[SOLVED] Is my CPU good enough

[aslettd]

Hi guys. My current set up is an i7-6700, 32gb ram, 980ti sli, 1000 PSU. I'm looking to upgrade my GPU to either an rtx 3080 or 6900 XT. My question is, if I match it all up with a high Hz 4k monitor, will I experience any bottle necking due to my CPU?
Please and thankyou.

Dom

 

[Lutfij]

You might want to look into all the reviews for the RTX 3000 series. Even if you drop in the highest end concurrent processor/mobo/ram combo to date, the GPU will still be limited by the CPU. So if you're asking about limitations, yes. That limitation would be lifted slightly but not removed entirely, not until Intel or AMD come up with a processor that doesn't have the GPU waiting for more power.

 

[aslettd]

You might want to look into all the reviews for the RTX 3000 series. Even if you drop in the highest end concurrent processor/mobo/ram combo to date, the GPU will still be limited by the CPU. So if you're asking about limitations, yes. That limitation would be lifted slightly but not removed entirely, not until Intel or AMD come up with a processor that doesn't have the GPU waiting for more power.

Right ok I'm with you, interesting to know, thankyou for that.

Dom

 

[vladakv]

Hi guys. My current set up is an i7-6700, 32gb ram, 980ti sli, 1000 PSU. I'm looking to upgrade my GPU to either an rtx 3080 or 6900 XT. My question is, if I match it all up with a high Hz 4k monitor, will I experience any bottle necking due to my CPU?
Please and thankyou.

Dom

Everything above 10% is considered as a bottleneck. So, your cpu is weak - @1080p will produce 40% of bottleneck and @4K will be 15% of bottleneck.

Better buy 6700k and overclock it a little.
Here's calculator:

Core i7-6700 and GeForce RTX 3080 build in General Tasks | Bottleneck calculation | PC Builds

Bottleneck calculation for Intel Core i7-6700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 for General Tasks. Containing solutions how to resolve bottleneck.

pc-builds.com

 

[Nicolass]

Everything above 10% is considered as a bottleneck. So, your cpu is weak - @1080p will produce 40% of bottleneck and @4K will be 15% of bottleneck.

Better buy 6700k and overclock it a little.
Here's calculator:

Core i7-6700 and GeForce RTX 3080 build in General Tasks | Bottleneck calculation | PC Builds

Bottleneck calculation for Intel Core i7-6700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 for General Tasks. Containing solutions how to resolve bottleneck.

pc-builds.com

Now it would be more expedient to buy AMD already

 

[Rogue Leader]

Everything above 10% is considered as a bottleneck. So, your cpu is weak - @1080p will produce 40% of bottleneck and @4K will be 15% of bottleneck.

Better buy 6700k and overclock it a little.
Here's calculator:

Core i7-6700 and GeForce RTX 3080 build in General Tasks | Bottleneck calculation | PC Builds

Bottleneck calculation for Intel Core i7-6700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 for General Tasks. Containing solutions how to resolve bottleneck.

pc-builds.com

Replacing a 6700 with a 6700k just to "overclock a little" is the biggest waste of money ever, and awful advice.

The bottle neck calculator is absolute trash, all of them are. That should not be the basis of any sort of advice here.

The reality is yes a 6700 will bottleneck any 3000 series GPU, but to be honest short of the fastest new processor you can get nothing is enough to feed a 3080 right now.

BUT Can it give a good enough experience? Depending on the game yes it can. There are some multi core games that will be hampered by the fact its only 4 cores. But many other games that will run "fine" even if it limits their maximum framerate output.

 

[aslettd]

Replacing a 6700 with a 6700k just to "overclock a little" is the biggest waste of money ever, and awful advice.

The bottle neck calculator is absolute trash, all of them are. That should not be the basis of any sort of advice here.

The reality is yes a 6700 will bottleneck any 3000 series GPU, but to be honest short of the fastest new processor you can get nothing is enough to feed a 3080 right now.

BUT Can it give a good enough experience? Depending on the game yes it can. There are some multi core games that will be hampered by the fact its only 4 cores. But many other games that will run "fine" even if it limits their maximum framerate output.

Thankyou very much for the advice! If you were going to buy a new Cpu with this set up, what would you choose?

Dom

 

[Rogue Leader]

Thankyou very much for the advice! If you were going to buy a new Cpu with this set up, what would you choose?

Dom

Depends on your budget. Your problem is there really is nothing thats worth spending money on thats much faster than what you have for the board you have. So you're looking at board and CPU minimum (maybe ram too if you have slow ram).

If you're buying a 3080 then TBH get the fastest thing you can possibly afford.

 

[aslettd]

Depends on your budget. Your problem is there really is nothing thats worth spending money on thats much faster than what you have for the board you have. So you're looking at board and CPU minimum (maybe ram too if you have slow ram).

If you're buying a 3080 then TBH get the fastest thing you can possibly afford.

Thanks for that. Well my board is an ASUS ROG Hero VIII, DDR4 Corsair 2400Mhz 4 x 8GB Ram. I think just above all I'm wanting to improve on my 980ti's, what with modern games not supporting Sli, I just wanted 1 solid card. I've been playing valhalla recently and although most of the time the gameplay is smooth, sometimes it has dropped down to around 12fps in certain areas on ultra.

Dom

 

[Rogue Leader]

Thanks for that. Well my board is an ASUS ROG Hero VIII, DDR4 Corsair 2400Mhz 4 x 8GB Ram. I think just above all I'm wanting to improve on my 980ti's, what with modern games not supporting Sli, I just wanted 1 solid card. I've been playing valhalla recently and although most of the time the gameplay is smooth, sometimes it has dropped down to around 12fps in certain areas on ultra.

Dom

Ok so Valhalla may be having issues with your CPU being only 4 cores (yes I know its 8 threads but the reality is, its a 4 core CPU). Thats what is likely causing your slowdowns. The only "better" processors that board will support are the 6700k, 7700, and 7700k. All of which are still only 4 core so still have the same issue. They aren't worth the money you would spend. Putting a 3080 in would likely increase your max framerate in some scenarios, but you would still have the slowdowns you are experiencing.

If you were to move on to a newer faster Intel platform like the i9-10850K you don't really need faster memory, if you were to move to a new AMD platform like the Ryzen 9 5900X you'd want to use faster memory as its memory speed sensitive.

 

[aslettd]

Ok so Valhalla may be having issues with your CPU being only 4 cores (yes I know its 8 threads but the reality is, its a 4 core CPU). Thats what is likely causing your slowdowns. The only "better" processors that board will support are the 6700k, 7700, and 7700k. All of which are still only 4 core so still have the same issue. They aren't worth the money you would spend. Putting a 3080 in would likely increase your max framerate in some scenarios, but you would still have the slowdowns you are experiencing.

If you were to move on to a newer faster Intel platform like the i9-10850K you don't really need faster memory, if you were to move to a new AMD platform like the Ryzen 9 5900X you'd want to use faster memory as its memory speed sensitive.

Well thanks for all that friend, its good to know where I stand, can you recommend a good board?

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

The reality is yes a 6700 will bottleneck any 3000 series GPU, but to be honest short of the fastest new processor you can get nothing is enough to feed a 3080 right now.

If you're buying a 3080 then TBH get the fastest thing you can possibly afford.

Sound advice.

Ok so Valhalla may be having issues with your CPU being only 4 cores (yes I know its 8 threads but the reality is, its a 4 core CPU). Thats what is likely causing your slowdowns. The only "better" processors that board will support are the 6700k, 7700, and 7700k. All of which are still only 4 core so still have the same issue. They aren't worth the money you would spend. Putting a 3080 in would likely increase your max framerate in some scenarios, but you would still have the slowdowns you are experiencing.

If you were to move on to a newer faster Intel platform like the i9-10850K you don't really need faster memory, if you were to move to a new AMD platform like the Ryzen 9 5900X you'd want to use faster memory as its memory speed sensitive.

What you describe here is exactly what I experienced. I got lucky with a 3090 purchase in November... and threw it into my 7700k PC. I saw a framerate increase in 4K ultra MSFS2020... but still a choppy experience overall. I then decided to just build an entirely new PC with the 10900k and the end result was a MUCH smoother framerate in 4K gaming and I couldn't be happier.

The difference between 4 cores and 10 cores is even more obvious in the video encoding that I do. The 7700k would take 2 hours to encode a 2 hour video in Handbrake. The 10900k encodes the same 2 hour video in 30 minutes.

Well thanks for all that friend, its good to know where I stand, can you recommend a good board?

Depends on your budget. I went with the Z490 Unify from MSI for my 10900k. It had great reviews... pretty much the top board in the $300 range... featuring no RGB with a 3rd m.2 slot. Another thing to consider is Intel or AMD? Intel you can get at retail price in stock... AMD you have much lesser chance of that happening. That was the main reason I went with the 10900k.

Any AMD stock is most likely going to have scalper tax attached which makes it a poor deal.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Well thanks for all that friend, its good to know where I stand, can you recommend a good board?

Need a little more info. How about your approximate budget? Are you set on Intel or AMD or don't care.

 

[aslettd]

Sound advice.



What you describe here is exactly what I experienced. I got lucky with a 3090 purchase in November... and threw it into my 7700k PC. I saw a framerate increase in 4K ultra MSFS2020... but still a choppy experience overall. I then decided to just build an entirely new PC with the 10900k and the end result was a MUCH smoother framerate in 4K gaming and I couldn't be happier.

The difference between 4 cores and 10 cores is even more obvious in the video encoding that I do. The 7700k would take 2 hours to encode a 2 hour video in Handbrake. The 10900k encodes the same 2 hour video in 30 minutes.



Depends on your budget. I went with the Z490 Unify from MSI for my 10900k. It had great reviews... pretty much the top board in the $300 range... featuring no RGB with a 3rd m.2 slot. Another thing to consider is Intel or AMD? Intel you can get at retail price in stock... AMD you have much lesser chance of that happening. That was the main reason I went with the 10900k.

Any AMD stock is most likely going to have scalper tax attached which makes it a poor deal.

No budget really, happy to spend, I have no brand loyalties so to speak.

Dom

 

[aslettd]

Need a little more info. How about your approximate budget? Are you set on Intel or AMD or don't care.

No budget really, happy to spend. No brand loyalty either way.

Dom

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

No budget really, happy to spend, I have no brand loyalties so to speak.

Dom

Ok. As said above another thing to consider is Intel or AMD? Intel you can get at retail price in stock... AMD you have much lesser chance of that happening. That was the main reason I went with the 10900k.

Any AMD stock is most likely going to have scalper tax attached which makes it a poor deal. If you want AMD prepare to wait. I've seen guys posting they are waiting months for the 5900/5950X to ship... while I got the 10900k in 3 days.

As for mobos... the one I use is a good one but it really just boils down to what features you want in a board. I hate RGB... and found a 3rd m.2 slot to be very attractive and combined with the good reviews regarding overclocking and overall use made this MSI Unify board the one for me.

Regarding PCI 3.0 vs PCI 4.0... here's my analysis. The 4.0 1TB 980 Pro is selling for basically the same price I paid for the 3.0 2TB 970 Evo Plus. I just transferred a 15GB file from one SSD to the other in 5 seconds. That being said... what's better? It's really a no brainer. I went with PCI 3.0 and double the storage over shaving 1 second off a file transfer time which I'd never notice anyway. PCI 4.0 just isn't worth the money right now. Not even remotely close.

 

[Rogue Leader]

I agree with Travis. High end AMD stuff is hard to get now. The 10900k is a great choice to pair with a 3080.

Also agree regarding PCIe 4.0 storage. Real world? You would never notice it, ever.

 

[aslettd]

Thanks for all of your help guys, appreciate your time on this 👍

Dom