Question Bottleneck query: i3-8100 and RTX 4070 ?

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letsrock53

Aug 4, 2023
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Hi, currently gaming on a Dell 22 inch monitor with 1680 X 1050 resolution (i3-8100, GTX 1060 6GB ,32GB RAM, Corsair CX550M PSU).
I am thinking of taking things a notch up by upgrading to a 27 inch 1440p monitor and consequently, an RTX 4070. How much of a bottleneck I will be looking at?

The games I like to play are graphically intensive (The Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2...), but not very fast paced FPSes.
 
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Wow, this has grown into an engrossing, meaningful discussion. Thanks for the inputs, guys.
I always knew the CPU and GPU were a mismatch, but wanted to make sure it was something I could live with, at least for now. I guess not.
 
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letsrock53 said:
Hi, currently gaming on a Dell 22 inch monitor with 1680 X 1050 resolution (i3-8100, GTX 1060 6GB ,32GB RAM, Corsair CX550M PSU).
I am thinking of taking things a notch up by upgrading to a 27 inch 1440p monitor and consequently, an RTX 4070. How much of a bottleneck I will be looking at?

The games I like to play are graphically intensive (The Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2...), but not very fast paced FPSes.
Click to expand...
What would be your total budget in case of total upgrade(monitor aside).
Perhaps selling your PC as well.
1000$?
1200?
700?
1500?
 
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zx128k said:
Games will require an NVMe drive as well soon. The first game to support DirectStorage is Forspoken. He will also hit bottlenecks of like 60%.
Click to expand...
That s not even correct.

Forspoken minimum system requirements (720p / 30fps)​

  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 550 XT / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 1600 / Intel Core i7-3770
  • RAM: 16GB
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit / Windows 11 64-bit
  • Storage: 150GB HDD

Forspoken recommended system requirements (1440p / 30fps)​

  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT / Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 / Intel Core i7-8700K
  • RAM: 24GB
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit / Windows 11 64-bit
  • Storage: 150GB SSD

Forspoken ultra system requirements (4K / 60fps)​

  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT / Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5800X / Intel Core i7-12700
  • RAM: 32GB
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit / Windows 11 64-bit
  • Storage: 150GB NVMe SSD
  • EDIT and this information is not even correct!!!!!!!!!!!!! NVME vs SSD @4k. Small load time difference but the FPS are very close.
  • View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8taBd7EO2Dc
For some reason everything you are listing is for 1080p when it was clearly said 1440p
Get the facts right.

As I've said before everything depends on the specific game and how many cores the game can use,
 
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Zerk2012 said:
That s not even correct.

Forspoken minimum system requirements (720p / 30fps)​

  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 550 XT / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 1600 / Intel Core i7-3770
  • RAM: 16GB
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit / Windows 11 64-bit
  • Storage: 150GB HDD

Forspoken recommended system requirements (1440p / 30fps)​

  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT / Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 / Intel Core i7-8700K
  • RAM: 24GB
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit / Windows 11 64-bit
  • Storage: 150GB SSD

Forspoken ultra system requirements (4K / 60fps)​

  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT / Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5800X / Intel Core i7-12700
  • RAM: 32GB
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit / Windows 11 64-bit
  • Storage: 150GB NVMe SSD
  • EDIT and this information is not even correct!!!!!!!!!!!!! NVME vs SSD @4k. Small load time difference but the FPS are very close.
  • View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8taBd7EO2Dc
For some reason everything you are listing is for 1080p when it was clearly said 1440p
Get the facts right.

As I've said before everything depends on the specific game and how many cores the game can use,
Click to expand...

atchet and Clank [PC] - Rift Sequence Loading - NVME Gen 3 vs SATA SSD vs HDD [DirectStorage 1.2]​


Note the issue with having a hard disk, how it causes the gameplay to slow down.

 
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zx128k said:

atchet and Clank [PC] - Rift Sequence Loading - NVME Gen 3 vs SATA SSD vs HDD [DirectStorage 1.2]​


Note the issue with having a hard disk, how it causes the gameplay to slow down.

Click to expand...
And that simply highlights the difference between spinners and solid state.
Which we all knew, and has been shown in multiple similar comparisons.

It does highlight the very minimal differences between the different types of solid state.

ANd it shows that NVMe is not "required".
 
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USAFRet said:
And that simply highlights the difference between spinners and solid state.
Which we all knew, and has been shown in multiple similar comparisons.

It does highlight the very minimal differences between the different types of solid state.

ANd it shows that NVMe is not "required".
Click to expand...
You should know what they are going to do with DirectStorage and asset steaming to the GPU memory. Second video. Thus faster is better. tomshardware does a guide for the PS5 which has ssd requirements for its DirectStorage feature. Why did tomshardware pick the fastest nvme drives and not ignore Sony making it a requirement?

I can get a SSD at 1TB for the same price as a NVMe drive.

Even Forspoken whuch was attacked above does show faster performance between NVMe and SSD.


As you might have gathered already, you need some pretty modern hardware in order to make the most of DirectStorage. That includes running the latest operating system and a modern CPU and GPU. You don't necessarily need a fantastic gaming PC, but you do need a compatible NVMe SSD.

DirectStorage will not work with traditional platter drives or 2.5-inch SSDs.
Click to expand...
PS5 is the same, nvme is a requirement.
 
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USAFRet said:
Faster, yes.
Requirement to play, no.

And the price parity between SATA III SSD and NVMe SSD is a very recent thing.

Now that we've gone completely off topic from the original question about the RTX 4070.....
Click to expand...
DirectStorage requires a NVMe drive.

Tested: Microsoft’s DirectStorage signals the sunset of SATA SSDs​


We augmented our Forspoken testing with an additional DirectStorage 1.1 benchmark tool provided by Microsoft as well as baseline testing of SSDs using the tried-and-true CrystalDiskMark to paint a fuller picture of what this new storage technology truly accomplishes. Bottom line? For the first time ever, gamers have a tangible reason to upgrade to an NVMe SSD.
Click to expand...
2_DirectStorage_Benchmark.png

But the real question is how much of a bump you get going from a SATA SSD to a NVMe M.2 SSD in a DirectStorage game. Well, SATA drives are substantially slower. For example, in scene 3, the Samsung 860 Evo takes 7.4 seconds to load the scene vs the 1.9 seconds on the Spatium SSD. Across all of the scenes, the MSI M480 Spatium NVMe drive cuts the load times by 77 percent.
Click to expand...
 
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USAFRet said:
Yes, it does.

And DirectStorage is not a requirement to play. Currently.


In the future, when more and more games support DS, an NVMe may be required to support that feature.
Currently, not.
Click to expand...
Yes that a product of it being a new feature. Current releases have it builtin and furture releases of all games will use it as well. Its true that older games don't use it but for games that do have the feature. You need a nvme drive. The whole point of DirectStorage is the performance of nvme drives. The reason both microsoft and PS5 will use nvme drives. Thus if you have a console game ported to PC, it will be using DirectStorage because both consoles have this feature. DirectStorage was developed a few years back by Microsoft for its Xbox Series X/S.

Given how cheap nvme drives are, why get anything else. The only reason I have SSD drives is the fact I have run out of nvme slots. The ones I have left cut the PCIe link speed for my GPU. None of the videos I posted show that a SSD is as fast as a NVMe drive. nVidia have RTX IO.

NVIDIA RTX IO Requirements
  • Processor and motherboard with support for PCI Express 4.0.
  • M. 2 NVMe Gen4 SSD (PCI Express 4.0)
  • NVIDIA RTX 3000.
  • Windows 10.
Note the nmve drive. PCIe 4 support. Thus going forward an old PC with a HD is just not going to cut it. 4 core processor, slow ddr3 ram and a HD. Those two games are going to play horribly.

Basically if you upgrade to a 4070 you wont solve these issues. You need more cores and processing power for unreal engine 5 games. The new gpus wont make the console ports run well. Hell they run bad enough on new PC hardware.

The OP can live without support if the games he plays wont use newer features and wont hit the cpu hard. This means he will not get the most out of the GPU but if all he wants is a better performance than his GTX 1060. A 4070 will do that but so will a lot of other options. Some long as he understands the limits and that just a gpu wont fix the other problems of his build. There are features like DirectStorage that a hard disk really is not a good idea. A 8100 also uses DDR4-2400 and few people will go with faster RAM.

I guess it depends on what the OP wants and what his priorities are currently. He could just get the GPU how and upgrade the rest as need. Just accept the drawbacks ot this decision and wait for a good time for price to be right to upgrade the rest as forced to by the games he plays.
 
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zx128k said:
Basically if you upgrade to a 4070 you wont solve these issues. You need more cores and processing power for unreal engine 5 games. The new gpus wont make the console ports run well. Hell they run bad enough on new PC hardware.

The OP can live without support if the games he plays wont use newer features and wont hit the cpu hard. This means he will not get the most out of the GPU but if all he wants is a better performance than his GTX 1060. A 4070 will do that but so will a lot of other options. Some long as he understands the limits and that just a gpu wont fix the other problems of his build. There are features like DirectStorage that a hard disk really is not a good idea. A 8100 also uses DDR4-2400 and few people will go with faster RAM.

I guess it depends on what the OP wants and what his priorities are currently. He could just get the GPU how and upgrade the rest as need. Just accept the drawbacks ot this decision and wait for a good time for price to be right to upgrade the rest as forced to by the games he plays.
Click to expand...
Whoa, easy there. Definitely not what I had in mind when I posted the question. Why would I bother if I didn't know the limitations of my hardware? The question starts with 'bottleneck'.
 
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letsrock53 said:
Whoa, easy there. Definitely not what I had in mind when I posted the question. Why would I bother if I didn't know the limitations of my hardware? The question starts with 'bottleneck'.
Click to expand...
Some people will do anything to argue a point even if it has nothing to do with the question,
Buy the 4070 if you wish and enjoy it, will it be limited by your CPU yes is some games no in some games since you are moving up to 1440p.
Enjoy life don't stress.
 
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Upgrade when you need to, its part of the PC culture. Some games wont be great but so long as your favorite game is fine, what do you care. It doesnt matter which of us is right or wrong. All that matters is you're happy at the end of the day.

At the end of the day with that cpu, you will be limited but if you favorite game can get a decent fps you're golden. Just dont expect to match the performance on many youtube videos.

The main concern is the PSU, it could trip with the power spikes of the 4070. There could be issues, the PC could shutdown while playing a demanding game. Note there could also be no problems.

Whilst it is possible to power this GPU with a 550W power supply, its always advised that the PSU is at least 100W above the recommended. This helps avoid things like trottling due to psu issues or other PSU related issues.
 
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zx128k said:
The main concern is the PSU, it could trip with the power spikes of the 4070. There could be issues, the PC could shutdown while playing a demanding game. Note there could also be no problems.

Whilst it is possible to power this GPU with a 550W power supply, its always advised that the PSU is at least 100W above the recommended. This helps avoid things like trottling due to psu issues or other PSU related issues.
Click to expand...
True. Upgrading the PSU won't be much of an issue, I suppose.
 
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USAFRet said:
And that simply highlights the difference between spinners and solid state.
Which we all knew, and has been shown in multiple similar comparisons.

It does highlight the very minimal differences between the different types of solid state.

ANd it shows that NVMe is not "required".
Click to expand...
For smoothest possible transitions,NVME IS required.
Minimum 3.5GB/s .
So...Samsung 970Evo Plus(3500MB/s))or maybe Western Digital SN750(3470MB/s)when it comes to Gen 3.
When it comes to Gen 4 ,very affordable(on USA market at least)is Samsung 980Pro which in theory matches Playstation 5's SSD speed with 5500MB/s,but it lacks custom SSD controler of PS5.
Or perhaps it's a feature of PS5 motherboard.
Still it should be IF not equal, then almost as good as PS5.
If board is Gen 3,980 Pro should easily max it out and run at 3500MB/s(3.5GB)

Best possible solution for R&C however, could be 64GB of RAM.
Since game is just 38GB or something like that,just uploading game to RAM should best any PC SSD and match Playstation 5.
In theory.
When it comes to portals and crystals.

PC elitists are obssesed with as smooth experience as possible in games, so above SSD speeds should be a goal to strive for.
 
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