Question New GPU with old CPU - GTX 1060 or GTX 1660 ti with i5 2500

[krj38]

Hello!

I can see that much has changed in the gaming industry since I’ve last been properly interested in it. I come from a time when monitors only displayed images and things as refresh rates weren’t marketable, where e-sports were budding and neither professional gaming, nor streaming were a thing.

I don’t care much about the modern gaming industry. I have grown old and became quite a busy man but at the same time I feel that I’d like to do some casual, single player gaming in comfortable conditions. That is why, I’d like to boost my experience on a budget and… without the hustle of getting an entire rig (I don’t want to go through the effort of reinstalling and setting up my OS) – I’d like to get a new GPU.
My current setup is: i5-2500, 8gb ram and a GTX 960.
My expectations: 60 fps at high/ultra settings at 1080 p in modern titles.

I can afford to get a GTX 1660 ti, but am aware that my CPU will bottleneck the GPU. I’ve read that my CPU will cause 20-30% bottleneck, but the test results show that despite this most of the games I’m interested in will run smoothly at least 60 fps (the exception being Metro: Exodus). The results also show that despite the bottleneck, I should get better results with the GTX 1660 Ti than with a GTX 1060, which isn’t affected by the bottleneck that much. But these are ‘lab’ tests and with the internet buzzing about bottlenecking this and that, I’m curious about the real-life impact.

My actual question is this: with my current i5 2500, am I better of with getting the GTX 1660 ti or the GTX 1060? Does bottleneck “simply” lower average FPS or does it have other actual/perceptible detrimental effects which are not apparent in test results and which make getting a slower/older card a batter option from a user-experience perspective?
I’d like to get the GTX 1660 ti to ‘future proof’ my configuration, i.e. with a future MOBO+CPU upgrade in mind.

Best regards,
Krzysztof

 

[Darkbreeze]

Either of them will work fine. If you go any higher than those, you are likely to encounter problems.

A bottleneck doesn't "lower" anything. It simply is a restriction beyond which a higher performing component becomes stuck at because it cannot perform up to it's potential if it is being held back by a lower performing component.

For example, if you have four really good basketball players, and one guy that sucks, you're team is not as good as it would be if you have five really good basketball players. You will only ever be as good as the weakest link on your team.

 

[krj38]

Either of them will work fine. If you go any higher than those, you are likely to encounter problems.

A bottleneck doesn't "lower" anything. It simply is a restriction beyond which a higher performing component becomes stuck at because it cannot perform up to it's potential if it is being held back by a lower performing component.

For example, if you have four really good basketball players, and one guy that sucks, you're team is not as good as it would be if you have five really good basketball players. You will only ever be as good as the weakest link on your team.

Thanks for the feedback!

That's how I understand the concept from what I've read. For example, a GPU is able to run a game at 100 FPS optimally but a bottleneck caused by the CPU limits it to, say, 70 FPS. Otherwise, everything else runs smoothly. If this is the case, I'm perfectly fine with that. I'd be perfectly happy to run a game at around 60 FPS with high/ultra settings since with some of the modern titles I'm stuck at 30-40 FPS with low settings.

However, an assistant in a computer store I talked to insinuated that this is not the case - that GTX 1660 ti's performance, paired with my i5 2500, will be somehow worse than that of a GTX 1060. From your experience, can this be the case?

 

[ElectrO_90]

To answer your last question, no.
Maybe have a look here, https://www.gpucheck.com/gpu/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1660-ti/intel-core-i5-2500-3-30ghz/
You can change graphic cards and stuff and see the difference.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, since the graphics card's only performance diminishment would come as a direct result of the CPU, and since the 1660 TI has an increased level of performance over the 1660, it would be impossible for the performance to be WORSE unless you ran a lower performance CPU. And in reality, it might actually IMPROVE things, because you could run any/most given games with somewhat higher settings on the 1660 TI, graphically, and usually that results in a time penalty so that the CPU ends up actually not NEEDING to work as hard.

Same policy as reducing settings to see if there is a choke point (I really hate bottleneck) due to the CPU. If you reduce settings and FPS goes DOWN, then you have a CPU that is not up to the task. If you reduce settings and FPS goes up, then at least to some degree, the CPU is capable enough for your configuration and settings.

 

[krj38]

To answer your last question, no.
Maybe have a look here, https://www.gpucheck.com/gpu/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1660-ti/intel-core-i5-2500-3-30ghz/
You can change graphic cards and stuff and see the difference.

Thanks for linking this gem of a website. I stumbled upon it when I started doing my 'research' and it's been of great help - it led me to my conclusion to get the GTX 1660 ti. Assuming the results there are correct, I've got nothing to worry about.