Will a bottleneck CPU perform worse after upgrading to a new GPU?

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JBeard

JBeard

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Jul 7, 2016
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I currently have an FX 4350 at 4.2ghz standard clock and a 750ti 2gb (MOBO: M5A78L)

I'm not sure of the usage of the CPU when playing games like csgo however it is definitely not 100% or anywhere close to it, I'm fairly certain its about 50-60, and the 750ti which I have was the reason I couldn't hit 200 fps.

I'm wondering if I upgrade to a 970 which is my intention, will it bottleneck my CPU and as a result of that bottleneck will I get less FPS on games like csgo, because the whole point in upgrading my GPU was to get more frames.

Thanks for all replies, I need an answer quite quickly as I need to either order it or not order it by this weekend.
 
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scuzzycard
That's right, it will never be slower than it was with the 750ti. The 970 will make you faster, but not always by the full amount that it could if you had a faster CPU. You will also be able to raise your resolution and/or anti-aliasing settings much higher than before without penalty.
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If you upgrade to a GTX 970 you will defenitely get more then the 750 ti, however your processor will bottleneck the graphics card and it will not use it full potential, it would be quite a large bottleneck. I recommend keeping the 750 ti and upgrading to a i3 6100 build. That should be about the same price as a GTX 970 and will be better.
 
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What would be some of the problems that would occur due to this bottleneck? Would my frames be lower, would It stutter all the time?

I have a budget of about £300.

I could get these:

CPU- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00K5J22GG/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=569136327&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00CO8TA4I&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=30BTG7RESFXGG0091RNB

MOBO- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-Z97P-D3-LGA1150-Motherboard-USB3-0/dp/B00K9R1OCW/ref=pd_bxgy_147_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TTZZJ3KRV86P8VSM9D2P


However, would I need a new PSU with that new mobo and CPU? My current is a Cooler Master 500w.

Thanks for quick replies.
 
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Im so sorry for the mix up, your processor isn't that even bad, it will bottleneck a GTX 970 but getting a better processor and keeping the same gpu would be worse. Get the GTX 970, and upgrade to i5 4690 and mobo when you have more money.

Just to clarify, getting the GTX 970 will be better for now than getting a processor upgrade. Also, the GTX 970 requires more power than a 750 ti, may i ask what powe supply you have?

 
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At this point in time I have a 500w PSU, which is (going by the reccomendation by nvidia) fine for a GTX 970.

My reason for upgrading to a 970 now, was because I have money via my birthday, and it was my original intention to upgrade my GPU (and case) now, and then at christmas I will get a new CPU/MOBO/PSU to 'complete' the upgrade.

So you suggest I go ahead and get a GTX 970 now, and upgrade my CPU later aswell as mobo, my main worry was that of the bottleneck causing lower performance and my 750ti being better because it wasn't bottlenecking the CPU, is this the case? tl;dr - will a cpu bottleneck make a GTX 970 a very expensive GTX 750ti, causing the performance to be the same.

Thanks

 
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For the new motherboard and CPU you would not need a new PSU. You can see in the last system builder(Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/q1-2016-system-builder-marathon-value-comparsion,4524.html), that even the more power-hungry systems did not pass 300w in power draw, so you will be fine for now with that psu.

That said, directly increasing performance by replacing either your cpu or gpu is difficult in this situation, because they are both pretty much tied for performance limiting factor. If I were you, I would upgrade the cpu now for whatever you like that is not too overkill (the i3 suggested earlier is alright, although I think it will also bottleneck with a 970) and then upgrade your cpu as soon as you have the money to buy something decent (I would say RX 470/480 will be plenty of power for your needs)
 
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Could or will a bottleneck via my cpu make performance worse (than the current 750) if I were to upgrade my GPU?
 
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I have looked briefly at the RX 480, however I was going to try to stick to NVIDIA in terms of GPU's.

Also, there aren't too many in stock and the price is a little bit more - however I do see where youre coming from.
 
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The reason why for me the RX 480 would be a much better buy than the GTX 970, is because, at resolutions and games that will only require 3GB Vram max they will have similar performance, but for games to come, a RX 480 will always provide better frame cause of that huge VRAM difference.
 
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No, it will not make the performance worse, your performance will increase but without a cpu upgrade you will never completely utilize your new gpu.

I agree with Trafalgar on the RX 480 having the advantage of extra VRAM, but most titles atm won't use that completely so choose what you like.
 
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I wont be able to get more FPS until I upgrade my CPU and I can cope with that, it's the fact that my current GPU is definitely holding back as my CPU usage is nowhere near 100% and my GPU's fans are always spinning at highest speed + the usage of it is mostly quite high. Aslong as it doesn't hinder performance or reduce FPS as a direct result of the bottleneck (I heard things saying it would make the FPS worse and it would stutter).

I'm not going to get an RX 480 I don't think purely based on the reason I am more familiar with Nvidia, drivers, software and overall product/quality finishing.

I really do appreciate all of you guys' feedback It has helped me a lot, and I have ran through a lot of worries because upgrading anything isn't cheap, making the right decision at the moment is critical, thanks =).

 
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That's why I'm telling you to lower the resolution this way your GPU will run at low % and your CPU will run as high as possible,it;s exactly the same as having a much stronger GPU,you can test the bottleneck before upgrading.

Your CPU usage is not high because not all games can use many cores,by lowering the resolution you can see how many FPS maximum your CPU is capable of.

 
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I cant do that at the moment, because I'm away from my rig for a week - however I thought resolution is on you're CPUs list of things to do, if thats right then surely lowering my res will make the CPU run at a lower %?

 
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Nope. There are practically no graphical settings that have anything to do with the CPU. Your CPU will be able to deliver only a certain number of frames per second, and that won't change regardless of what video card you have. As TerryLazy says, lowering your graphical settings to minimum can reveal exactly how many frames you'll get, by removing any circumstances where the GPU will be maxed out.
 
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Okay, It was just somewhere else that I read said the res was calculated (as such) by the CPU, for csgo anyway.

 
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I can't do anything with PC at this current point, but my friend has the exact same PC/setup so I will ask him just now to put all graphics to the lowest and check what his results are. I get about 130+ on the highest graphics, so I'd assume I would pull about 200/250+ on the lowest graphics settings.
 
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My friend, with the same CPU and GPU said when he set all of his graphics to the lowest had 250 average frames.

Does this mean, that when I only get 160+ on highest settings with my current GPU, it's the GPU that isn't powerful enough to get to the 250fps on low graphics and upon installation of the new GTX 970 it will hit those 250 frames?

Not so knowledgable on this area, thanks!
 
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The best way to figure out which component is acting as a bottleneck is to monitor CPU and GPU utilization - the one that is at 100% utilization is the bottleneck. If both are at 100%, then there is no bottleneck in the present situation. If neither component is at 100%, that probably means you have vsync enabled, and that your monitor's refresh rate is the only thing currently limiting frame rate.
 
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Currently unsure as I do not have the upgraded graphics card, this thread was to try and see how much of a bottleneck and how much improvement a GTX 970 would have on my system, from a GTX 750ti.

I know there is most likely going to be a bottleneck, however I wanted to know if it would affect my performance making the 750ti (with no bottleneck) perform better than a 970 (with bottleneck) (bottleneck on the CPU only). However replying people have told me that there shouldnt be a case where the 970 will perform worse than the 750ti even with a bottleneck, which is somewhat the answer I was looking for.

 
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That's right, it will never be slower than it was with the 750ti. The 970 will make you faster, but not always by the full amount that it could if you had a faster CPU. You will also be able to raise your resolution and/or anti-aliasing settings much higher than before without penalty.
 
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