[SOLVED] I5-9600k -> i7-11700k with 3080ti?

[ap3]

Hello!

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a 3080ti (upgraded from 2070s) and feel like my i5-9600k is bottlenecking the system. I am waiting for the alder lake release but I feel like if I am going to go alder lake I am going to need to get a new CPU cooler and RAM (DDR5) as well. With that in mind, I was planning on i7-11700k now then alder lake in a year or 2. Does this seem like a reasonable upgrade? This is my PC for occasional work-related tasks but is predominantly for gaming.

Thank you!

 

[Deleted member 362816]

What resolution do you game at?

 

[LeviTech]

I think it would worth the upgrade but are you sure you are struggling with that CPU?
What games do you usually play and with what settings?

 

[Karadjgne]

Not all that much difference between a 9600k and 11600k, basically all just Skylake with some tweaks since the 6600k.

Most of what you are seeing imho is graphical. Rather large bump in ability between a 2070Super and a 3080ti, but chances are that you now use the full Ultra settings, because you can. That changes things visually more than just fps. All the things you didn't get before not having the ti's RT and tensor core count, you are now seeing, all the after affects you had dialed down to raise fps, you are running freely, and thats putting a massive strain on the cpu, especially single threaded stuff.

Lower the more cpu bound settings to High or Med, don't use the Ultra preset as anything but a starting point. Visually you'll be hard pressed to see any difference at all in the vast majority of games, if any at all, but to the cpu that's a serious relief of stress. Which will have the side bonus of raising fps.

 

[ap3]

Appreciate the responses! I play 1440p. What settings tend to be CPU bound? Typically playing COD, RDR2, emulators (dolphin, Cemu, PS3), Cyberpunk, etc.

 

[Karadjgne]

Grass detail is a biggie. Viewing distance. Clouds, lighting, shadows, Ai, hair works, physX.

The gpu takes what the cpu sends it, and paints the picture, so if the picture is a field of grass moving in the breeze, the more individual blades, at longer viewing distance, the more that's on the cpu to supply the info for that many blades of grass. Turning settings to 'minecraft' level on the graphics presets, that field becomes basically nothing more than a green background, no or very few blades, easy for gpu, but Very easy for cpu.

A single blade of grass is hard on cpu. Got to supply the entire dimensions and shape, shadow and highlighting, colors and shading, movement to the gpu to paint. If there's a million blades visible, that's much harder and takes longer to process than if there 1000 blades visible and identifiable. Fps goes down as a result, not because the gpu can't paint them in a frame, but because the time it takes for the cpu, and resources needed by cpu (higher usage) to decode, organize, identify etc is longer per frame. Less frames per second shipped to gpu.

Affects (pre and post) are cpu bound. Detail is gpu bound. FPS is all cpu responsibility. If the cpu can only supply 100fps, that's all the gpu can paint. If the 1660ti could paint all 100 frames, moving to 3080ti makes no difference. Still can only paint the 100 frames supplied by cpu. Most benefits are found when the 1660ti can only paint 60 of those frames, so cpu only needs supply 60, usage goes down, but a move to 3080ti is capable of 150 frames, so cpu usage gets maxed to 100 frames, you see fps go up, but also cpu usage goes through the roof.

Lowering the cpu bound settings allows the cpu to make more frames per second, gpu can paint them, so cpu usage lowers, but fps goes up. Visually it means stuff in background isn't as sharply detailed, background shading/shadows/lighting isn't quite as defined, some objects disappear at a shorter distance etc.