[SOLVED] 1070 Ti Underperforming

[MozzaMoo]

I have a ROG Strix 1070 Ti, Ryzen 7 1700 and 16GB of DDR4 Ram (Dual Channel), I looked at the fps people were getting in fortnite on lowest settings and it was 200+, whilst I'm getting maximum 120fps, I am getting low fps in other games too, have updated drivers, bios updated and windows updated and not sure what it could be

 

[RTX 2080]

I guarantee you that none of those videos you watched of people getting 200+ fps included PCs featuring a Ryzen 1700. That CPU is not capable of 200+ fps.

 

[MozzaMoo]

I guarantee you that none of those videos you watched of people getting 200+ fps included PCs featuring a Ryzen 1700. That CPU is not capable of 200+ fps.

Thanks for the quick reply, and I don't think so but I looked online and my system shouldn't be largely bottnecked that much, apparently they're a good pairing

 

[RTX 2080]

Thanks for the quick reply, and I don't think so but I looked online and my system shouldn't be largely bottnecked that much, apparently they're a good pairing

I'm guessing you used a bottleneck calculator; don't use those, they are absolutely useless and have no bearing on reality; I can't say it much nicer than that.

 

[MozzaMoo]

I'm guessing you used a bottleneck calculator; don't use those, they are absolutely useless and have no bearing on reality; I can't say it much nicer than that.

Okay thanks, I looked at bit more into it and apparently it's due to the low clock speed of my CPU

 

[RTX 2080]

Okay thanks, I looked at bit more into it and apparently it's due to the low clock speed of my CPU

Absolutely. Not only are the clock speeds low, the IPC (instructions per clock) is also low, and the CPUs internal workings lend itself to higher latency. All these add up to make your CPU a poor fit for high refresh rate gaming.

 

[MozzaMoo]

Absolutely. Not only are the clock speeds low, the IPC (instructions per clock) is also low, and the CPUs internal workings lend itself to higher latency. All these add up to make your CPU a poor fit for high refresh rate gaming.

That's depressing, I got this CPU 2 years ago being told it was good for gaming, but never had a good enough GPU to check, got a 1070 Ti today realising this now is unfortunate

 

[MozzaMoo]

Absolutely. Not only are the clock speeds low, the IPC (instructions per clock) is also low, and the CPUs internal workings lend itself to higher latency. All these add up to make your CPU a poor fit for high refresh rate gaming.

What Ryzen CPU would you recommend pairing with it? Would the 3500X be capable enough?

 

[RTX 2080]

That's depressing, I got this CPU 2 years ago being told it was good for gaming, but never had a good enough GPU to check, got a 1070 Ti today realising this now is unfortunate

I feel you; CPU advice is often given as an afterthought and few people fully seem to understand the impact of their choices until their CPU holds them up in some significant way down the road.

I see it happening all the time; people get recommend a Ryzen 3600 and then they regret buying it when they can't do much better than 80-100 fps in COD Warzone.

FYI, your CPU can still be 'good' for gaming, it's just that it's not 'great' for gaming. I'd you turn your graphical settings up, it will happily feed your GPU the frames that it needs, it's just that when you ask it to render 100+ fps, you ask it to do things that it was never designed to be particularly good at. This is why until the Ryzen 5000 series came out, high refresh rate gaming was almost exclusively the domain of Intel CPUs.

 

[RTX 2080]

What Ryzen CPU would you recommend pairing with it? Would the 3500X be capable enough?

Are you in China or is that just a typo? I think the 3500x is only available in China.

 

[MozzaMoo]

I feel you; CPU advice is often given as an afterthought and few people fully seem to understand the impact of their choices until their CPU holds them up in some significant way down the road.

I see it happening all the time; people get recommend a Ryzen 3600 and then they regret buying it when they can't do much better than 80-100 fps in COD Warzone.

FYI, your CPU can still be 'good' for gaming, it's just that it's not 'great' for gaming. I'd you turn your graphical settings up, it will happily feed your GPU the frames that it needs, it's just that when you ask it to render 100+ fps, you ask it to do things that it was never designed to be particularly good at. This is why until the Ryzen 5000 series came out, high refresh rate gaming was almost exclusively the domain of Intel CPUs.

Also another thing to consider, my ram is only 2400mhz and I'm starting to think its that causing the issues

 

[magbarn]

Also another thing to consider, my ram is only 2400mhz and I'm starting to think its that causing the issues

That's only going to be an issue if you 're able to upgrade your current system to 5600x or higher. Of course, assuming your motherboard supports 5600x and up Ryzen chips. Your chip is notorious for being picky with ram. Even if you were somehow able to get it to work with 4000 DDR4 (which it won't as most maxed out at 3200) you're still not going to get 200fps. Your CPU is a hard stop on that.

 

[RTX 2080]

Also another thing to consider, my ram is only 2400mhz and I'm starting to think its that causing the issues

Ryzen CPUs are very sensitive to RAM speed and 2400 MHz RAM will cause them to perform more slowly. As mentioned by @magbarn, the highest speed that'll work properly with your Ryzen 1700 is 3200 MHz, although if you upgrade to a Ryzen 3600x, 3600 MHz RAM would be ideal.

I would recommend a Ryzen 5600X CPU as the CPU of choice to someone trying to hit high refresh rates. The Ryzen 3600X definitely improves upon a Ryzen 1700 in some meaningful ways, but it still has the same issues rendering large amounts of frames per second. I think if you upgrade to a 3600x you'll end up disappointed in the long run. At the same time, the 5600x is expensive and hard to find right now and would undoubtedly require you to purchase a new motherboard (considering the age of your build I seriously doubt yours is compatible). So since it'll probably be a little while before you can get a new motherboard + CPU + RAM (seeing as how it's been 2 years and you just now bought a 1070 ti), my best recommendation to you right now would be to:

A) Save up for the new hardware
B) Since your CPU can't send your GPU more than 120 fps, turning down your settings all the way is a waste; your GPU is being underutilized and is sitting there without much to do. Turn your settings up until you see your frame rates drop a little bit; at this point, your GPU is being fully utilized and your CPU is almost being fully utilized. This is a better overall balance for your current hardware.