CPU Is the 3570k still any good for games?

I have been away from PC gaming for a while, so my current rig doesn't actually have a dedicated GPU. I'm thinking of adding the AMD R9 380 (or whatever the Nvidia equivalent is, I'll let reviews and bang-for-my-$ guide me) in order to play games at my monitors native 1920x1080.

The rig as it stands:
Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H
I5 3570K @ 3.4
8gb 1600mhz DDR3
64gb SSD (OS)
1tb Storage

Is this a worthwhile upgrade?
-Is the GPU I'm looking at overkill?
-Am I flogging a dead horse with my soon to be 2/3 generation old CPU

 

I'm still using a 3570k (albeit with a 980Ti) and haven't felt a real need to upgrade yet. You should be able to fairly easily overclock it to 4.2ghz or higher.

 

The R9 390 is the sweet spot of performance/price at the moment.

Your CPU is fine and will likely be fine in five year's time, considering the very poor performance yields from Intel's most recent processors.

 

Thanks for the re-assurance on the processor.

Not sure if it was a typo but the R9 390 is out of reach on my £170(ish) budget.

E-buyer have the Powercolor R9 380 for £169.88; about £80 cheaper than the R9 390.

 

I use a 3550 and the 7950 is more of a bottleneck than it ever will be at the current rate of technology so a 3570k is plenty!

 

+1

Any i5 from the Sandy Bridge era and later is unlikely to be a bottleneck for at least a few more generations of GPU.

 

pfft. I'm still rocking nahelm. I got more frames than I can shake a memory stick at.

 

I'm still on sandy bridge (2500k) slightly overclocked but have no problem with games still

 

I have a 3770K and I can't see myself changing from that for a long time. My GTX 660 is definitely my bottleneck.

 

The 380 isn't that great value @ 160+ tbh, its similar than a 7950 which go for about £80 2nd hand.

 

Thank you, i'll give it some consideration.

 

380 and 390 are in completely different leagues. It's worth finding the extra even if it means waiting.

 

Isn't the 390 overkill for 1080p?

 

Running a 3570K here @ 4.5GHz, stable as a stable thing that's stable from Stableland and fast enough for everything.

 

I imagine it will still be a while before the answer to a question such as "is an i5 2500K/3570K fast enough" is no, particularly for gaming.

 

pick up a 2nd hand r9 290x off ebay rather than a 390. same damn card anyway.