Question What CPU to pair with a 1070ti

Oct 13, 2019
14
1
10
Just upgraded my GTX 970 to a GTX 1070ti

My current build specs are the following:
AMD Ryzen 3 2200g
Stock AMD CPU cooler
Gigabyte Aorus M mobo
2x 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws 3000 (running at stock non-xmp 2100ish)
EVGA GTX 1070ti FTW Ultra Silent
1TB NVMe M.2 Crucial SSD'
120GB Kingston SSD
1TB Seagate HDD
1000W 80+ Gold Cooler Master Silent Pro PSU
Purdy Corsair case

I think I might be facing a bit of a bottleneck with my 2200g CPU. I'd like to stick with AMD, but also get the most out of my 1070ti. Any suggestions on where I should go with the CPU?

Also, I'm looking at grabbing a better CPU cooler, I have my eyes on a Noctua low profile one or the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4... I like all black :)

Thoughts?
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
What resolution are you playing at? at 1440p a 2200G should be a decent enough pairing.
At 1080p, I'd shoot for a R5 3600 for the IPC gains, although a 2600 would be a good choice too.

I would decide on the CPU first, then try out the stock cooler it ships with. No sense opting for an aftermarket cooler off the bat, IMO.

I would certainly try getting that memory up from 2133MHz though.... even if D.O.C.P won't 'work' on the specific board, manually inputting timings will be beneficial.
 
Oct 13, 2019
14
1
10
What resolution are you playing at? at 1440p a 2200G should be a decent enough pairing.
At 1080p, I'd shoot for a R5 3600 for the IPC gains, although a 2600 would be a good choice too.

I would decide on the CPU first, then try out the stock cooler it ships with. No sense opting for an aftermarket cooler off the bat, IMO.

I would certainly try getting that memory up from 2133MHz though.... even if D.O.C.P won't 'work' on the specific board, manually inputting timings will be beneficial.
I run pretty much everything at 1080p.

I've tried pushing the RAM a couple times with XMP and keep getting the blue screen... I'll take any and all tips on that one...

I've done a bit of research and I'm on the fence right now between a Ryzen 7 2700X and a Ryzen 5 2600X... pcbuilds.com has them both pretty compatible:

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_5_2600X/GeForce_GTX_1070_Ti/0Qb0ZY8A/8/

Do you think it's worth shelling out the extra $60 or so bucks for the 7, or is the 5 the go-to here??
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Depending on the board, you might find success simply manually entering the timings for XMP (opposed to enabling XMP). If it's a 350 board, you might find the same overall timings but max out at 2933MHz.

For gaming, I'd highly recommend the 3600 - the IPC gains from 3rd gen are worth the nominal price increase over say a 2700X. Not that the 2700X (or 2600/2600X) are bad CPUs by any stretch, but for gaming, 3rd Gen is the way to go if budget allows.
 
Oct 13, 2019
14
1
10
Depending on the board, you might find success simply manually entering the timings for XMP (opposed to enabling XMP). If it's a 350 board, you might find the same overall timings but max out at 2933MHz.

For gaming, I'd highly recommend the 3600 - the IPC gains from 3rd gen are worth the nominal price increase over say a 2700X. Not that the 2700X (or 2600/2600X) are bad CPUs by any stretch, but for gaming, 3rd Gen is the way to go if budget allows.
Bet.

Black Friday's coming up... Cyber Monday too. Know of any good deals coming up?
 
I run pretty much everything at 1080p.

I've tried pushing the RAM a couple times with XMP and keep getting the blue screen... I'll take any and all tips on that one...

I've done a bit of research and I'm on the fence right now between a Ryzen 7 2700X and a Ryzen 5 2600X... pcbuilds.com has them both pretty compatible:

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_5_2600X/GeForce_GTX_1070_Ti/0Qb0ZY8A/8/

Do you think it's worth shelling out the extra $60 or so bucks for the 7, or is the 5 the go-to here??
Manually set the memory speed to 2933 or 3000 and timings to 16-18-18-38 and leave everything else on auto. You might need to set the voltage to 1.35, but the motherboard may do that automatically.

If you can wait 6-7 months when Ryzen 4000 is possibly released, you might be able to get the 3600X for $150-160 or 3700X for $200-220. This assumes we will see a similar price drop like with the older generation Ryzen 1000/2000. Otherwise I would get the Ryzen 7 4000 in 6-7 month or just over a year from now when it has possibly dropped in price.
 
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Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
There's always something just around the corner that's better or newer or fancier or more popular.

Cpu sets the fps limits. What you have now is an APU, it's basically a half-pint cpu that has dumped much of its ability in order to cram in a respectable igpu. Which you don't have use for with a discrete gpu. You'd get better overall performance from a R5 1600, but that'd limit other things, and has its own set of issues. Best budget cpu for amd right now, not in 6-7 months or a year, is the R5 2600. It'll clock upto 2600x speeds without much, if any, real issues. The 2600x is intended for those whom have no intention on tinkering. The only advantage the 2700x holds over the 3600 is the 2 extra cores, which is only of any real use with production apps/content creation etc, otherwise the 3600 has less stress on the mobo, easier to keep cool and butts heads consistently with the 2700x.

So if there's room in the budget, 3600 is usually the same price as the 2700x,but if budget is tighter, the 2600 is the better option.

Either way, it's Ryzens, so stay on top of bios updates as they have multiple bug fixes, microcoding, enhancements etc especially for ram issues.
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Heh, around here they'll put some new modern items on sale too, the necessary ones, like a good mobo. You go in to grab that, and salesman hits you with 'you'll also need this, this and that' and before you know it, you walked in for a mobo and walked out with a full pc, all the accessories, ergonomic chair to be delivered on Thursday, the desk on back-order, 5 games, 27" 4k monitor, a new line of credit that's already maxed, an empty wallet and the feeling of being grateful that the BF/CM disaster is over and you can now go home and relax.
 

rigg42

Respectable
Oct 17, 2018
639
233
2,390
The RAM XMP issue might be solved by a BIOS update. The 2600 and 3600 come with a crappy stock cooler although it will work reasonably well for stock operation.. The 1600 comes with a much better cooler (and is cheaper) but really needs a mild overclock to keep pace with a stock 2600. This is usually as easy as typing a 38 into the CPU multiplier in bios. At 1080p the 3600 and a $30 120mm tower cooler is your best bet if the budget allows. Spending more on a cooler for a 3600 is a waste of money IMO.

Here is a thread I posted around launch with 3600 temp data with some different coolers.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/ryzen-5-3600-w-wraith-stealth-cooler-temps.3501705/