[SOLVED] Will the i5 8600k bottleneck a 3070 at 1440p 144hz?

Sep 17, 2020
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I'm thinking of buying the new 3070 for 1440p 144hz gaming because right now on a 1080ti some games are not on that 144 target fps. Most of the games i play are not single players and will not require an extreme gpu. I also think if actually i should upgrade the cpu not the gpu.
What do people think?
 
Solution
Normally, at 1440P the graphics card is all important.
That is primarily for fast action games.
But, since you are playing multiplayer games , a thread for each participant would be optimum.
You now have 6 threads and that might not be as much as you want.
Here are a couple of tests to see hat your current limiting factor is:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
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Aus-ling

Distinguished
May 10, 2015
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Na, 8600k is absolutely fine. Your also at 1440p which is more on the gpu then cpu naturally. 1080p requires a bit more cpu vs gpu processing power then 1440p.
Theres also cpu fps comparisons on yt such as a 10900k vs a 9900k both with a 2080ti and the frames are lucky to differ over 3 at any stage. This puts the comparison into a margin of error meaning its not really any different.
I'd definitely buy the gpu first. Play all games then look at how old your psu is before even considering changing your cpu imo. Especially at 1440p. Hope this helps.
 
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I think that you shouldnt worry at all and that this whole bottleneck panic phenomenon is more of a theoretical bogus than it is a practical one...

see there isnt a perfect match, a perfect world where everything runs at 100% usage to provide every bit of performance available, no, so the only thing you should worry is: my frames are good? do i need more? the best GPU for any cpu out there is the best GPU available in the market, simple as that, sure, its better to instead of slapping a 3090 with a celeron, get a 3080 and with the rest of the money get a decent cpu, but thats a whole another scenario that i havent even come across in these lands.
 
Normally, at 1440P the graphics card is all important.
That is primarily for fast action games.
But, since you are playing multiplayer games , a thread for each participant would be optimum.
You now have 6 threads and that might not be as much as you want.
Here are a couple of tests to see hat your current limiting factor is:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

c) Experiment with removing one or more cores/threads. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of threads to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many threads.
If you see little difference, your game does not need all the threads you have.

What might be your budget?

I very much like the single thread performance of the intel 10th gen K suffix processors.
They all will oc or turbo near 5.0
I5-10600K, I7-10700K, i9-10850K will have 12/16/20 threads respectively.

Ryzen will give you many cheap threads and will get a lot of love here.
I am not so hot for ryzen, I seem to read many more issues with ryzen than intel.
Perhaps that is because they are so popular.

Nobody knows what the 3070 will bring.
But, if you upgrade graphics, consider a big jump over a very capable GTX1080ti. I think 3080 is a great buy at $699 for 1440P or 4k gaming. that is evidenced by the instant sold out everywhere
 
Solution
Sep 17, 2020
2
0
10
Normally, at 1440P the graphics card is all important.
That is primarily for fast action games.
But, since you are playing multiplayer games , a thread for each participant would be optimum.
You now have 6 threads and that might not be as much as you want.
Here are a couple of tests to see hat your current limiting factor is:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

c) Experiment with removing one or more cores/threads. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of threads to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many threads.
If you see little difference, your game does not need all the threads you have.

What might be your budget?

I very much like the single thread performance of the intel 10th gen K suffix processors.
They all will oc or turbo near 5.0
I5-10600K, I7-10700K, i9-10850K will have 12/16/20 threads respectively.

Ryzen will give you many cheap threads and will get a lot of love here.
I am not so hot for ryzen, I seem to read many more issues with ryzen than intel.
Perhaps that is because they are so popular.

Nobody knows what the 3070 will bring.
But, if you upgrade graphics, consider a big jump over a very capable GTX1080ti. I think 3080 is a great buy at $699 for 1440P or 4k gaming. that is evidenced by the instant sold out everywhere

My budget could go up to 600$ like. As I can see a 10700k is around 450 and the 10850k is around 600. I've tried reducing the graphics setting in cs go prior and saw no improvement in fps and I think is a cpu limit as cs go is more of a cpu demanding game.
 
I say, if you feel ok with the i5 8600K right now, then get the RTX 3070 and try it out.

If later on you feel the CPU is holding your new GPU, then you can always update to a higher core / thread count CPU.

RTX 3xxx drivers still need a lot of polish so by the time the RTX 3070 becomes available things may change a bit, so keep an eye on reviews, read and watch lots of them.
 

Karadjgne

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Ambassador
I play Starwars the Old Republic. It's online multi-player. I7-3770K @4.6GHz.

In the more single player story missions, not an issue 90fps+ at ultra with all the cpu bound gimmicks like nameplates and floating damage.

8man teams and thats down to 60+ but 60Hz monitors, so no worries there either, usually drop the cpu gimmicks.

16man teams and I'm at 30-60fps

24man Boss fights and I'm at 5-15fps.

Reason is the AI. There's simply too much info, too many calculations, too much cpu demanding code. It's a 7yr old game, so graphics aren't an issue on a gtx970 at 1080p, it's basically all cpu demand.

That can happen with any i5 9th gen or prior. Lack of threads, slower IPC, slower clocks, means usage will be topping out.

It's not that the cpu will bottleneck the gpu, that cannot happen, the cpu puts out whatever it puts out, it doesn't slow down the flow of info. It's more that the game code will be so intensive that the cpu cannot pre-render as many frames as you'd like it to.
 
My reading says CSGO is very cpu dependent, and largely single threaded.
Your test would suggest a faster cpu first.
But, the 8600K can be overclocked if you have a suitable motherboard.
I have a well binned 8600K that runs at 5.0 and could go higher.
If you have a Z motherboard, try overclocking first, it may be all you need.

I would not advise changing out the motherboard in order to try and overclock.
A i5-10600K will cost $300 and at stock may turbo up to 4.8:
https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i5-10600k-core-i5-10th-gen/p/N82E16819118124
A Z490 motherboard will be about $150.

Your current ram is fine, intel does not depend on fast ram for performance.

Whatever cooler you now have for the 8600K will do for the i5-10600K; it is not a hot chip,
Here is a review: