at 4.5GHz and 1.35 Volts. However, IB CPUs are designed to withstand more heat, so this is not a huge issue, but it may warrant considering a pricier cooler if you want to OC to around 5 GHz or higher.
OVERALL: The 3570k is an excellent CPU for any game on the market with a great performance-to-price ratio. Virtually all gaming performance benchmarks that you will find give near identical results for the 3570k and 3770k, so I would save yourself $100 and take the 3570K over the 3770k and put that money into a better graphics card or an SSD. If you already have a 2500k I would say that a 3570k is not worth the upgrade, but if you have anything older or are looking to switch over to Intel from AMD I would highly recommend it!
My PC specs:
Gigabyte Z77-UD3H MB
i5 3570k OC'd to 4.5GHz with Cooler Master 212 EVO + AS5 TIM
EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB on stock settings
Crucial M4 256GB SSD
Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 8GB DDR3 RAM
| Processor | 3.4 GHz core_i5 |
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