I'm building a new PC and want to know which motherboard/CPU combo I should go with. To build some context, I will be using it almost entirely for gaming (witcher 3, total war warhammer [when it comes out], fallout 4, COD, BF, don't play a ton of RTS but ashes of singularity kinda looks cool).
Anyway, all I really care about is gaming performance and consistent framerate. I'll be pairing it with a GTX 980ti.
I can pick a skylake cpu, motherboard, ram combo for a little over $500. However, a Devil's canyon combo will only cost me around $450.
For games now, and over the next five years until I upgrade my PC again, which CPU set should I go with?
Since you said 5 years, I can only recommend Skylake. It might come up that a consumer chip releases with Kaby Lake that does offer quite a increase in gaming and you will have the necessarily board.
Skylake, the difference in performance isn't noticeable and neither is the difference in price. But DDR4 has become quite affordable now and you can use it further down the line when upgrading, while with DDR3 you are kinda stuck.
Since you said gaming performance, and we are already in DX12 realm, don't even think about 980 Ti... There are many benchmarks on the Internet showing 390X spanking 980Ti in DX12 gaming... The new Hitman benchmarks are painful... 380X beating 980 to the ground, 390X outperforms TitanX... Nvidia falls flat on its face in DX12...
whichever has the better watercooling solutions :}. look @ cost to ghz/cores. if its worth the bump sure. im still running the 4790k with 780ti. but that was what came out around the same time.
if you SERIOUSLY ^^ arent ^^^ doing any form of streaming or video dazle stuff. the 4790k is perfect. my buddy's have problems with it while on twitch.
i would wait around for the new cpu's in less then 2 months, but if it cant possibly wait for whatever reason i would go x99 + a used xeon 2670 or maybe a slightly newer version off of ebay. 8 cores and hyper threaded for less then an i5 even after the x99 board.