Will an i7 2600 bottleneck an r9 390x?

[csjdruid]

Hi, so the other day, I got a nice r9 390x of reddit and I was wondering if my current cpu, the i7 2600 will bottleneck it.

Thanks

 

[bimbam360]

Doubt it.

I should caveat this as later comments have pointed out, some games are poorly optimized and will hammer your CPU regardless, to the end that your CPU will become the 'bottleneck' of your total FPS. However this CPU should not prevent your GPU from running at 100% performance, even if it is the cause of poor performance (not sure if I explained that well).

Your CPU is on this list for The Witcher 3 (an infinitely better, more beautiful game than anything Bethesderp churn out) with a 980 SLI setup:
http://static1.gamespot.com/uploads/original/689/6895822/2868723-9170151442-http-.jpg

The point of diminishing returns kicks in right around the i3-4330 and by the i5-2500 is almost negligibly different to an I7-5960X. While not true for every game, it's this behavior which has led me (and many others) to stick to K series I5s for gaming (or even I3s) and save the $s for bigger GPUs.

Additionally I tend to assume by default that people on Tom's are overclocking. If it's a K series at 4.5Ghz+ then the answer is still just 'doubt it'.

 

[photonboy]

In some situations, yes, though you'll still have a great experience.

so many people simply say "NO" but that's simply not the case. Look at the 1440p for Fallout 4 (which is hard on the CPU due to crappy, unoptimized code).
http://www.gamersnexus.net/game-bench/2182-fallout-4-cpu-benchmark-huge-performance-difference

(The i7-2600 is still quite good. In the above benchmarks your CPU would sit about 60FPS with the same other hardware and settings)

In most games you should get over 90% the performance of the newest i5/i7 CPU's. Even if you do drop a lot the FPS may still be high and if it's not simply tweak the game settings as appropriate.

Much of the time you'll have a GPU bottleneck instead. It depends on what GAME you are playing and the settings you play at.

I wouldn't recommend an R9-390X.

I suggest a GTX1070 for that budget, or an RX-480 or similar but we don't have complete info yet on the new AMD cards.

There are new features, slight architecture changes, and power savings on both the new AMD and NVidia series, including VR optimizations.

 

[photonboy]

Update:
It's worth noting that your i7-2600 will start working better with DX12 games (once that are properly coded to support multiple threads efficiently).

So there's no big rush to upgrade your system aside from the GPU.