Ultimate Bottlenecking Guide Rev. 2.0

[xeon_fan]

...

Hi,
@TechyInAZ - are the charts prepared for Overclocked CPUs or for the base clocks ?

Thanks for the help !

 

[TechyInAZ]

Base clocks for all except the K skus, K skus I assume a very mediocre overclock.

However, those charts are now not up to date, so don't follow them exactly like their 100% true.

 

[Rodrigodrt]

I feel bit sad to see the almight processor of all galaxies 4770k being marked as blue for the 1080Ti, but since its assuming a mediocre overclock i guess i shouldnt worry about pairing it with a 1080Ti.

RTX's were such a flop for me, and for me only.

 

[l.r.gardner]

I7 4770 at 4.1Ghz (so 600mhz oc over stock ) locked on all cores permanently (not throttling cus max temp is 57 Degree Celsius(liquid metal)) with 1070 (+70 mhz).. BF 1 Multiplayer 64 player server, 1080p all ultra settings and 125% resolution scale (so almost 1440p)
99% cpu usage
60-70% gpu usage
It does lag and framedrop a lot less than my previous fx8370 but still.. Can't maintain solid 75hz of my monitor (drops to 50's.. With fx8370 were drops to 30s and more frequently).
Maybe it's my 16gb 1333 mhz ram???

Your CPU and GPU are not strong enough to attempt to play that game at those settings.

 

[Karadjgne]

Drop the resolution scale back to 100% and that'll clear up some gpu usage. But thats all you can do. The biggest issue is cpu usage is so high. That's all fps. I'd use the ingame cap at 60fps. The problem is all cpu. BF1 is 's multithreads game it'll use all 8,and on the large servers it's going to saturate bandwidth with so many other players. Add on top the fps demands and the cpu is getting swamped. Cut down on nvidia control panel global settings, like turn down grass detail as that's a cpu bound setting.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Just a small update, I have (yes again) turned this thread into a discussion thread. I have edited my original post (in red) with my reasons.

As a side note, still rocking my 1080 and stock Ryzen 7 1700X, no bottlenecking whatsoever at 3440x1440.

 

[Rizo_Rigatoni]

That's an awesome chart, but I didn't see anything for my i5 3570k. Any suggestions as I am currently running an RX460 but my FPS suck when playing graphics-heavy games.

 

[TechyInAZ]

That's an awesome chart, but I didn't see anything for my i5 3570k. Any suggestions as I am currently running an RX460 but my FPS suck when playing graphics-heavy games.

That's because you're on a RX 460. If you are playing at 1080P or higher, expect FPS to not be great. 1080P medium would be the best I'd think a RX 460 could do at higher frame rates.

 

[adwinrahmadi]

How about RTX 2060 + i5 7400, could it be causes some bottleneck?

 

[TechyInAZ]

Should be decent, you'll most likely get some bottlenecking, but nothing crazy.

 

[JesseM96]

@TechyInAZ I couldn't find my cpu in the list.
So i thought of asking.
Would a i5-4590 3.3ghz bottleneck with a GTX 1060 3gb?

 

[TechyInAZ]

nope you are good

 

[jostegogar]

Would a core i3 6100 3.7ghz bottleneck with a gtx 1660ti?
I play mostly CS GO GTA V and RE series and Tomb raider series

 

[shreyas133719]

I use a Lynnfield i7 870 FML can somebody help me with my thread?

 

[TechyInAZ]

FYI if nobody answers you here, just go ahead and make your own forum post.

@jostegogar Probably not in CSGO. But GTAV and the latest Tomb Raider game (SOTTR) you will most likely get bottlenecking.

Dual cores (even if they have hyperthreading) are quite bad for new games these days. Entry level quad cores are just enough for these titles as is when paired with a mid tier GPU.

 

[-Fran-]

I understand the reasoning behind making such tables and finding this information for everyone, but I have one question: does it really matter?

Where I'm coming from: when you upgrade your GPU to a newer, often more powerful one, does it matter your CPU will hold it back when the NET gain is still great for you? There's very little scenarios where upgrading the GPU will net +0 FPS'es, if none at all. Under that light, where's the importance in knowing or identifying a bottleneck between CPU and GPU? When building a new system? It's better to save money and losing FPS even when you can get a better GPU/CPU because the pair is unbalanced?

Wouldn't be also important to note what holds back a CPU or a GPU instead of each other? RAM timings usually have a nasty effect on frames (lower frames) with GPUs that don't have enough VRAM for games and settings (borderline case, but interesting to see and analyze).

I'm just interested in the reasoning. I do find this an interesting exercise and valuable data nonetheless.

Cheers!

 

[TechyInAZ]

Actually I completely agree with you @Yuka .

Only reason I started this was due to the insane amount of bottlenecking threads we head about a year ago. People were freaken out over the idea of bottlenecking.

I more or less did this as more of an experiment.

But really, as you said, if your getting enough frames, it doesn't matter if your bottlenecking or not.

 

[-Fran-]

Fair enough. That's a good reason for me. Experimenting with data is always useful!

Cheers!

 

[Rogue Leader]

Only reason I started this was due to the insane amount of bottlenecking threads we head about a year ago. People were freaken out over the idea of bottlenecking.

I more or less did this as more of an experiment.

But really, as you said, if your getting enough frames, it doesn't matter if your bottlenecking or not.

This is the point that needs to be driven home.

So many people post here with fanciful ideas to the point that they believe bottlenecking could damage their hardware. And they don't understand that differences in hardware doesn't always mean the game is gonna run like crap.

 

[adnan_16a2]

Has anyone tried coffee lake refresh on these cards? I was looking for i5-9400F with GTX1060 6GB on 1080p.

 

[sebastianmvaldes]

I'd take it back to Ivy-Bridge, or even Sandy-Bridge, there's many whom still use them.

Just looking at all those red Haswells, especially the i7's I find misleading. My 3770k never goes past 55%, my gtx970 never gets past 63% unless I drop a 4k DSR. So since the i7-4790k is bright cherry red, it must mean my 3770k is being bottlenecked by everything. Yet I'm still way beyond 60fps in everything I play, and can still get 300fps in CS:GO. Granted I'm not playing BF1 or gta5 or Witcher 3, so maybe a little clarification as to the boundaries might be warranted. With a 970 basically not much different to a 1060/3Gb, 1080p isn't much of an issue to most games, only the uber new and intense graphical/cpu monsters. Even at ultra, gta5 should be getting 60-80fps on average at 1080p. And that's what ppl will be concerned with.

Maybe I'm getting too deep into it, but saying that i7 is going to 'bottleneck everything' is gonna freak ppl out. Especially when there's a hundred+ posts telling ppl to go ahead and wait, they don't need to upgrade, the i7-4790k is still a very good cpu that's really just as good as the i5-8600k for most things.

For AMD, the Ryzens have equitable IPC to Haswells, so on anything 4c/8t or less, a Ryzen 5 1600 should run roughly equitable to a i7-4790k, yet a Ryzen 5 16xx is magenta, only bottlenecked in extremes, but the i7-4790k is red, bottlenecked by everything... Now I'm really confused.

Well since you have a GTX 970, looking at the far right side of the spreadsheet will show you that the I7-4770K is black and has little to no bottlenecks with the RX570, RX580, or GTX 1060, which are all GTX 970 equivalents.

 

[sebastianmvaldes]

I really like this chart, but what if someone doesnt have one of these GPU's? What if they have a new GPU and old CPU?

Or like i used to, an OK (I7-3770k) CPU with a crappy GPU (AMD HD 7770). I tried too look up how much the GPU was bottlenecking but couldn't find anything. This is a really useful guide, but with only a small portion of GPU's covered it really doesn't help (IMO) a lot of people who may be looking into these kinds of things.

 

[MaDOnos]

Hello Thanks for the charts.

I wanto ask you https://www.gpucheck.com/gpu/nvidia-geforce-rtx-2080-ti/amd-ryzen-7-2700x/ultra?lang=en&currency=usd here it says CPU Impact on FPS % -10. Does that mean 2700x will bottleneck 2080TI or this website results are not right ?

I'm asking espicially for 1440p 144Hz at ultra settings.

Releated question:

I am going to buy new nvidia card (2080 TI Super or whatever name will be) when it relased. Also I'm planing to upgrade my ryzen 5 2600 to ryzen 3xxx. Which cpu do you suggest for 1440p 144Hz ? Or should I keep my cpu ?

 

[bioject]

I have an ivy bridge i7 3770k CPU with a GTX 1070 videocard. Unfortunately on your chart my CPU isn’t even listed. When I run demanding games like control my CPU is running at 60-75% while the card is at 100%. I don’t think it’s bottlenecking yet but it’s close. Thoughts?

 

[TechyInAZ]

I have an ivy bridge i7 3770k CPU with a GTX 1070 videocard. Unfortunately on your chart my CPU isn’t even listed. When I run demanding games like control my CPU is running at 60-75% while the card is at 100%. I don’t think it’s bottlenecking yet but it’s close. Thoughts?

No you are not close to bottlenecking in my opinion. Keep in mind too, the games game engine can bottleneck both CPU and GPU too. So if you see the CPU and GPU below 90% usage I'd say, that's a engine bottleneck.

But that's great you aren't bottlenecking, quad core cpus still running good today 😀