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[x2yzh9]

  As the title says, I'm strongly considering dropping the money on a gaming processor. From my understanding and brief review of several prcoessors it looks like I can get a pretty good one for that price, but I want to be sure it'll be worth it. I tried googling it and looking it up on newegg but I don't think I'm finding my processor.

   I have a 8 core processor, but the essential problem is all the cores are low-grade I think. It's a lot of cores but low quality cores, in comparison to some dual-core or quad-core processors that I could get for 180-200. I hear sandy bridge is a good company, but I'm not sure what my motherboard supports yet. Anyway, my processor as shown on my dxdiag
Intel Core i7 CPU 950 @3.07GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.1GHz

   So, recommendations? I really don't want to wait so I'll be going into a local store for it, but if you can give me recommendations in case I can find it in a local store, that'd be great.

[rutsber]

Sandy bridge is the second generation of the Intel i-cores. They just released 3rd gen Ivy bridge, so I would imagine a second gen wouldn't cost all that much. For that price range you can get a second or third gen i5, depending on which version you want. Link.

[x2yzh9]

I know I originally said 180-200 in the thread title, but I'm looking at this and it doesn't look bad at all for the price. I just wonder how it will compare to my current processor. If it's a big enough improvement I'll go for it but otherwise I'm going to have to start budgeting to save for a more expensive one.

[foil]

That cpu will be a step backwards from a quad core (with hyperthreading) i7, pretty much 1/2 the power.

Best mid range cpu atm id say is the i5 2500 k...  Quad core @ 3.3ghz that easily overclocks to 4.5 ghz on standard cooler.

Im assuming you do a lot of heavy cpu work if the i7 isnt powerful enough and going from a top end i7 to budget spec i3 will give a worse result..

Also make sure its not just a software issue creating lag or whatever as the i7 you have is still a very good cpu.  You wont get a huge increase from what you have atm unless you go for the expensive new gen i7.

Have you ever done a fresh install of windows on your pc?  a factory install is usually the worst offender for causing lag and slow performance on pc's.

[Tellemurius]

That cpu will be a step backwards from a quad core (with hyperthreading) i7, pretty much 1/2 the power.

Best mid range cpu atm id say is the i5 2500 k...  Quad core @ 3.3ghz that easily overclocks to 4.5 ghz on standard cooler.

Im assuming you do a lot of heavy cpu work if the i7 isnt powerful enough and going from a top end i7 to budget spec i3 will give a worse result..

Also make sure its not just a software issue creating lag or whatever as the i7 you have is still a very good cpu.  You wont get a huge increase from what you have atm unless you go for the expensive new gen i7.

Actually it wouldn't be great to get your hands on the new ivy bridge chips. Sure the max memory speed supported is 1600mhz, usb3.0 controller is now integrated in the chipset, PCIE 3.o but in truth, it doesn't matter. Overclocking the new ones are surprisingly bad as a simple push to 4.5GHz made a 3570k spiked in temperatures. PCIE 3.0 isn't fully utilized  yet and you would only see jumps of performance if you were running a multi-GPU system. At this point Intel is trying to shrink the die size down and burn less energy, they aren't much worry for performance anymore. I2500k, will be the best processor to get in your hands due to the fact that its quad core unlocked for 200 bucks with performance to last at least 6 years or more.