Question Bottleneck query: i3-8100 and RTX 4070 ?

[letsrock53]

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.

 

[kizo]

India.

Any nearby stores you might consider purchasing from?
For warranty purposes, most practical solution is to purchase everything in same store.
I could go take a look,conjure up something and then IF it's REALLY bad,mods can ban me for poor PC advice 😄.
If it's good,then it's good.

 

[kizo]

Just kept your old gpu, it will be useful if something goes wrong. Some people had to update their BIOS to get their GPU to work. Then there is the issues you cant account for, a second gpu is great for testing and as a fallback.

Or he might get a CPU with built in graphics for fallback purposes and sell the GPU.
If not,then your advice stands.

 

[zx128k]

Their is a guy with a 3770k and a 3080 with issues in this thread, might be useful to see how he resolves his issues. He is having 0.1/1% lows issues. Hopefully its okay with the OP games.

 

[letsrock53]

Any nearby stores you might consider purchasing from?
For warranty purposes, most practical solution is to purchase everything in same store.
I could go take a look,conjure up something and then IF it's REALLY bad,mods can ban me for poor PC advice 😄.
If it's good,then it's good.

Purchases are online 99.9% of the time. Local dealers cannot match the price and their hardware knowledge leaves much to be desired.

 

[letsrock53]

Their is a guy with a 3770k and a 3080 with issues in this thread, might be useful to see how he resolves his issues. He is having 0.1/1% lows issues. Hopefully its okay with the OP games.

Currently playing Spellforce 3: Reforced (does not count, I know) and The Witcher 3. Recently played through Red Dead Redemption 2, Halo Infinite, Days Gone, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection, God of War etc. to name a few. No issues whatsoever. Then again, barring a couple of games, none of these are graphical powerhouses either.

 

[zx128k]

Currently playing Spellforce 3: Reforced (does not count, I know) and The Witcher 3. Recently played through Red Dead Redemption 2, Halo Infinite, Days Gone, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection, God of War etc. to name a few. No issues whatsoever. Then again, barring a couple of games, none of these are graphical powerhouses either.

Good to hear.

 

[randyh121]

I'm sorry if this is off topic but am I the only one who gets mad when someone says "bottleneck" thinking they know what it means? It seems to me anyone who knows nothing about computers is throwing the word "bottleneck" around like candy as a catch all phrase for anything and everything thinking they are smart for saying it.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm sorry if this is off topic but am I the only one who gets mad when someone says "bottleneck" thinking they know what it means? It seems to me anyone who knows nothing about computers is throwing the word "bottleneck" around like candy as a catch all phrase for anything and everything thinking they are smart for saying it.

No, you're not the only one.

 

[kizo]

Purchases are online 99.9% of the time. Local dealers cannot match the price and their hardware knowledge leaves much to be desired.

Ok,what about online stores you intended to use?

 

[zx128k]

I'm sorry if this is off topic but am I the only one who gets mad when someone says "bottleneck" thinking they know what it means? It seems to me anyone who knows nothing about computers is throwing the word "bottleneck" around like candy as a catch all phrase for anything and everything thinking they are smart for saying it.

Pairing a 4070 with a 8100, is like putting 20" rims on a wheelie bin. Then expecting to win formula 1. The FPS would be the same if he got a 3060 because of the CPU bottleneck. Its just a waste of money. With modern games. He just wont met above minimum cpu requirements which will mean it will stutter and hitch. It will run poorly but for older games thats not a big issue.

 

[kizo]

No, you're not the only one.

Ok,I seek enlightement in that case.
Personally I think problem is overblown in modern gaming(last 5 or so years).
But let's say I never heard of bottleneck, how would you describe it for me,would you kindly?

 

[USAFRet]

Ok,I seek enlightement in that case.
Personally I think problem is overblown in modern gaming(last 5 or so years).
But let's say I never heard of bottleneck, how would you describe it for me,would you kindly?

Build a balanced system.

But....
If you are swapping in a better part....the GPU for instance....the "bottleneck" number goes up.
But so does actual performance.

A better GPU may not give you more FPS, but it will let you apply a better graphics level.

People throw around the term 'bottleneck, as if it will make the system run worse.
It does not.

 

[kizo]

Build a balanced system.

But....
If you are swapping in a better part....the GPU for instance....the "bottleneck" number goes up.
But so does actual performance.

A better GPU may not give you more FPS, but it will let you apply a better graphics level.

People throw around the term 'bottleneck, as if it will make the system run worse.
It does not.

Are you sure it does not?
While I had 3080 12GB,I played Fallout New Vegas on Max Settings.
At the time I didn't have 4K TV.
Just 1440p monitor.
On average it worked at approximately 40-45 fps with my Ryzen 5 5500,only occasionally would it hit 60 on open road with nothing in front of me.

At the time my plan was to throw in 5600X or 5700X or something 6-12 months later
(reason I got Ryzen 5 5500 was to serve as a placeholder)to create balanced system.
But well things happened so now I have 3060Ti.

 

[zx128k]

Build a balanced system.

But....
If you are swapping in a better part....the GPU for instance....the "bottleneck" number goes up.
But so does actual performance.

A better GPU may not give you more FPS, but it will let you apply a better graphics level.

People thrown around the term 'bottleneck, as if it will make the system run worse.
It does not.

It can because if you say run out of memory bandwidth or try to steam more data from a too slow hard disk. This leads to performance problems. A balanced system wont have these issues.

There a tons of threads on this forum of people having performance issues pairing a newer gpu with an old CPU. I can tell from experience, you lose performance. Most of the time in the minimum fps as shown above in the benchmark video I posted.

I used to play destiny 2 with a 4930k @ 4.5GHz and a RTX 2080. I lossed above 30% performance. I also had small random hitching and stuttering. Not enough to really affect gameplay but it was there. Thats with DDR3 ram with 60GB/s read, writes etc. In some games like World of warcraft, I got poor FPS at 4k. Performance would just drop like a stone with higher GPU settings.

Once I got a AMD 3800xt system then performance at 4k was smooth at higher gpu settings. I got smooth 4k@60 with the highest settings. This is a 3800xt @ 4.5GHz with 3600CL14 memory and a IF of 1900. I had 9900k performance.

CPU bottleneck as bad as this one, means problems and the gpu is a big waste of money. 50-60% reduction in fps in a modern AAA title will put the lows below 60 fps. This is with the target monitor of 1440p. FPS will go up and down like a jojo. Games can run on slow cpus but the experience wont be good or AAA. So whats the point of getting a AAA gpu. Running at 1440p.

This is a case were an amd gpu like the RT 6600 would likely be better. AMD drivers are rumored to have less cpu overhead. Way troll that a 4070 is better, its not. Its a big waste of money, a lesser performing gpu would give the same performance.

 

[USAFRet]

Are you sure it does not?
While I had 3080 12GB,I played Fallout New Vegas on Max Settings.
At the time I didn't have 4K TV.
Just 1440p monitor.
On average it worked at approximately 40-45 fps,only occasionally would it hit 60 on open road with nothing in front of me.

At the time my plan was to throw in 5600X or 5700X or something 6-12 months later(I got Ryzen 5 5500 as a placeholder)to create balanced system.
But well things happened so now I have 3060Ti.

CPU A + GPU B + Resolution X

Swap in a single better part, and keep ALL of the sttings the same.
How would this result in worse performance?

 

[USAFRet]

It can because if you say run out of memory bandwidth or try to steam more data from a too slow hard disk. This leads to performance problems. A balanced system wont have these issues.

Given the same CPU and same settings, it is still providing the same frames to the GPU.
Just that the better GPU can apply better graphics to thaose frames.

 

[zx128k]

CPU A + GPU B + Resolution X

Swap in a single better part, and keep ALL of the sttings the same.
How would this result in worse performance?

You are basically reducing the arguement to this, if I paired a 4090 with a 486. It would be better performance. Yes it would but its still a silly thing to do and you wont expect anything near the value in performance from the 4090. At this extreme the problem is obvious.

 

[USAFRet]

There a tons of threads on this forum of people having performance issues pairing a newer gpu with an old CPU.

Links please?

 

[zx128k]

Links please?

Alreally posted one remember.

 

[USAFRet]

You are basically reducing the arguement to this, if I paired a 4090 with a 486. It would be better performance. Yes it would but its still a silly thing to do and you wont expect anything near the value in performance from the 4090. At this extreme the problem is obvious.

Yes it IS a silly thing to do.
Absolutely, no question.

But it won't be worse than it was before...😉

 

[kizo]

Pairing a 4070 with a 8100, is like putting 20" rims on a wheelie bin. Then expecting to win formula 1. The FPS would be the same if he got a 3060 because of the CPU bottleneck. Its just a waste of money. With modern games. He just wont met above minimum cpu requirements which will mean it will stutter and hitch. It will run poorly but for older games thats not a big issue.

True,however getting 4070 over 3060 makes it much cheaper when someday upgrading to a newer tech he might relatively quickly conclude that 3060 isn't giving him what he wants...lacking money for 4070,even if he sells 3060.
That being said 3060 IS a very nice card.

 

[zx128k]

Yes it IS a silly thing to do.
Absolutely, no question.

But it won't be worse than it was before...😉

Stuttering isn't always caused by a CPU bottleneck, even though CPU Bottlenecks usually cause stuttering.

Overheating machines, underpowered GPU, inadequate RAM, and CPU bottleneck are all likely to cause stuttering during gaming.

This bottleneck often occurs when you try to pair a lower-powered CPU with a high-end GPU, because there's a sizable gap in power.

People always complain that their older GPU ran fine. Like my 4930k system, I got minimum problems but the bottlenect stopped me getting good stable fps in world of warcraft. My fps would drop into the 30's from 60fps. Getting a 3800x fixed this issue. All games are not the same and installing things like discord etc can cause bad stuttering.

Most of the time it was my RAM overclocks that would fix most of the stuttering. Or if the RAM was erroring it would stutter and hitch.

 

[zx128k]

True,however getting 4070 over 3060 makes it much cheaper when someday upgrading to a newer tech he might relatively quickly conclude that 3060 isn't giving him what he wants...lacking money for 4070,even if he sells 3060.
That being said 3060 IS a very nice card.

I did the same with my 4930k system and a RTX 2080 but I made the mistake of getting a RTX 2060 first. I upgraded to a 3800x to get smooth stable fps in world of warcraft. I never got a good experience out of the 2080 but did with the 2060. The system just didnt have the performance.

I can see the mods point of view as well which is why this is just arguing. At the end of the day the choice is the OP's. Accept the possible problems and upgrade later if needed.

 

[randyh121]

Think of it like this.
If you have a Ferrari with old wheels, the engine will still be the same.
The engine is not being 'bottlenecked'. The engine will perform the same no matter the wheels. The engine being your GPU and the CPU being your wheels.
Yes, getting a better CPU will maximize performance on the road. But the wheels on your Ferrari are not bottlenecking your engine.

 

[kizo]

CPU A + GPU B + Resolution X

Swap in a single better part, and keep ALL of the sttings the same.
How would this result in worse performance?

I lack technical knowledge to give high quality answer.
I just know I have seen it people talk about it over the years.
Plus zx128 answered you.
What he said sounds very familiar.
Probably what I was hearing about throughout the years.