Which CPU not bottleneck gtx1070 on 1080p 144hz monitor

Apr 1, 2018
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I decide to buy 144hz monitor but I saw a lot of peoples tell that i5 4460 will bottleneck gtx1070 on 144hz monitor I know I can change to i7 7700k or 8700k but I have to change my motherboard(150$)/ram(8gb DDR4 ramx2 150$)/case(100$)/SSD(200$)/144hz monitor(400$)=around 1000 USD
currently I using
Asus H81M-D motherboard
4x2 DDR3 ram
i5 4460
gtx1070
2 HDD(1 tb and 3 tb)
so there're CPU that don't bottleneck my gtx1070 that can put at H81M-D mainboard or there're not any?
 
Solution
*I know I said a lot above, but I'd like to emphasize that your CPU is a 4C/4T CPU meaning four individual cores with no hyperthreading (running another thread of code on each core at maybe 30% of the speed). Most games can't benefit much or at all from hyperthreading anyway thus the main difference between the i5-4460, i5-4670K and i7-4790K is the frequency.

Your CPU under load runs between 3.2GHz and 3.4GHz (probably locked to 3.2GHz when gaming). If you don't (or can't) overclock due to the motherboard and/or CPU cooler then the max Turbo values (which MAY potentially be locked to in the BIOS) is:

i5-4460: 3.4GHz
i5-4670K: 3.8GHz
i7-4790K: 4.4GHz

Thus the other i5 runs at only 12% faster by default whereas the i7 runs 29% faster...
A 4790k/4770k should do well. You cannot overclock with your motherboard but the (k) cpu’s have slightly higher clock speed. Make sure you are running the latest BIOS.

This should eliminate most occasions of a bottleneck but it may still happen a little in cpu heavy games but not enough to worry about.
 
Apr 1, 2018
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It's i7 4790k/4770k right? the price here in my country is close to 7700k/8700k but If I don't have to change all my MB/RAM/CASE... should I buy second-hand?(the first-hand price is 350$ while second-hand is 190$
 

Typical, as older CPU's are not in production but there is still some demand they hold their new price. Lots of people buy second hand components but to be honest I never have except RAM.
 
Hey,
1) First off, you where NEVER going to be running many games at 144FPS anyway. Thus you should not use normal VSYNC for games you can't maintain 144FPS in (because you'll add STUTTERING).

Thus I'd stick with one of two options depending on the game:
a) VSYNC OFF
(causes screen tear, though it may not be very obvious in many games especially the LOWER the FPS gets... so for a slower-paced game like Rise of the Tomb Raider aim for 50FPS average, or possibly set an FPS cap of 50FPS and tweak the game settings so you stay at that about 80% of the time with 20% drops below)

b) Adaptive VSYNC Half Refresh
(will cap GPU output to 72FPS on 144Hz monitor. So same as running on 72Hz monitor with SYNC ON... if you can't output 72FPS it turns VSYNC OFF so 50FPS in this case would be identical to simply running VSYNC OFF at the start... so a good balance is 90% 72FPS and 10% drops below to minimize screen tears... stick with VSYNC OFF if there's no obvious screen tears. use this method if screen tears are annoying).

2) Secondly, yes that CPU will cause bottlenecks but it will vary by the game. There's a very easy way to figure out if you are being bottleneck or not. Use a tool like MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision to monitor both of these:
a) GPU Usage, and
b) GPU frequency

If you see 95% usage at say 1950MHz (or whatever your max turbo ends up being) then there's no CPU bottleneck. If the GPU frequency and/or Usage drops there IS a CPU bottleneck and how MUCH the bottleneck is will be obvious in how much the GPU is being used.

It doesn't work this way exactly, but assume you had 80% GPU Usage and 1950MHz still. Maybe a better CPU that can process 25% faster per core lifts the bottleneck then your FPS might go up 25%.

*Both the CPU and GPU usage can be low if there's an FPS cap. (i.e. VSYNC ON at 144Hz and you play "Super MeatBoy" at 144FPS but could hit 4x that FPS then your CPU usage might be closer to 25%).

3) How much bottleneck?
Again it varies but the 3.2GHz to 3.4GHz max frequency (see BIOS mention) will definitely bottleneck plenty of games. You might have a difficult time hitting 60FPS in GTA5 for example... someone posted today as they would drop to 40-50FPS in the city center despite very low GPU usage on a much weaker graphics card.

*If you really, really want some data on that I can easily emulate your i5-4460 with i7-3770K by adjusting BIOS settings then test GTA5 (or other games if I have them).

The main games affected would be shooters since most people want to play those at a higher FPS, so for example in GAMEA in multi-player you might have 60% GPU usage and max out at 40FPS, 70FPS or whatever due to a CPU bottleneck.

Again you don't need to hit 144FPS (VSYNC OFF) so let's go back to Tomb Raider at 50FPS... even if that was about the point where the i5-4460 was bottlenecking there are game settings that have very little CPU usage such as ANTI-ALIASING so in that case maybe go from 4xMSAA to 8xMSAA which in theory might not change the FPS noticeably at all.

(not to overcomplicate things... it still boils down to playing with the game settings such as putting everything to Ultra, VSYNC OFF, getting say 35FPS average then dropping down a few settings until you hit 50FPS if that's the goal).

Summary:
a) CPU will bottleneck but it will vary (sometimes little to nothing and other times a lot)
b) learn what settings are optimal on a per-game basis (i.e. VSYNC OFF, 50FPS after game tweaks)
c) 144FPS is not needed (VSYNC OFF or AVSYNC Half Refresh options)

It's not critical to set a manual FPS cap, nor am I certain what the best application is (NVInspector?) but it can help make some games more consistent especially if the FPS range is wide (i.e. 40FPS to 80FPS) causing screen tears at times that aren't obvious at others... again I'd consider say an 50FPS cap for slower-paced games and tweak game settings accordingly (so maybe 50FPS 80% of the time).
 
1) The motherboard isn't designed to overclock a "K" series if that matters, but AFAIK the i7-4790K or i5-4670K are pretty expensive even used. I looked quickly and I think a used i5-4670K starts at $160 and i think it's roughly 15% faster without overclocking (assuming you stick with 3.9GHz vs 3.4GHz locked or similar thus 39/34 thus maybe at most 15% or so higher FPS in some games).

*speaking of which, it's a small difference to default but it MAY be possible to go into the BIOS and set all cores (via the Multiplier values likely) to the max which I believe is "x34" (so under load it doesn't drop below 3.4GHz which is only 6% faster than 3.2GHz... hey, if it ends up free performance why not?).

But as for the i5/i7 upgrade again it's hard to recommend to keep putting money into the system. I'd wait then eventually replace with either a new AMD AM4 rig (i.e. R7-3700 8-core in 2019) or a similar value Intel setup.

2) again, on a per-game basis look at GPU Usage/frequency (VSYNC OFF) to estimate gains with a better CPU

3) Which monitor?
I looked at PCPARTPICKER to guess which one you're looking at. To be clear, you didn't buy yet?

THIS one is 27", TN, 2560x1440, 144Hz (with Freesync though that only works with AMD GPU):
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/t4Crxr/acer-monitor-umhg0aa001

(my main issue is it's TN. I'd get IPS for better color and less fading off-center... no GSYNC either but IPS with GSYNC is $700 or so)

I personally would NOT get a 1920x1080 monitor since many games (especially ones with small HUD/text like CIV5) look better as does the DESKTOP obviously with sharper text (I use 125% DPI scaling though).

*The monitor I like best that isn't ridiculously over budget is THIS one for about $500USD:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/sqp323/acer-monitor-xf270hu

27", IPS, 2560x1440, 144Hz (and Freesync)
 
*I know I said a lot above, but I'd like to emphasize that your CPU is a 4C/4T CPU meaning four individual cores with no hyperthreading (running another thread of code on each core at maybe 30% of the speed). Most games can't benefit much or at all from hyperthreading anyway thus the main difference between the i5-4460, i5-4670K and i7-4790K is the frequency.

Your CPU under load runs between 3.2GHz and 3.4GHz (probably locked to 3.2GHz when gaming). If you don't (or can't) overclock due to the motherboard and/or CPU cooler then the max Turbo values (which MAY potentially be locked to in the BIOS) is:

i5-4460: 3.4GHz
i5-4670K: 3.8GHz
i7-4790K: 4.4GHz

Thus the other i5 runs at only 12% faster by default whereas the i7 runs 29% faster by default (which again is very roughly speaking the max % FPS improvement you'd gain).

So the i5-4460 isn't great but it's not too bad either and again it depends on the game how much a faster CPU would benefit.
 
Solution