Which Intel CPU best for gaming?

Skyfall74

I am set to buy a new gaming rig next summer and am confused with the amount of processors available these days. I know I want to go intel, but the choice is confusing:
Socket 2066Socket 2011-V3Socket 1151 Coffee LakeSocket 1151 Kaby LakeSocket 1151 SkylakeSocket 1150Xeon E5Xeon E3
I want a machine that will give me the best gaming experience, with a view to go VR if I wish.

Interested in your advice.

MarkE19

By next summer I would guess the latest version of any CPU will have been upgraded, so any research now will likely need to be redone closer to the time of purchase.
I am not a gamer but do build & repair PC's for a living so can only go on others recommendations for a gaming rig CPU, so Google is my friend. Choice as always will depend on your budget and what level of gaming you are after, but have a look at sites such as this
Best CPU For Gaming 2018 [UPDATED] - The Ultimate CPU Buying Guide
Best CPU for gaming 2018 | PC Gamer
Best Gaming CPUs

Mark.

Trollslayer

With the Spectre and Meltdown fixes I would say aim for a CPU which has a fix for this built in as the updates for current CPUs have an overhead.

Skyfall74

It seems like the coffee lake processors are better than the socket 2066 chips for gaming?

This is apparently because the coffee lake processors have a higher clock speed, whereas the socket 2066 chips are all about multicore processors, ie 10 cores. However the clock speed is less/compromised due to the number of processors on the 2066 chips.

Apparently having an excess number of cores doesn't really do gaming any favours?

How about the fact that coffee lake processors have an integrated graphics card, does this affect performance? Obviously a serious gamer would use a separate graphics card.

andy1249

Right now , coffee lake core i5 8600 is the best value.

You can spend a lot more on i7 or Ryzen chips but they only give marginal gaming improvements over the i5 for hundreds of pounds extra in cost.

Intel AMD release new chips regularly , approx every 6 months so next summer this will be different.
Watch Toms Hardware and other sites for CPU gaming performance reviews.

dollag

the 8700k coffee lake cpu is known to be the best processor for gaming. is it the best value? As @andy1249, the i5 is likely the best value; however a lot depends on what kind of resolution you wish to game at? at 1080p, the processor bottlenecks but at 4k, the gpu deals with most of the workload with the cpu becoming less of an issue.

andy1249

Just to be clear, if we are talking processors for gaming machines here, you need a separate GPU.
The GPUs built into the processors are weak for gaming.

dollag

The op stated a gaming pc in the 1st post.

EntryLevel

I would suggest taking a look at this video from Hardware Unboxed on Youtube.

Hardware Unboxed is (as far as I can tell) a reputable and professional hardware reviewing channel that gives unbiased and drama-free reviews/recommendations.

The linked video is their Top 5 Gaming CPUs (Entry level, affordable, value, high-end, no compromise). TLDW: the i5-8600k is their high-end recommendation.

Liftplus

For gaming i guess 1151 coffe lake should be best, search for CPUs with best speeds, not cores. Most games nowdays dont use that many cores...