Will an i5 4440 bottleneck a GTX 1080?

[Christopher Aubert]

I reeeeeally don't want to spend $300 for an i7 just so I can put a 1080 inside my case. I also can't really find much data/answers for this question.
(Please tell me I don't have to get an i7!)

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

your CPU aint bad. Its a decent gaming chip. However, it has a slightly low clock speed of 3.1ghz with a 3.3 boost. In CPU intensive games it will hold back the 1080, but with that said not by a huge amount. An I7 is a good accompaniment for a 1080 but not necessary. Games still aren't fully optimised for more than 4 cores. With newer games though (Witcher 3, Battlefield 1 etc) more resources equals better performance. So it's moving towards more cores and threads for games. Your I5 will get you high settings in most games, medium-high in newer more demanding games.
I'd suggest getting a RX580 or GTX 1060 6GB which would be more balanced with your CPU. Big problem there though: getting either of those cards at the moment is nigh on impossible because of the mining community buying all the available mid level GPU's to mine cryptocurrency.

 

[mbilal2]

I believe you meant will an i5-4440 bottleneck a GTX 1080. Long answer short yes.

You don't have to get an i7 but unfortunately you will have to get new RAM, Processor and motherboard...

Why? If you are going to change the processor, you are going to have to change the motherboard since the new processors are not compatible with the old processor socket on your motherboard... They simply won't fit. You are probably using DDR3 ram, and the new mobo will only support DDR4 RAM..

You are looking at 400-500$ worth of upgrades. If you intend on gaming at 1080p, I recommend you get the GTX 1050Ti (since everything after that is super expensive atm) and make the above mentioned upgrades.

That being said, you do NOT have to make these upgrades. These upgrades are just to prevent your CPU from bottlenecking your GTX 1080. It will still work perfectly fine but you will get the same performance as the 1050 Ti (give or take a few) at 1920x1080.

 

[Christopher Aubert]

I believe you meant will an i5-4440 bottleneck a GTX 1080. Long answer short yes.

You don't have to get an i7 but unfortunately you will have to get new RAM, Processor and motherboard...

Why? If you are going to change the processor, you are going to have to change the motherboard since the new processors are not compatible with the old processor socket on your motherboard... They simply won't fit. You are probably using DDR3 ram, and the new mobo will only support DDR4 RAM..

You are looking at 400-500$ worth of upgrades. If you intend on gaming at 1080p, I recommend you get the GTX 1050Ti (since everything after that is super expensive atm) and make the above mentioned upgrades.

That being said, you do NOT have to make these upgrades. These upgrades are just to prevent your CPU from bottlenecking your GTX 1080. It will still work perfectly fine but you will get the same performance as the 1050 Ti (give or take a few) at 1920x1080.

What about an i4 4440 with a 1070, playing at 144hz where it's practical? (I'll wait a while for the prices to get back to normal )

 

[madmatt30]

The 4440 isn't strong enough for 100htz+.
That's the issue , not just about what gpu you pair it with.
Would be fine with a 1060 at 1080p 60-75htz , would be fine with a 1070/1080 at 1440p 60-75htz.

Pairing it with anything different to the above would be wasteful on a monetary front.

 

[mbilal2]

I believe you meant will an i5-4440 bottleneck a GTX 1080. Long answer short yes.

You don't have to get an i7 but unfortunately you will have to get new RAM, Processor and motherboard...

Why? If you are going to change the processor, you are going to have to change the motherboard since the new processors are not compatible with the old processor socket on your motherboard... They simply won't fit. You are probably using DDR3 ram, and the new mobo will only support DDR4 RAM..

You are looking at 400-500$ worth of upgrades. If you intend on gaming at 1080p, I recommend you get the GTX 1050Ti (since everything after that is super expensive atm) and make the above mentioned upgrades.

That being said, you do NOT have to make these upgrades. These upgrades are just to prevent your CPU from bottlenecking your GTX 1080. It will still work perfectly fine but you will get the same performance as the 1050 Ti (give or take a few) at 1920x1080.

What about an i4 4440 with a 1070? (I'll wait a while for the prices to get back to normal )

A GTX 1070 is perfect for 1920x1080 gaming. (It's actually the king) However you still can't access the full capacity of the 1070 with your current CPU. Your system is using the last generation components (~2013) but you graphics card is a top of the line one. Your card will still be bottlenecked by the i5-4440 but significantly much less than the GTX 1080. You can invest in a GTX 1070 for now and upgrade the mobo, ram and processor in the future.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

a gtx 1060 6gb/RX580 is plenty enough for ultra settings at 1080p (in combo with a decent CPU) A 1070 is slight overkill and more suitable to 1440p, unless your gonna upgrade monitor soon. The GTX1050ti will give decent 1080p performance, but not ultra setting on all games with 60+ FPS

 

[sizzling]

High fps gaming is very CPU demanding and turning down game settings does very little to alleviate this like it does when you don't have enough gpu power. There are already games where 4440 would not even hold a minimum of 60 fps, BF1 for example. For older games you will be ok but if you want to play the latest games at 100+ fps you will need a new CPU regardless of what gpu you pick.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I believe you meant will an i5-4440 bottleneck a GTX 1080. Long answer short yes.

You don't have to get an i7 but unfortunately you will have to get new RAM, Processor and motherboard...

Why? If you are going to change the processor, you are going to have to change the motherboard since the new processors are not compatible with the old processor socket on your motherboard... They simply won't fit. You are probably using DDR3 ram, and the new mobo will only support DDR4 RAM..

You are looking at 400-500$ worth of upgrades. If you intend on gaming at 1080p, I recommend you get the GTX 1050Ti (since everything after that is super expensive atm) and make the above mentioned upgrades.

That being said, you do NOT have to make these upgrades. These upgrades are just to prevent your CPU from bottlenecking your GTX 1080. It will still work perfectly fine but you will get the same performance as the 1050 Ti (give or take a few) at 1920x1080.

not really correct. To change processor, the OP simply has to get a second hand I7 4XXX cpu and perhaps with just a bios update pop it into his existing system. And depending on his mobo, he could get a 'k version of a 4XXX CPU and overlclock it helping to negate any bottleneck with a higher end GPU like a 1070/1080-Ti.