Gaming performance
We're using a high-specification GeForce GTX 780, to put the onus, where possible, on the subsystem.
There's practically no differences in the scores presented by three premium Intel CPUs. The salient point to remember here is that the Core i7-4770K is much, much cheaper than the 6C/12T duo. AMD lags a considerable way behind.
DiRT Showdown is one game that relies on CPU oomph to a greater degree. But here's the quandary; you wouldn't run anything other than ultra-quality settings on a GTX 780, and in doing so, minimise the effects of having a faster CPU and memory setup. Indeed, the 4770K is best here, illustrating that, for now at least, super-powerful CPUs don't always provide a meaningful assist in performance.
We couldn't discern a visual difference between the four test setups in BioShock Infinite. The 4960X may well help further in multi-GPU setups - something that it is primed for - but, for most, we'd tell them to steer in the direction of the Haswell-based Core i7-4770K.
