Minimum Haswell CPU clockspeed for 3k 60fps gaming

..it depends, though. There are ways to write reduction-algorithms (or, convert the 3d world to a 2d matrix) that would make them dependent on the cpu. But the typical way to do it, things like how far away from the viewport the detail of the objects switch, collision detection, etc. -- isn't dependent on resolution. But complex occlusion detection, creating shadows with some sort of ray-casting, things like that - that would become more expensive if you increased the resolution.

So what happens is that game-design typically will avoid that as much as possible. So you typically only have some particular detail or lighting effect that runs partially on cpu-time that might scale if the resolution increases (by accident, most likely - precision doesn't take into account that surfaces might be more complex with higher resolution, that sort of thing). Multithreaded updates for game-logic, ai, node-updates, don't scale with resolution, but with number of objects or detail "level".

Practically nothing depends on cpu-power, so as long as the cpu is over a certain speed, it typically doesn't matter how fast it runs (excluding loading times or hiccups that might have been shaved off with a faster processor). That the processor is being throttled is usually what's going to affect smooth running the most. Not that it drops in speed, but that there's a queue on a core that stalls, or a cache-hit that suddenly doesn't exist, that a core will refuse to complete a thread(or that it's being rerun on a different core, with new preparation routines, etc.).

 

Is there any benchmark on how GTA V responds to high core count low frequency systems?

 

http://www.techspot.com/review/991-gta-5-pc-benchmarks/page6.html

Shows how GTA V scales on different processors and how it scales on an i7-4770K at clock speeds from 2.5GHz to 4.5GHz, looks like you want minimum 3.5GHz to not loose any frames, but have a look for yourself!

In comparison, for the Witcher 3 there is no difference between 2.5GHz and 4.5GHz on an i7-4770K:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1006-the-witcher-3-benchmarks/page5.html

 

Thanks.

Looks like there is a single thread issue but not a big one. As long I can maintain 60FPS (with a low frequency E5 build) I'm good.