Question Is it Wise To Pair A i9-10850K With A 7900 XT Instead of 4090?

[Heat_Fan89]

I went to a website that calculates CPU/GPU bottlenecks and according to them, if I pair my 10850K with a 6950XT, it will produce over 10% CPU bottleneck at 4K. I thought that was a little high since it was released in the same generation as my RTX 3080. My 10850K is essentially a slightly downclocked 10 core 10900K.

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What do you guys and or gals think about a 4090 with a 10850K? How severe would the bottleneck be in 4K.

 

[tennis2]

At 4k, yes a 10850K and a 4090 are fine.

The higher the resolution (and/or detail settings), the more workload/bottleneck will fall on the GPU. Conversely, this is why you'll primarily see CPU benchmarks using 1080p and the fastest available GPU to expose any/all differences between CPUs.

Keep in mind, that dropping from a 4090 to a 4080 isn't going to somehow result in the same FPS using the same CPU. The "bottleneck" doesn't just magically disappear.

This is only at 1440p, but...

 

[Heat_Fan89]

That's what I thought that the GPU at 4K would do most of the heavy lifting. Thanks for your input, much appreciated.

 

[sizzling]

Don’t use bottleneck calculators, they are total BS

 

[SyCoREAPER]

I wouldn't. You'll take a huge hit.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Don’t use bottleneck calculators, they are total BS

Thanks, for that advice. I thought those numbers looked fishy for the 6950X since it's basically a souped up 6900XT. When I configured the 10850K and the 6900XT there was less than 1% bottleneck in 4K but it jumped to over 10% with the 6950K.

I found that rather strange.

 

[kerberos_20]

Thanks, for that advice. I thought those numbers looked fishy for the 6950X since it's basically a souped up 6900XT. When I configured the 10850K and the 6900XT there was less than 1% bottleneck in 4K but it jumped to over 10% with the 6950K.

I found that rather strange.

you have that cpu already with some random gpu...right?
open game (any game you want to play), lower graphic details and resolution to minimum (even 720p or lower) to have GPU usage as low as possible
FPS counter will pretty much be now CPU bound, if you want more FPS, better GPU wont fix that....better GPU will just give you better graphics and resolution without reducing FPS

so better GPU = same FPS at better details/resolution (as long you dont max out GPU utilisation)
need more FPS than what your current CPU can provide? = CPU upgrade

 

[Nighthawk117]

What refresh rate are you playing at and what games? I have a 10850K and 3080 at 1440p 165hz.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

What refresh rate are you playing at and what games? I have a 10850K and 3080 at 1440p 165hz.

Pretty much various genres. FPS, MS Flight Sim, racing etc all at 4K 60FPS

 

[Nighthawk117]

Pretty much various genres. FPS, MS Flight Sim, racing etc all at 4K 60FPS

I wouldn't bother upgrading for 4k 60 FPS. I personally would be reluctant to upgrade the 10850K under any circumstances, however there is a case for it with a new high end GPU and high refresh rate gaming.

My two cents would be to keep the money in the bank and worry about it when you are unsatisfied with the performance.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Any thoughts on pairing my i9-10850K with a 7900 XT or 7900 XTX? Amazon currently has the 7900 XT for $899.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Any thoughts on pairing my i9-10850K with a 7900 XT or 7900 XTX? Amazon currently has the 7900 XT for $899.

I'd do it for 4K personally.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I'd do it for 4K personally.

And yes this would be to do gaming in 4K Ultra at 60FPS.

Would I create a bottleneck going with a 7900 XTX instead? I'm waiting for prices to start coming down a bit. This videocard would be replacing a retail RTX 3080 in my HP Omen 30L.

 

[Nighthawk117]

And yes this would be to do gaming in 4K Ultra at 60FPS.

Would I create a bottleneck going with a 7900 XTX instead? I'm waiting for prices to start coming down a bit. This videocard would be replacing a retail RTX 3080 in my HP Omen 30L.

The 4090 is the more powerful card so it's certainly no worse than that. My expectation would be that any CPU bottlenecking at 4k 60hz would be either extremely small or non existent. I don't actually have one of the newer CPU's or GPU's to try, but in a blind test I think you would struggle to tell the difference between a 10850K and something newer in such circumstances. I would only upgrade the CPU if it wasn't delivering the performance you need and not worry about potential bottlenecking in scenarios that don't apply.

Be aware there have been some vapor chamber issues with the latest AMD cards.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

The 4090 is the more powerful card so it's certainly no worse than that. My expectation would be that any CPU bottlenecking at 4k 60hz would be either extremely small or non existent. I don't actually have one of the newer CPU's or GPU's to try, but in a blind test I think you would struggle to tell the difference between a 10850K and something newer in such circumstances. I would only upgrade the CPU if it wasn't delivering the performance you need and not worry about potential bottlenecking in scenarios that don't apply.

Yeah, i'm just asking because I have had responses both ways:

1) Yes the 10850K paired with a RTX 4090 would create a HUGE bottleneck

2) No it doesn't matter because the GPU is now doing most of the heavy lifting.

And it's not like i'm trying to achieve anything higher than 60FPS. I can tell a BIG between 30 and 60 FPS. Beyond 60 FPS, it all looks the same to me, fluid. What I don't want is stuttering in games. That would kill the idea for me to upgrade !

 

[Nighthawk117]

1) Yes the 10850K paired with a RTX 4090 would create a HUGE bottleneck

Yes it can, but under specific circumstances. If you were to play Cod Wazone 2 with an unlocked frame rate, then yes the 10850K will bottleneck a 4090. To be clear, under the right circumstances a 4090 will bottleneck any CPU. The most challenging games at 4k seem to be the ray tracing ones. I know from my experience at 1440p that ray tracing is very taxing on the CPU. I've seen it suggested that games like Gotham Knights and Spiderman Remastered are challenging to run at 60 FPS 4K. Cyberpunk 2077 is another that is very demanding even at 60 FPS. Gotham Knights though seems to have stuttering issues even on the latest hardware like Alder Lake.

My expectation would still be that aside the rare exception such as the above, games will run smoothly at 4k 60hz.

2) No it doesn't matter because the GPU is now doing most of the heavy lifting.

They are both important, the CPU will be very busy but should be sufficient for delivering a smooth 60 FPS in the vast majority or all titles.

And it's not like i'm trying to achieve anything higher than 60FPS. I can tell a BIG between 30 and 60 FPS. Beyond 60 FPS, it all looks the same to me, fluid. What I don't want is stuttering in games. That would kill the idea for me to upgrade !

Do you not play at 4k already with your 3080? Do you ever get stuttering in games?

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Do you not play at 4k already with your 3080? Do you ever get stuttering in games?

Sometimes I do but rarely. I kind of toss that up that the hardware just can't handle the game because it is either a) not optimized very well for the hardware or (b) the game is just making the CPU do a lot of the heavy lifting. I notice that in games like X-Plane 11 and X-Plane 12. I then have to dial back the graphics settings a notch then it clears up.

Most recently I was playing Zigguart II in 4K and it was smooth most of the time then occasionally I would get a micro pause while moving forward.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Sometimes I do but rarely. I kind of toss that up that the hardware just can't handle the game because it is either a) not optimized very well for the hardware or (b) the game is just making the CPU do a lot of the heavy lifting. I notice that in games like X-Plane 11 and X-Plane 12. I then have to dial back the graphics settings a notch then it clears up.

Most recently I was playing Zigguart II in 4K and it was smooth most of the time then occasionally I would get a micro pause while moving forward.

Does X-Plane stutter or is the frame rate just below 60 FPS?

Stuttering is normally caused by the CPU, insufficient system RAM or overrunning your VRAM can also cause stuttering. How much RAM do you have?

I've never heard of Zigguart II so I can't really comment. It's difficult to know whether the problem is with the game or it genuinely needs a more powerful CPU.

 

[KyaraM]

Save your money.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Does X-Plane stutter or is the frame rate just below 60 FPS?

Stuttering is normally caused by the CPU, insufficient system RAM or overrunning your VRAM can also cause stuttering. How much RAM do you have?

I've never heard of Zigguart II so I can't really comment. It's difficult to know whether the problem is with the game or it genuinely needs a more powerful CPU.

X-Plane 11/12 don't quite hit 60FPS so I have to dial back the settings.

32GB of RAM @ 3200Mhz. Zigguart and Zigguart II is a rouge-lite game. When you die you start over. It has the look of HEXEN when it came out in the 90's. HEXEN was a Doom clone.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Save your money.

Thanks for the well thought out response. I can now forget about everyone else's advice since you figured it all out.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

If you are targeting 4K 60 FPS 4090 is overkill even with ray tracing; however when it comes to the question of bottlenecks you won't be facing any at that resolution outside of very specific circumstances.

 

[Nighthawk117]

X-Plane 11/12 don't quite hit 60FPS so I have to dial back the settings.

32GB of RAM @ 3200Mhz. Zigguart and Zigguart II is a rouge-lite game. When you die you start over. It has the look of HEXEN when it came out in the 90's. HEXEN was a Doom clone.

That sounds GPU related then, there are some exceptions such as ray tracing, volumetric clouds ect.. but usually lowering graphical settings does not help with a CPU bottleneck. Is your GPU usage near 100% when it's running below 60FPS?

 

[KyaraM]

Thanks for the well thought out response. I can now forget about everyone else's advice since you figured it all out.

No reason to be prickly here. Others already told you a 4090 is, besides being ridiculously expensive, overkill for 60 FPS. So save your money, at least until it hopefully gets cheaper. It's wasted money.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

No reason to be pricky here. Others already told you a 4090 is, besides being ridiculously expensive, overkill for 60 FPS. So save your money, at least until it hopefully gets cheaper. It's wasted money.

You are the one who is being prickly. As I have stated before, others have provided well thought out comments from both sides which made me ask further questions.