Currently using an Intel 3570 but I'm looking to upgrade. I want to stick with Intel for the better Linux support. Recommendations for real-world, mid-range gaming performance?\

If i were you i wouldn't change CPU just yet (it's still very good for a mid-range processor). You can shoot for DDR4 platform but i suggest you wait little longer til some prices go down.

It is probably not worth it to upgrade to another CPU yet. Since your CPU is a quad-core CPU, pretty much all games should run just fine. Unless you are using the integrated graphics, there is not much point in upgrading. Even upgrading to a DDR4 platform does not add much performance.

What kind of games are you playing? Anything that's really CPU hungry? I'm still gaming with an i5-2500K and never thought "Damn, I have to upgrade this CPU" oO

Let me chime in with the chorus: Do not upgrade!

As you would have to pay a lot (need new motherboard and maybe memory too) for something maybe 15% faster, you should save your money unless you have a specific game that needs more processing power, which is rather doubtful.

Most likely you are either low on graphics power or memory and should invest there in stead. A new graphics card might lead to needing a new power supply as well; you have been warned.

Witcher 3 is getting less than 60fps which is my main issue lol. It seems to be a CPU bottleneck since changing graphics settings from high to medium does nothing and high to low only gives about ten frames. The other thing was my friend has a CPU that is dying, so I figured upgrading might get me better performance for TW3 and my friend would get the old one to replace the dying one.

I think I might just direct them to a cheap replacement for the i7 950 though, but that will probably require a new mobo since I don't know anywhere that still sells socket 1366 CPUs.

I wouldn't base purchasing a new CPU on just one game, especially not a poorly optimized one like W3.
But I can understand it, although I would probably just buy a new computer because I can't be bothered with assemblage :P

What's your GPU and how much RAM you have?

GTX680 and 16GB of 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM.

I did a fast search for Witcher 3 CPU benchmarks and found this: http://www.techspot.com/review/1006-the-witcher-3-benchmarks/page5.html

The i5-3470 (a bit slower than your CPU) is good for an average of 96fps @1080p, medium graphics settings and high post-processing settings. My antique 2500k is still good enough for an average of 93fps - should be aproximately 4.something frames less than your CPU ;) As I said: Don't upgrade! Even the oldest Intel QuadCore CPUs are good enough for 99% of modern games.

Turn off nVidia's Hairworks in Witcher 3? That should solve it.

I've turned off everything and am running the game on low settings (i.e. everything on minimum or otherwise off) on patch 1.11. I'm still only getting about 50fps, up to 60fps indoors.

CPus tend to have a much longer useful life than they used to. I'm still gaming on an i7 870. I was wondering recently whether to replace it or not as the stock cooler started to show signs of fatigue and as I had some issues with one of the ram modules. Eventually, I replaced the cooler and the Ram.

Since most games are ported from consoles now, even a fairly low-end PC has CPU power to burn compared to the console the game was developed for. My i7-3770 barely breaks a sweat running most games I own.

Even the new consoles are only equivalent to an i7 at a fraction of the clock speed mine can run at.