[SOLVED] RTX 3090 bottleneck

[Cubeeee]

Hey everyone, I am thinking of buying one of the new RTX 3000 series cards (the 3090 probably) and was wondering if my system would bottleneck it at all. Let me start by saying that I'm a first-time pc builder and have little to no experience with bottlenecking, so please don't roast me if the answer is obvious. Anyway, does anyone know if these system specs would bottleneck a 3090?

Intel core i9-9900k
32gigs of trident z royal ram
1000w PSU
Aorus z390 master motherboard


Thank you!

 

[PC Tailor]

Well overall - bottlenecks is an incredibly misused term.

EVERY system has a a limitation, and that limitation moves constantly based on what you are doing and ultimately, there is rarely anything wrong with a bottleneck.

In CPU intensive applications, your CPU will be a limit. In GPU intensive applications, your GPU will be a limit.

There are lots of "bottleneck" calculators online, and I would safely say ignore every one of them. Just research what applications you want to use and then what components serve them best.

For example, if you only plan on gaming at 1080p resolution, then it's usually pretty pointless buying anything above 2060/2070. I always just say be specific in your research and don't trust any "bottleneck" calculators. Every system has one, and it's never the same in all applications.

But in short for your case - I wouldn't be worried about bottlenecking with a 9900K.

 

[Endre]

Hey everyone, I am thinking of buying one of the new RTX 3000 series cards (the 3090 probably) and was wondering if my system would bottleneck it at all. Let me start by saying that I'm a first-time pc builder and have little to no experience with bottlenecking, so please don't roast me if the answer is obvious. Anyway, does anyone know if these system specs would bottleneck a 3090?

Intel core i9-9900k
32gigs of trident z royal ram
1000w PSU
Aorus z390 master motherboard


Thank you!

Hello!
Check out this site, it’s a bootleneck calculator. Type in your components and you’ll see the bottleneck percentage of your build.

Bottleneck Calculator | PC Builds

We bring you a unique calculator for bottleneck and chokepoint problems in your computer. We will help you to choose most appropriate processor and graphic card for your PC. Our calculator offers you best solutions for reducing or removing bottleneck problems.

pc-builds.com

 

[PC Tailor]

Hello!
Check out this site, it’s a bootleneck calculator. Type in your components and you’ll see the bottleneck percentage of your build.

Bottleneck Calculator | PC Builds

We bring you a unique calculator for bottleneck and chokepoint problems in your computer. We will help you to choose most appropriate processor and graphic card for your PC. Our calculator offers you best solutions for reducing or removing bottleneck problems.

pc-builds.com

I would absolutely disagree with this. You can pretty safely ignore any online bottleneck calculators. They miss so much that they are wildly misleading and inaccurate. ESPECIALLY ones that finalise it as a "overall % bottleneck".

See above comment.

 

[Endre]

I would absolutely disagree with this. You can pretty safely ignore any online bottleneck calculators. They miss so much that they are wildly misleading and inaccurate. ESPECIALLY ones that finalise it as a "overall % bottleneck".

See above comment.

I understand your position, but do you have any proofs for your claims?

 

[hotaru.hino]

I understand your position, but do you have any proofs for your claims?

The problem is they don't provide context. They just tell you that "your system will be X% bottlenecked!" This doesn't tell me in what.

The problem with people new to the term "bottleneck" is they think that bottlenecking is a problem. It's not. It's a symptom of a problem. The fundamental problem is "will this computer setup run the things I want at the performance I want?" If it does not, then you go look for where the bottleneck is to upgrade that.

For example, if I play CS:GO, Rocket League, or some other designed-for-potato game, if I get like 120+FPS, does it matter if some bottleneck calculator says I'm 50% bottlenecked? No. It just means I overspent on something.

 

[PC Tailor]

The problem is they don't provide context. They just tell you that "your system will be X% bottlenecked!" This doesn't tell me in what.

To add to this, not only do they not provide context to what, they also speculate on how to actually determine a bottleneck. How does one define a % bottleneck? How is it calculated? In what way? With what controls? In what system? At what temperatues? With what settings?

I understand your position, but do you have any proofs for your claims?

You can prove this yourself very simply in a variety of different ways. Calculate your own bottleneck using that site, now play a game, and verify the % bottleneck is accurate. I can almost guarantee it will be impossible to determine what the % is even referring to exactly.

Then you can watch your CPU and GPU usage, you'll see it constantly fluctuate, dip, spike, and sometimes quite wildly, how does this translate to a bottleneck?

Then using the SAME components, play a CPU intensive game instead of a GPU one, or run workstation applications, now the hardware usage can completely change and even flip, so is my 7% bottleneck still applicable? In what direction? In what way?

Ultimately, hardware usage can not and should not be boiled down to arbitrary overall figures that lack any scientific process, in any controlled way, and without clear definition on what they mean. They do not reflect reality in any way.

One only has to type in "bottleneck calculator" in any forum and be inundated with everyone proving and discussing how misleading they are.

 

[ben001]

The thing is, you need to understand what is a 'Bottlenecking'. Suppose you are pouring water inside a bottle which has a narrow neck, the amount of water you're pouring will be limited because of that narrow neck of the bottle. Now, let's take the bottle as your CPU and the water as your GPU. So, it is a similar case with CPU & GPU, they both need to be equally fast to render frames which create no bottlenecking between them or a wide-neck bottle to reduce its limitation of water intake.

For PC, your all components need to be equally balanced between them to provide maximum performance. If one is slower than other then it will eventually stand as a bottleneck. This concept can be deep, as you need to focus on what exactly you want from your system.

and, fully agreed with PC Tailor.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Anyway, does anyone know if these system specs would bottleneck a 3090?

Intel core i9-9900k
32gigs of trident z royal ram
1000w PSU
Aorus z390 master motherboard

To answer this question for OP, the answer is.. it depends.

If you're playing CS:GO or Rocket League? Sure, probably. The GPU is good enough to run a half-dozen instances of those games at 1080p 60FPS. If you're planning to play some AAA next-gen heavy hitter like Cyberpunk, then no. It likely won't be.

If you want to figure this out on your own, benchmark the games you play on the settings you want to play. Monitor Task Manager in the Performance tab -> CPU page with the graph showing logical CPUs. If a lot of logical CPUs are being pegged close to 100%, there's a good chance you have a bottleneck in just that situation.

 

[USAFRet]

I understand your position, but do you have any proofs for your claims?

18%, 1.87%, 3.42%
Which is correct? Or rather, which are incorrect?

They ALL are...this is the exact same system in all 3.

 

[USAFRet]

And, running it just now.....1.66%.

 

[Turtle Rig]

Hey everyone, I am thinking of buying one of the new RTX 3000 series cards (the 3090 probably) and was wondering if my system would bottleneck it at all. Let me start by saying that I'm a first-time pc builder and have little to no experience with bottlenecking, so please don't roast me if the answer is obvious. Anyway, does anyone know if these system specs would bottleneck a 3090?

Intel core i9-9900k
32gigs of trident z royal ram
1000w PSU
Aorus z390 master motherboard


Thank you!

You have a high end system. There will be no bottleneck. The 9900k along with the 9700k 8700k 10900k 10700k is the best gaming CPU once you push it to 5Ghz on the cores and what not. Your 1000w PSU is probably enough for the 6080Ti in the future but then again who knows for sure. So your all set. Also what resolution do you play games at and what monitor do you have because if you play at 1080p then the 3090 is a waiste of money as the 3090 is a 4k gaming card so you need a 4k monitor my friend. So don't jump the gun just yet. 👈🙏🖐🤷‍♀️💯

 

[ben001]

the 3090 is a 4k gaming card so you need a 4k monitor, my friend.

I hope you're not mixing yourself with 3080 instead if I am not wrong.

 

[Turtle Rig]

I hope you're not mixing yourself with 3080 instead if I am not wrong.

Hes getting the 3080 sorry about that and thanks for the correction. Well even the 3080 is a 2k to 4k card. If hes gaming at 1080p then we got a big problem on our hands. If his monitor is 60hz then we have a issue with him spending over a grand on a video card that is a waiste of money actually. All depends on AA and IQ and resolution and refresh rate and FPS ya know. 🤷‍♀️💯🖐

 

[Endre]

18%, 1.87%, 3.42%
Which is correct? Or rather, which are incorrect?

They ALL are...this is the exact same system in all 3.

Wow!
That’s a solid proof!
I didn’t know that.
Good info.

 

[Karadjgne]

Consider every piece of software as suspect, until proven differently. That includes Microsoft Windows.

I have a i7-3770k that according to Windows when it was built was a 7.9/8.0 and was that way for a year. The day after the i7-4770k was released, my build went to a 5.9/8.0 with a warning from Microsoft that I had an outdated cpu and that would cause major slowdowns and system issues.

Funny how the day before that release, I was still 7.9/8.0 and had 'the fastest possible cpu and should expect performance gains and excellent responsiveness from the pc'.

Online calculators are no different, whether it's for cpu, gpu, storage or even psu.

Want to know why I was at 7.9/8.0? Because my Samsung 840 Pro (fastest ssd at the time) was only 128Gb, not the 256Gb version. Like that made a difference...

 

[Karadjgne]

Bottleneck.
That's something that slows down the flow of info. So if a cpu can put out 150fps and you have a 144Hz monitor yet at ultra the gpu can only render 60fps, the gpu would be considered a bottleneck.

Doesn't really apply to cpus. The cpu is the source of fps. If you have a cpu that can only render a game at 60fps, yet have a gpu well capable of 150fps and a 144Hz monitor, the cpu is not slowing down the flow, it's simply not the flow you want. Doesn't make it a bottleneck, just a monitor and gpu more capable than the cpu. There are more than a few who say that's a cpu bottleneck, but it's misleading.

The biggest issue with bottlenecks is their absolute rarity. They actually almost never truly happen. Reason being is software. You can have one game so cpu intensive that you get low fps output, but swap that to a 4k monitor and the cpu is plenty, the gpu totally overwhelmed. Or a game that's graphically challenging, switch to a 1080p monitor and the cpu now struggles. All it takes is the wrong game paired with one component to change everything.

I play Starwars online. Single player or 8man team, no issues, great fps, 90+. Same game, same settings, 24man boss fight and I can drop to 5-15fps. Did my cpu suddenly become a bottleneck with just a arena choice?