Will my i5-7600k bottleneck my GTX 1080?

[Alexandre Gagne]

Will my i5-7600k bottleneck my GTX 1080 at 1080p, 60hz? I'm not interested for 144hz. I got the 1080 for free, as a gift (if you're wondering why I'm using a gtx 1080 for 60hz)

 

[atomicWAR]

nah you'll be fine in most games. The ones that do bottleneck you like BF1...it wouldn't matter because, in the case of BF1, in 64 player servers any gpu that pushes you over the 60FPS range, would be a problem for your CPU. That said you are going to need a new CPU soonish for high end AAA gaming in general. You should be good for another year maybe more.

 

[atomicWAR]

Games you might have issue with...

BF1, GTA V, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Witcher 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Division to name a few.


these all use 8-16+ threads (depending on the game).

 

[Alexandre Gagne]

Thank you. What CPU would you recommand me then?

 

[atomicWAR]

Up side despite what you hear a GTX 1080 can be great for 1080P. You can afford to manually crank up anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing to 16x by 8x and still have near max settings on nearly every games...save a few. This will make all your polygons and textures much more sharp and clear.

 

[Rogue Leader]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from Alexandre Gagne : "Will my i5-7600k bottleneck my gtx 1080?"

Will my i5-7600k bottleneck my GTX 1080 at 1080p, 60hz? I'm not interested for 144hz nor for 4K. I got the 1080 for free, as a gift (if you're wondering why I'm using a gtx 1080 for 60hz)

You only need one thread for your answer. We are happy to help you and will get you the advice you need in one post.

 

[atomicWAR]

On the CPU front I would just get a drop in replacement like the i7 7700K IF you find you are having issues maintaining 60FPS in you games despite lowering settings to low/medium/whatever gives you 60 fps or can't and you decide you need a more well threaeded CPU. A i7 7700K will give you 4 more threads for 8 total. If you can wait a year and see what's new from AMD and Intel it would give you the best upgrade. If I had to guess 6C/6T-8C/16T is going to be the new gaming "market" for CPUs.

 

[Alexandre Gagne]

Ok, thank you. I guess I'll wait and see what happens. Thanks!

 

[HamBown81]

Dude, I seriously doubt that you will see any sort of bottleneck at 1080p even with the settings maxed out. Perhaps at higher resolutions...

 

[atomicWAR]

Dude, I seriously doubt that you will see any sort of bottleneck at 1080p even with the settings maxed out. Perhaps at higher resolutions...

Actually it is the other way around for resolutions. the lower the resolution and or settings the higher the load on the CPU because the GPU is overpowering the CPU....the higher the resolution/in game settings the higher the load on the GPU giving the CPU more breathing room. That said for his current set-up he should only have issues in highly threaded games and overall the CPU he has is sufficient for now.

 

[Alexandre Gagne]

Well, then you're saying I should really go for higher resolutions?

 

[atomicWAR]

Well, then you're saying I should really go for higher resolutions?

If you want to do something like DSR for 1440P on your 1080P monitor you can if you have the GPU horse power to do it in said game it will give you a slightely sharper image. Honestly I would just use more anti-aliasing (AA). Kick it up to 8-16x manually in nvidia control panel. It will take less GPU horse power for a comparable image quality to DSR. DSR basically looks similar to AA being on but does so by rendering the image at a higher resolution then your native one and scales it down removing some jagged edges, which AA removes as well just at native resolution.

The big point I was making was HamBown81 post about higher resolution/image settings was wrong. A common misconception among gamers that aren't super knowledgeable about how games render is to think higher resolutions/image settings are harder on your CPU when in fact it is lower settings that are hard on the CPU. And posts like his are how these kinds of gaming myths get spread.

As for how you choose to have your games set up is up to you. I suggest you try both high levels of AA at 1080P and DSR 1440P. Take some screen shots and see what image you like more and use those settings. You can use AA with DSR too for an even, in theory, better image. Though in practice it isn't very noticeable after 4X AA IMO. Regardless it is something worth checking out. When I first started gaming reviews use to include games with high settings and high settings with 16x by 8x ansiostopic filtering and AA. Now a days most reviews just use in game settings which sometimes have lower levels of filtering and AA then what you can set manually in the nvidia control panel. This is why you get folks who think a GTX 1060 is the most you'll ever need for 1080P when in fact if, like me, you use heavy filtering and AA in a fair number of games you can even drag a GTX 1080Ti down to the 40-60FPS range at 1080P. But most of the gamers like me that use these kinds of settings are older ones who know to use them. I can't tell you the number of times I have brought up filtering and AA to younger gamer friends who were clueless as to what they were, did or how to use them. Though once I show them what they do and how to use them...they never go back to just in game settings. You get your eyes spoiled real quick with 16X by 8X or better filtering/AA. Check it out yourself like I said with screen shots.