Question Is this system bottlenecked if I upgrade?

[Yeldur]

Hi all,

Looking to query a system by people with more experience than myself.

Based on my knowledge, I think it's probable that this system is going to face bottlenecking, but I'm not 100,000% sure.

This is the current system:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yCWJjH

The owner is looking to upgrade to a 4060, or a 3060 + 16GB of RAM (though the RAM isn't really a concern here)

Some of the potential concerns I've noted so far are...

1) System board is PCI-E 3.0 while 3060/4060 are PCI-E 4.0 (though I believe they can function on 3.0 it's a potential bottlenecking point)
2) CPU is pretty weak and could bog the GPU down if it can't keep up with it(?)

PSU could potentially need upgrading maybe but based on the estimate PCPP is giving it potentially not necessary at all either.

At the point of needing a GPU, CPU, Mobo, and memory upgrade, he's probably better off just buying a new system altogether realistically speaking lol.

Any questions, say the word, appreciate your thoughts and info!

 

[Lutfij]

1| If you want to upgrade the ram, look at a higher capacity DDR4-2666MHz dual channel ram kit with tight latencies instead of mixing and matching or sourcing another Corsair Vengeance LPX ram kit, since they will end up having different PCB revisions.
2| How old is the PSU in your build? Even if it was brand new, I would not pair that with the RTX3060 or RTX4060.
3| Lower PCIe speeds would limit your performance, but they are backwards compatible, true but what other option do you have besides a platform upgrade that would be more expensive than the GPU+PSU purchase?
4| Yes, he would be best off investing in a new platform, if he'll be able to tax the new system with his intended apps/games.

 

[Yeldur]

1| If you want to upgrade the ram, look at a higher capacity DDR4-2666MHz dual channel ram kit with tight latencies instead of mixing and matching or sourcing another Corsair Vengeance LPX ram kit, since they will end up having different PCB revisions.
2| How old is the PSU in your build? Even if it was brand new, I would not pair that with the RTX3060 or RTX4060.
3| Lower PCIe speeds would limit your performance, but they are backwards compatible, true but what other option do you have besides a platform upgrade that would be more expensive than the GPU+PSU purchase?
4| Yes, he would be best off investing in a new platform, if he'll be able to tax the new system with his intended apps/games.

1) Oh definitely, if he does a memory upgrade I'll make sure he knows not to mix and match.
2) 4 years on the PSU, when we're talking about pairings, is that mostly down to wattage or down to how the PSU is rated? The bronze rating did stick out to me for sure, but from what I can tell wattage seems to be OK
3) Yee, that's basically how I was looking at things too. You'd either be rebuilding the system from scratch with a new mobo or building a new rig entirely from scratch/buying one.
4) Most of the games he plays he hasn't had too much trouble with but Space Marine 2 (video game) is dropping and he's seeing some big performance issues there related to any texture settings above the lowest, which is what sparked this whole issue off haha.

As far as CPU goes, do you think that it's likely to be a bottleneck if he does manage to upgrade to a 3060/4060?

 

[Eximo]

The term bottleneck is better talked about in terms of system balance. Putting a faster GPU in will not make the system slower.

CPU vs GPU usage depends on your settings and resolution.
CPU basically sets the maximum FPS possible.
GPU sets the image quality.

When balanced you will see high CPU and GPU usage. If you increase the settings the GPU will show the higher load. If you lower the settings the CPU will see the higher load.

So lighter fast paced titles are more CPU dependent and nice looking AAA games are more GPU dependent. And if run a high resolution monitor at native resolution, then your CPU matters less.

Could potentially pick up an i7-8700k/8700 or i7-9700k/9700 for $100-125 on ebay to give it a little more life. But that would also mean a better cooler as well.

RTX 3060 is still a decent deal.

RTX4060 has better options from AMD in that price range. In a lot games the RX7600 will pull ahead for about $50 less. Or you can look at the RX6750XT which is a little more power hungry but faster in general. RTX4060 big advantage is DLSS and Ray Tracing though. I would argue that the lower end Ray Tracing performance is never worth it, but DLSS can make or break the FPS on newer games. AMDs FSR though does cover this gap, but just not quite as well.

 

[Yeldur]

The term bottleneck is better talked about in terms of system balance. Putting a faster GPU in will not make the system slower.

CPU vs GPU usage depends on your settings and resolution.
CPU basically sets the maximum FPS possible.
GPU sets the image quality.

When balanced you will see high CPU and GPU usage. If you increase the settings the GPU will show the higher load. If you lower the settings the CPU will see the higher load.

So lighter fast paced titles are more CPU dependent and nice looking AAA games are more GPU dependent. And if run a high resolution monitor at native resolution, then your CPU matters less.

Could potentially pick up an i7-8700k/8700 or i7-9700k/9700 for $100-125 on ebay to give it a little more life. But that would also mean a better cooler as well.

RTX 3060 is still a decent deal.

RTX4060 has better options from AMD in that price range. In a lot games the RX7600 will pull ahead for about $50 less. Or you can look at the RX6750XT which is a little more power hungry but faster in general. RTX4060 big advantage is DLSS and Ray Tracing though. I would argue that the lower end Ray Tracing performance is never worth it, but DLSS can make or break the FPS on newer games. AMDs FSR though does cover this gap, but just not quite as well.

Hmm okay, makes sense for sure.

I think with what he's noticing it likely is a GPU related issue for sure because his issue is explicitly related to him raising texture settings immediately bombing out his framerate. (Which makes sense, as his card is below the min required vRAM for the game anyways)

DLSS is probably by far the biggest selling point of Nvidia GPUs atm.. AMD are slowly bridging that gap so maybe in time we'll see them cross that margin lol. (Which he ofc doesn't currently have access to either on account of the GPU being non-RTX meaning he doesn't have DLSS anyway)

Though, his system is pretty budget in nature so AMD may be worth consideration from his POV to keep costs down... Definitely a good consideration point.

I think his current rig is really at a point of "anything is an upgrade" currently so I imagine RX7600 vs 3060 is likely to be a drastic improvement in performance regardless...

 

[logainofhades]

Yes there will be a bottleneck, imo, due to ram speed being forced to run at 2666. The 10400 suffered from such issues as well, and 10th gen really wasn't much different than 9th gen.

 

[Yeldur]

Yes there will be a bottleneck, imo, due to ram speed being forced to run at 2666. The 10400 suffered from such issues as well, and 10th gen really wasn't much different than 9th gen.

WOMP WOMP

That's unfortunate especially considering the board is I think limited to a max of 2666 lol