Advice for best motherboard to use for i7 4790K and GTX 1080

[bluekryptonite]

Hello all, currently I have the msi z97 gaming5 for a motherboard but I feel like it causes a bottleneck for this duo. Anybody maybe have the same hardware and can suggest a different motherboard? The way I see it, the gtx 1080 is not going to bottleneck the 4790K and vice versa so I'd think it would have to be the motherboard.

 

[SinxarKnights]

What evidence do you have of this? Can you link us to your 3dmark results page (firestrike or timespy would be fine). What are your CPU temps like?

 

[bluekryptonite]

Well my cpu temps well let's say for gta 5 range between 48 and 53 max celcius mostly but I have a kraken x52 cooler. The problem I have is when I talk to people with the same hardware they seem to claim they get better fps overall than I get. I was just talking to a buddy not long ago about gta 4 (we all know what a crappy console port that was) and he has slightly less powerful gpu than I do (a 1060) and gets perfect 60 fps and I'm getting drops up the ying yang. It's awful. Gta 5 gets pretty steady 60 fps almost max settings with random hitching. I'll see if I can get you some evidence on this.

 

[SinxarKnights]

Do your settings match his exactly? Have you verified their claims?

 

[bluekryptonite]

very close. And no no verification. I really think alot of people like to lie about how their getting perfect steady 60 fps just to sound superior but im inclined to believe him and others. He's just a friend on steam by the way. I don't have any real friends with a gaming pc 🙁

 

[SinxarKnights]

You may have an issue, but it is unlikely the motherboard itself. The gaming 5 is a very good board. I can't recommend buying a new Z97 board because the prices have went way up. If you really want one though, an Asus Z97-A used to be the go-to Asus board. Not sure they are sold anymore though. Then you have the issue of buying a new copy of Windows.

Are you having issues with any other programs or games?

If we had more information we might be able to help you. I prefer 3dmark (firestrike or timespy) as it gives a lot of information at a glance. You can also check to make sure your RAM is running in dual-channel mode and your graphics card has sufficient airflow. What does your GPU usage graphs look like when playing GTA 4 (can use GPU-z for this)?

There is also http://www.userbenchmark.com/ it shows a decent amount of info as well as any major bottlenecks. Don't spam this one though as the storage test is very demanding and may cause your SSD to overheat and throttle on successive runs.

For what it is worth, it may be a case of your card is too good for the game. Not enough load on it to keep it at high clocks. I experienced this with X3: Albion Prelude. I used to have a terrible PC and it was difficult to run that game. Now I have a beast PC and was shocked to see the game stutter and get low FPS for seemingly no reason. When I checked into it more closely, turns out the GPU (GTX 1070) wasn't even getting out of the idle state.