Will Intel Core i3 4160 bottleneck AMD R9 280x?

[remek4x4]

Hi!
I am planning on a mITX build. Currently what I am going to buy is:
-Intel Core i3 -4160 (2c/4t 3,6Ghz)
-MSI H81I Motherboard
-Sapphire Radeon R9 280x (used)
-4Gb RAM (already have)
-Cooler Master Elite 130 mITX Case
-Thermaltake Smart SE Modular 530W
and a hard drive.

Will this CPU bottleneck GPU in games? Any tips/suggestions about build?

Thanks

 

[clownwolf]

No.

http://www.techspot.com/review/734-battlefield-4-benchmarks/page6.html

 

[photonboy]

YES.
First of all, the BF4 link is for the game in Single Player mode. It's a lot more demanding of the CPU in Multiplayer mode as there are benchmarks showing an i5-4570K using 90% of its processing and it's a four-core CPU (no hyperthreading).

Secondly, there are other games that will be CPU bottlenecked at times such as Metro 2033/LL.

*Having said that, building a gaming PC is all about the best BALANCE of parts for the games you intend to play. If you spent more on a better CPU you wouldn't have as much for the graphics card so that can be a tough decision.

MOST GAMES are likely not going to be bottlenecked at all or very much by that i3 CPU though. Based on what appears to be a tight budget it seems like a good choice overall.

 

[clownwolf]

I'm gonna keep using BF4, even though its a year old, its still a pretty good benchmark for current cards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF8En3Heffo

The card is only a 280x. I think the original question is meant to be "if the i3 will severely limit the 280x", which is no, because the i3 can handle it.

but if the question is actually meant to be "if the i3 will bottleneck the whole system" when playing a new game, then of course it will, because of the fact that IT IS AN i3.

but yeah, I agree about that balance. The chart I posted earlier is for the 290x, but I wouldn't put that on an that i3. While it can still handle it, its not a nice and balanced combination.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

its just fine. Sure in some games you will get more fps with an i5 or something, but if you had to go up to an i5 and sacrifice budget on a lower end video card, i think you would end up with less performance overall. So yes its a slight bottleneck, but if your sticking to the same budget, i dont think there is room to trade cpu performance for gpu to get a better balance. One thing i would look at doing in the near future would be stepping up to 8gb ram, 4gb is an issue for some games and may cause loading/stuttering during gameplay.