[SOLVED] Best CPU for RTX 3070?

[Elixs]

I have an Intel Core i5-8400 and an RTX 3070 and I'm noticing that in some games (like Call of Duty Cold War) the CPU it's at 70-99% usage while the GPU sticks at 50-70%. It seems like it is bottlenecking, and I would love to change my CPU in order to avoid that bottleneck, but without spending too much money. I have an Asus Prime H310M-E R2.0 motherboard, which supports 8th and 9th gen Intel processors, and I'm gaming at 1440p. A friend it's trying to sell his i5 9400f for a reasonable price and if that processor will help me avoid this bottleneck, I will buy it.
Anyway, any suggestions for what CPU will match perfectly my GPU? Thanks in advance.

 

[Nemesia]

I have an Intel Core i5-8400 and an RTX 3070 and I'm noticing that in some games (like Call of Duty Cold War) the CPU it's at 70-99% usage while the GPU sticks at 50-70%. It seems like it is bottlenecking, and I would love to change my CPU in order to avoid that bottleneck, but without spending too much money. I have an Asus Prime H310M-E R2.0 motherboard, which supports 8th and 9th gen Intel processors, and I'm gaming at 1440p. A friend it's trying to sell his i5 9400f for a reasonable price and if that processor will help me avoid this bottleneck, I will buy it.
Anyway, any suggestions for what CPU will match perfectly my GPU? Thanks in advance.

The 9400f is ~2% faster than the 8400. Totally not worth it.

 

[Elixs]

The 9400f is ~2% faster than the 8400. Totally not worth it.

Understandable. So, any other suggestion?

 

[sizzling]

Your main limitation is the number of cores and threads these i5’s have. Without changing motherboard your option is an i7 of either 8th or 9th generation. However even these tend to be overpriced for the performance uplift they offer. If you have budget I’d look at a new motherboard and cpu on a modern platform.

 

[geofelt]

Your i3-8100 has 4 threads and a passmark rating of 6166. That is when all 4 threads are fully utilized.
The single thread rating is 2256. Single thread performance is what games need most.

The i5-9400F is a 6 thread processor with a rating of 2491.
At some price point, it would be a modest upgrade.
A i5-9400f sells for about $120 on ebay.
Verify that your motherboard bios is up to date before you swap processors.
You need level 0418 to support a 9400f.

One rule of thumb for a balanced gamer is to budget 2x the cost of the processor for the graphics card.
Working backwards from a $500 3070, that would be a budget of $250 for the processor.

I might think a i5-9600K or i7-9700K would be appropriate.
You can't overclock those, but the K suffix processors are stronger than their non K counterparts even at stock.

 

[Diptes]

On the intel side , considering all aspects i think i7 10700k is the way to go !!!
For amd ryzen 5800x.

 

[Elixs]

Ok guys, thanks for everyone's answers. An i7 it's way too expensive in my country (Paraguay) and it's not worth it, why it isn't worth it? because I could switch to a 10th generation i5 and it will still be cheaper than the i7 (for a very little, but still cheaper). These are the ones that I have in my mind. Processor: https://www.tecnoventaspy.com/product-page/procesador-intel-core-i5-10400f . Motherboard: https://www.tecnoventaspy.com/product-page/placa-madre-asus-prime-h410m-e and I will stick to my current 16GB Ram because that motherboard supports my frequencies (2400MHz). It cost a total of 2.230.000 Paraguayan Guaraníes, which will be like 335US Dollars. Then I could sell my current i5-8400 and motherboard for 1.250.000 Paraguayan Guaraníes, which will be like 176 US Dollars. Now, the other option it's to go for Ryzen 5 5th gen, but it's already too expensive, with only the processor starting at 2.850.000 Paraguayan Guaraníes, which will be like 403 US Dollars. Amazon it's not an option 'cause I will need to pay for shipping, like 10 USD, and then I will need to pay Miami taxes (because I send it to a courier located in Miami and they bring it to me in Paraguay) and then I need to pay 24 USD per Kilogram, so it will end up being more expensive, and I will have to wait a week or more. I could also buy a Ryzen 5 3600 for 1.700.000 Guaraníes, 240 USD, but then I will need to buy another motherboard too, and maybe some RAM (I'm not sure about this one, but I believe that I need to have faster RAM for Ryzen's, maybe I'm mistaken) and I will reduce the processor usage, but I will not get pretty much more FPS. In conclusion, I could get the i5 and the motherboard I already described before (and even included a link), I could call that local store and I could get it by the end of this day, what do you guys think?

 

[geofelt]

The i5-10400 and the H410 motherboard would be a reasonable upgrade.
Even the lesser i3-10100 would be a good gaming upgrade.
Here is a review:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i3-10100/15.html