Question Bottleneck, need upgrade ?

[Modduss]

I recently upgraded to the Asus RTX 4070 Super from the 1660 Ti but the problem is that my CPU can't keep up with it. I have an Intel i5-9400 along with an Asus Rog Maximus XI mobo, and with the new market and so much scope for upgrades I dont know what to get since I'm going to need a new CPU and mobo.

Also, I'm not even getting the full potential out of my GPU since I'm on a PCIe gen 3 and i think its only x8 so I just need some advice on what's good. I don't have a preference on platform, but I have a decently limiting budget but not absurd.

I hope i gave all the information needed and I hope you guys can help, thanks!

 

[geofelt]

I5-9400 was a great processor in it's time.(2018)
Run the cpu-Z bench test on your i5-9400
You should get a score of 481:
https://valid.x86.fr/bench/qbciuf
Your single thread performance is the key metric for most cpu limited games.
To do significantly better you will need a motherboard upgrade.
For intel, look for a i5-13400 or i5-14400 class processor which will score 700 or so.
Motherboards come in both DDR4 and DDR5 with equal performance.

If you set the motherboard bios to currency, the 13/14 gen issues have been fixed.

 

[QyInvoLing]

Budget?

 

[Modduss]

Budget?

trying not to get too high over 400 since i can get good deals on newegg around there for good parts

 

[Modduss]

Also do you guys think a 9900k would work I know it’s outdated but it would be temporary until I can get the money I need

 

[geofelt]

Also do you guys think a 9900k would work I know it’s outdated but it would be temporary until I can get the money I need

Probably not worth it for gaming.
Perhaps a 10% boost.
Lots of threads, but only mildly more cpu power.
Plus, you may likely need a better cooler for it.

 

[artk2219]

Also do you guys think a 9900k would work I know it’s outdated but it would be temporary until I can get the money I need

A 9900K should be decent pairing with an RTX 4070, an RTX 3080 cpu scaling review is below and can be used as reference since the RTX 4070 has pretty much identical performance. There are some gains to be had with a cpu newer than the 9900K, but not much. Those two components would make a pretty good pairing, and an i9 9900K is around $220. Your current I5 9400 would perform about the same as the I3 10100 in that review, which isn't a bad performer, but you can get some more performance out of the GPU with a better chip.

https://www.tomshardware.com/features/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-ampere-cpu-scaling-benchmarks