[SOLVED] Good CPU for an RTX 2070

[n00bguy84]

So I built my PC in 2016 and I have been using an i7 6700 since then. I originally had an R9 390 and I upgraded to a GTX 2070 Ti back in early 2018.

A bout 5 days ago I bought and installed a RTX 2070 super. Mostly so I could get better performance in RDR2. Other reason is I bought the 1070 Ti new from a seller on Amazon and it was defective right out of the box. The seller wouldn't give me a refund and they only 1 in stock and I bought it. I called MSI and they game me an RMA number and I shipped it to them and they sent me a factory refurbished one. Basically a used one. It worked fine. But performance in RDR2 wasn't great. I was only trying to play at 1080 with all high settings and some on medium. Mostly the most demanding settings.

With the 2070 super I get to use higher settings and it keeps a much better frame rate.

But I know there is a bottleneck with my CPU and I know the game isn't the best port ever.

So what would be a good CPU to use? I am leaning towards one of the new AMD CPU's with more than 4 cores and 8 threads. I am thinking R7 3700x or 3800x. I know I will need a new motherboard and that's fine.

I could go Intel as well. I am not a fanboy of one particular company. But spending $1,000 on a CPU is a bit much. Matter of fact I won't do it even if I could. lol

Maybe one of the 9th gen i7's?

So TL;DR What would be a good CPU to paid with a RTX 2070?

Windows 10 Home Edition 64 bit
ASUS H170 Pro Gaming MOBO
i7 6700
32GB DDR4 RAM (dual channel)
RTX 2070 Super
1 120 GB Mushkin SSD (OS, drivers and so on) ,1 Samsung 860 QVO 2TB SSD, 1 Samsung QVO 4TB SSD
EVGA SuperNova 750 80+ gold 750 watt fully modular
Fractal R5 case

 

[Lutfij]

Might want to list your current specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

so we can assess if you need a major platform upgrade or a minor upgrade to get you up and running. Also, you didn't mention if you've tried taxing other titles to see if the issue is with the title alone or if the GPU drivers were in the way.

 

[n00bguy84]

Might want to list your current specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

so we can assess if you need a major platform upgrade or a minor upgrade to get you up and running. Also, you didn't mention if you've tried taxing other titles to see if the issue is with the title alone or if the GPU drivers were in the way.

It was only RDR2. I had no issues with other games.

 

[sc2lines]

If you are leaning towards an x3700 or x3800, if you lean a wee bit more the x3900 is what I have paired with an RTX 2070........

https://imgur.com/dyQQvyA

View: https://imgur.com/dyQQvyA

 

[86zx]

On the flop side you could get a 2700x they are half the price Of the 3000 series ryzen and will be way better than a 6700

 

[CosmicDance]

Yes a Ryzen 3700X paired with your 2070 will be a powerful little gaming rig.
It will give you better future proofing to as this 3rd gen of Ryzen CPU s perform considerably better than the last gen, especially in gaming where the last gen can see stutters due to low framerates in certain demanding games including RDR2, The Witcher 3 and others.

Just check that your DDR4 RAM is on your QVL for the new motherboard that you get as these Ryzens are far more picky with memory if you plan on keeping the same memory.
It may still work but is not guaranteed full compatibility unless on the QVL.

Andy

 

[Gmoney06ss]

While I'm certainly not going to say dont upgrade, it seems like alot to spend for one game. Imo, the 6700 is still plenty cpu, even for rdr2.

My recommendation would be the 3700x though. This is the way I'm leaning with my system, but finding it hard to actually do it.

What speed is your ram? Ryzen still loves fast ram, so if you're on anything slower than 3000, I'd also get new sticks.

Have you tried any of the optimization guides out there for rdr2? Hardware unboxed has a great 2 part guide. It helped me tremendously. I went from 45fps on ultra to an average of 80 with the guide. Zero perceivable loss to visuals, but much smoother play and great average highs. This was with a 7700 and 2080 @ 1440p. So with the 2070 @1080p, I'd guess you could see very similar fps if not higher. Give it a shot before dropping 600ish on a new cpu upgrade.

 

[hftvhftv]

A Ryzen 5 3600 or a 3700X would be a good upgrade choice.

 

[n00bguy84]

Yes a Ryzen 3700X paired with your 2070 will be a powerful little gaming rig.
It will give you better future proofing to as this 3rd gen of Ryzen CPU s perform considerably better than the last gen, especially in gaming where the last gen can see stutters due to low framerates in certain demanding games including RDR2, The Witcher 3 and others.

Just check that your DDR4 RAM is on your QVL for the new motherboard that you get as these Ryzens are far more picky with memory if you plan on keeping the same memory.
It may still work but is not guaranteed full compatibility unless on the QVL.

Andy

Don't feel like typing it out. But this is the exact same RAM I am using now. It's in my order history on Newegg.

I will make sure everything I have now is compatible cause I don't want to have to buy anything else if I can help it.

https://www.newegg.com/corsair-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820236541?Item=N82E16820236541

 

[n00bguy84]

While I'm certainly not going to say dont upgrade, it seems like alot to spend for one game. Imo, the 6700 is still plenty cpu, even for rdr2.

My recommendation would be the 3700x though. This is the way I'm leaning with my system, but finding it hard to actually do it.

What speed is your ram? Ryzen still loves fast ram, so if you're on anything slower than 3000, I'd also get new sticks.

Have you tried any of the optimization guides out there for rdr2? Hardware unboxed has a great 2 part guide. It helped me tremendously. I went from 45fps on ultra to an average of 80 with the guide. Zero perceivable loss to visuals, but much smoother play and great average highs. This was with a 7700 and 2080 @ 1440p. So with the 2070 @1080p, I'd guess you could see very similar fps if not higher. Give it a shot before dropping 600ish on a new cpu upgrade.

Well there will be other games. But RDR2 is the one I am dealing with now. I know it's mostly poor optimization on Rockstar's part. That they dumped another garbage port on PC gamers. The 2070 Super has boosted performance quite a bit. But I would still like to get a better CPU.

Plus I plan to eventually get a 1440p monitor. Maybe something with a higher refresh rate maybe. There is other stuff I need to get as well like a bigger desk cause I would like to get a bigger monitor. Maybe use the monitor I have now which is pretty nice as a second monitor. I guess I could sell it though.

There is a little more behind the upgrade than just RDR2.

I agree, an i7 6700 should be enough. But sadly it isn't. I followed a lot of tweaking guides. It's only a handful of graphical settings that really impact performance. Upgrading to a RTX 2070 Super already gave me a boost in performance with the game. So I figured a CPU to match the new GPU would be even better.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Either a 3600 (6core/12 thread) or 3700X (8/16) would be good with that GPU; most people do consider 8 core/16 thread being a good future proofing tactic. Not really because games will be able to put one to task but most people wind up doing several things at same time as gaming...streaming, video capture, discording, whatever. The threads help.

3800X is only worth the extra cost if you're one to try your hand at all-core overclocking, which will also need a premium motherboard.

But remember this: with a 2070 you're probably gonna game at 1440p and the CPU is largely out of it at that point. So be careful what you want beyond a 3600, 'cause it may not give more than a very minor benefit in performance.

 

[n00bguy84]

Either a 3600 (6core/12 thread) or 3700X (8/16) would be good with that GPU; most people do consider 8 core/16 thread being a good future proofing tactic. Not really because games will be able to put one to task but most people wind up doing several things at same time as gaming...streaming, video capture, discording, whatever. The threads help.

3800X is only worth the extra cost if you're one to try your hand at all-core overclocking, which will also need a premium motherboard.

But remember this: with a 2070 you're probably gonna game at 1440p and the CPU is largely out of it at that point. So be careful what you want beyond a 3600, 'cause it may not give more than a very minor benefit in performance.

I guess it will be either the 3700X or the 3800X. Probably by the end of this year. I don't have the money to throw around right now. Maybe a in a few months I can pick up the CPU and a new motherboard later on. I would also like to get a SSD with more space for the OS and so on. Probably 250GB, another Samsung like the others.

I guess I will look at Motherboards now.

 

[Rodrigodrt]

Granted that a non K can't be overclocked, else there would be no real reason to upgrade your CPU, i mean... 2070S + your CPU = good frames in EVERY game out there, so i still see no reason to upgrade, regardless, i'd go with 3700x to at least justify the bump in the core count and be a bit more future proof... while 4 core 8 threads is just the 'ok' needs for nowadays, 8 / 16 seems only more logical (hehe, pun intended).

anyways, if I were you i would not swap YET, theres a war raging between intel and amd and we profit from that, but if you want to, 3700x, 3600 wouldn't make sense to me.

 

[n00bguy84]

Granted that a non K can't be overclocked, else there would be no real reason to upgrade your CPU, i mean... 2070S + your CPU = good frames in EVERY game out there, so i still see no reason to upgrade, regardless, i'd go with 3700x to at least justify the bump in the core count and be a bit more future proof... while 4 core 8 threads is just the 'ok' needs for nowadays, 8 / 16 seems only more logical (hehe, pun intended).

anyways, if I were you i would not swap YET, theres a war raging between intel and amd and we profit from that, but if you want to, 3700x, 3600 wouldn't make sense to me.

Yeah I am leaning towards a 3700x. I just watched this video on YouTube.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAGQwWDyURI


So I am leaning towards a 3700x. Though it's still a good bit of time before I swap. On Newegg a 3700X is $330 though it says the sale ends in 2 days. The 3800X is $340. From what I understand from the video both CPU's are basically the same. The 3800x is just slightly better, but the performance difference is so small they might as well be the same. But for $10 it would be hard to pass up even a very small performance gain for just $10. At least that's how I see it.

If they have that small price difference when I decide to purchase one I might go 3800x.

How are the stock coolers that come with these CPU's? My only experience is with an Intel stock cooler that came with my 6700 and it worked ok. Though the AMD Prism Wraith coolers seem to be better. They look like mini versions of an aftermarket cooler. I also wonder when I do upgrade should I use some different cooling paste?

 

[GarrettL]

The Stock Wraith will cool the 3800x But it can get a little loud. But it’s fine.

 

[johnsoner13]

If youre only gaming, a 3600 should be sufficient and you can spend the extra money you save on an aftermarket cooler if you want it to be more quiet or overclock.

 

[n00bguy84]

The Stock Wraith will cool the 3800x But it can get a little loud. But it’s fine.

I heard the 3000 series Ryzen CPU's will overclock themselves with power boost. I most likely won't bother with overclocking much or at all.

My main concern though is the noise. My i7 6700 is not a K variant and I just stayed with the stock cooler and it runs pretty quietly. I have never heard it while gaming. My GPU is what I used to hear when I had the R9 390 and in some games I would hear the 1070 Ti, especially in RDR2. I really don't like hearing the fans and it's kind of rough since my case is right next to me almost.

I have watched a few videos about the coolers and they don't seem that loud. But if it is I guess I can always get a different cooler and install it. My case has sound reducing mats in it as well so that should help.