FO04

Commendable
Dec 25, 2019
4
0
1,510
Hello!

So i've just gotten a GTX 1660Ti for chritmas and currently have a Ryzen 5 1400 CPU (16Gb RAM 2666Mhz). I've been looking at these "bottleneck calculators" and they say theres going to be a 28% bottleneck, is that a lot, should i be worried? If those calculators even are real.
I don't really have the money to get a newer CPU so i'll have to stick with this one for now at least.
I play games like CSGO, Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, GTA V, Dirt Rally and i also stream sometimes.
So let me know how it's going to playing with this setup especially while streaming and just casual gaming

Thanks :)
 
Solution
There are two issues I can see here.

One, you are using memory that is slower than what we like to see with Ryzen, even first Gen Ryzen can generally handle up to 2933mhz memory kits, sometimes even 3200mhz given the more recent BIOS updates. If you ever upgrade to a newer Ryzen CPU on that build you'll definitely be limiting your performance by running anything slower than 2933mhz and should probably be running something at least 3200mhz or faster for 3rd Gen Ryzen. It's not a terrible issue on your current CPU, but it's less than it could be and WILL be a factor if you upgrade later.

Two, that first Gen Ryzen CPU is not terribly capable in terms of single core performance or IPC. Technically it has enough cores/threads to be...

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
Those calculators are junk, they don't (or rarely) account for the game nor resolution/refresh rate which has a large impact. If your gaming at 1080P the combo is fine and any sort of "bottleneck" depends on the game itself (the ones you list should be fine).

Future upgrade should be the CPU (maybe save up for 4th gen?) and getting faster memory (helps with FPS and dips, 3200 is ideal), perhaps more if pricing continues to be good.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: FO04
There are two issues I can see here.

One, you are using memory that is slower than what we like to see with Ryzen, even first Gen Ryzen can generally handle up to 2933mhz memory kits, sometimes even 3200mhz given the more recent BIOS updates. If you ever upgrade to a newer Ryzen CPU on that build you'll definitely be limiting your performance by running anything slower than 2933mhz and should probably be running something at least 3200mhz or faster for 3rd Gen Ryzen. It's not a terrible issue on your current CPU, but it's less than it could be and WILL be a factor if you upgrade later.

Two, that first Gen Ryzen CPU is not terribly capable in terms of single core performance or IPC. Technically it has enough cores/threads to be adequate, but both it's single core and multithreaded performance are bested by a 3rd Gen Intel 3770k, that is nearly 8 years old.

The 1660 ti is fairly capable for 1080p so as Wildcard indicated, the CPU is going to be your biggest problem WHEN there is a problem. For games that are primarily GPU bound, it may not be a problem at all. For games that use the CPU heavily, it IS going to be a problem. Especially on games that are not well optimized for multithreaded performance. Not horrific, but probably pretty obviously noticeable. If the game uses the CPU heavily AND is halfway decently optimized for multithreaded performance, it will mitigate that somewhat but the lack of IPC and single core performance on 1st gen Ryzen is STILL going to be a choke point no matter what.
 
Solution

FO04

Commendable
Dec 25, 2019
4
0
1,510
4th gen is a good idea, i was looking to buy the Ryzen 7 2700x but i just didn't have the money for it.
My motherboard doesen't support anything above 2666 MHz sadly (EX-A320M-GAMING)
So in the future a mobo, cpu and maybe ram upgrade would be ideal.

But thank's a lot for the help!
 
People get so fixated on bottlenecks when in reality no system will have a part that is not bottlenecking the rest. The slowest part in the chain is the bottleneck and the way to avoid this is to have a moderately balanced build with no overkill/slow single parts that don't perform to their full potential or worse limit the performance of the rest. A bottleneck will not cause your system to not boot, it will not give you zero FPS, it will not break games.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FO04
You will never have a system where there is NO bottleneck, BUT, you can certainly have a system where the bottleneck that exists does not have an affect on what you NEED the hardware to do. If the CPU can maintain the FPS you require, it does not matter that the GPU card is more capable than the CPU.

If the GPU card allows you to have the quality settings you require without severely hampering the CPU performance, then it does not matter if the CPU is more capable than the graphics card. If you don't care that it takes two seconds longer for a map to load, it does not matter that one SSD or HDD takes a little longer to access that data than another one might or a newer standard offers.

You are right that it won't break stuff, but a serious bottleneck, can certainly make the experience unpleasant, while conversely, even if it IS a serious bottleneck, if the least powerful hardware component in the chain is still more than what you need for it to be, it probably has little effect whatsoever. At least, until you begin to require more from the hardware whether by preference or increased demand of the software.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FO04