People need to stop with this bull crap 8 core not worth it bah bah bah we only just using 4 cores or games not even using 4 cores.
Just Shut Up!
Remember when quad core would never be good and dual core will always be king!!!! They is already countless games RIGHT now using i7 4 cores and 4 threads and gaining performance over the i5 4 cores, even the high recommended specs state i7.
We even have Devs working on Games with 8 core CPUs has the mainstream "Consoles" Too think that ignoring 8 cores right now and tell someone 4 cores is enough you dont have a clue what you talking about.
This post isn't aimed at an individual! Its just what I reading from here and different forums!
No doubt more cores will be more future proof. However, CPUs with just 4 cores and high IPC + higher clock will still be perfectly good for gaming for along time, just look at these videos...
I would take an i5 over an i7 and put the extra £100 you save towards a better GPU.
Quite frankly to insinuate that 4 cores isn't enough is stupid... as you can see in those 2 videos, it most certainly is "enough" given that it is more or less matching and in some cases even beating the i7 chips...
Maybe dx 12 only games will change things but atm, dx 12 "generally" only seems to be bring a "significant" improvement to people with powerful GPUs and weaker/older CPUs.
GPU will still be the main bottleneck for quite a while, especially for people with resolutions higher than 1920x1080.
As for recommended specs, I always take them with a pinch of salt, they always seem to recommend higher specs than necessary i.e. batman AK, division etc. yet the games still runs superb, even on my old PC/CPU with mostly max settings (usually just AA and shadows reduced if need be)