[haunter]

>an i7 box and really anything from that generation

That doesn't mean anything at all. The i7 is a family of CPUs which can be anything from a 2009 i7-860 (with DDR3 support only) to a 2023 i7-14700k (with DDR5 support). Insane performance difference.

[ThunderSizzle]

I think the point is that an i7, even from ~15 years ago, is probably sufficient for most gaming needs, especially if the game is primarily GPU-bound.

As long as you give the older CPU enough RAM, an SSD, and a good GPU, it probably is sufficient unless your doing sim-heavy games where you want the simulation speed to be maxed out (e.g. HoI4 later years max speed simulation)

[haunter]

The CPU will be a bottleneck even if you use ~7 years old RTX 2060. Anything newer just wouldn't work.

Honestly buying a 15 years old CPU is just an own goal when it will be outperformed by any modern budget i3

[righthand]

Sorry my comment is about finding hardware that affordably allows you to build a good gaming rig if that’s the sole purpose. There are plenty of previous gen cpus that will give most gamers 90% of what they want to play no need for the LATEST hardware. That dream is dying.