Should I grab an Intel Core i5-3570 now or wait for the Haswell refresh?

Is there actually a significant performance gap between the 1155 and 1150 sockets? To be honest, my friends are pushing me toward the Intel Core i5-3570 because they claim Ivy runs much cooler than Haswell, even though Ivy is about a year and a half older... I’m trying to figure out if that distinction actually matters in practice. I really don't want to sink a ton of cash into a CPU and motherboard if the payoff is negligible. I’d much rather shell out an extra 400-$167 for a Haswell setup if it truly offers a superior experience... If you know what I mean. My main focus here is gaming at 1080p resolution, paired with a GTX 770.

Just grab whichever one's cheaper—honestly, the performance gap is practically nonexistent. What are you even running right now?

Ryan Wilson7 said:Is there actually a significant performance gap between the 1155 and 1150 sockets? To be honest, my friends are pushing me toward the Intel Core i5-3570 because they claim Ivy runs much cooler than Haswell, even though Ivy is about a year and a half older... I’m trying to figure out if that distinction actually matters in practice. I really don't want to sink a ton of cash into a CPU and motherboard if the payoff is negligible. I’d much rather shell out an extra 400-$167 for a Haswell setup if it truly offers a superior experience... If you know what I mean. My main focus here is gaming at 1080p resolution, paired with a GTX 770.

Look, Haswell will pull maybe 10 Watts more than Ivy, but honestly, the performance difference is pretty negligible. If you can snag Haswell for maybe 50-$33 more, then go for it—but if it's priced higher than that, just run away. The price-to-performance ratio just isn't there. Architecturally speaking, Haswell isn't some massive leap over Ivy, so you aren't going to see any "super duper extra" benefits from making the jump. Now, when Skylake rolls out in a year or two, *that* will be a legitimate step forward, but we're talking about the distant future there...

Benjamin King2 said:Just grab whichever one's cheaper—honestly, the performance gap is practically nonexistent. What are you even running right now?

I've currently got an Intel Core i5-750

I honestly don't think that's worth the money... you'd be better off just overclocking an i5 750 (assuming you're running a P55 motherboard). If you can't get those clocks up, that CPU is definitely going to bottleneck your GTX 770.

I highly doubt you'll be waiting around for Broadwell (Q4 2014)😬