Question Would an I7 7700 bottleneck an RTX 2070 Super?

Sep 25, 2019
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Hi there I would like to know if i am ok in keeping my current CPU i7 7700 and upgrading from my old graphic card to something like an RTX 2070 Super would my cpu bottleneck it? I understand all systems have some sort of bottleneck but I'm not sure how much weight to put on bottleneck calculators but it said i would have a 25% bottleneck with an i7 7700(non k) and an RTX 2070 Super) and would it comfortably get good frames in 1080p on ultra? maybe even 1440p?

The System i plan to upgrade or leave same

RAM: Upgrade to 16gb DDR 4 3000mhz (Currently have a single 8 GB ram stick 2133mhz)

CPU: Intel i7 7700 Maybe upgrade to i7 9700k or 8700k?

GPU: Upgrade to RTX super 2070 (Currently have an gtx 780)

Mobo: PRIME B250M-C Maybe upgrade to an Z390 board(and get into overclocking)

Moniter: 1080p 60hz but i plan to get a 1440p 144hz monitor with Gsync (Dell S2716DG 27.0) maybe 3-4 months after I get this build.

HD/ SSD: at the moment just a 1 TB hard drive but plan to get Samsung 860 evo 1 TB

Case: Remain same

PSU: Thermaltake Smart Series 730W i will change to EVGA supernova 650 G2

Cooler: none at the moment but i plan to buy a cryorig H7


If i was to upgrade CPU I probably would just go all in on an i7 9700k cpu and Z390 mobo and call it a day I understand AMD is an option(Mainly the Ryzen 3000 series) but personally I want to go with Intel, but yeah if i sacrifice the SSD and HD(and transfer this one to the new one...)

The price would be about $1900 canadian(with the 9700k)
alternatively i can have the cpu/mobo stay the same and it would be around $1350 canadian(with the i7 7700)

The only reason why i would go with the i7 9700k is if the i7 7700/RTX 2070 super combo bottlenecks.

Thank you for your time!
 
First thing you will want to do is dump that Thermaltake Smart series unit into a bog somewhere. No joke. Replace that unit with something that has better quality BEFORE you even think about installing a new graphics card.

Secondly, yes, that i7-7700 is undoubtedly going to be holding back that 2070 Super but that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't capable enough to USE with it. My advice would be to get the graphics card and PSU, FIRST, and try it. You might find that it has acceptable performance for you and THEN if it doesn't, well, you haven't lost anything and can still upgrade the platform without sacrificing any ability to continue playing at a level that would be more than adequate for your 60hz 1080p display in the meantime. It's a win win.

Overall though, I think that you will absolutely want to upgrade to a model with better single and multicore performance if you change to a 144hz 1440p display, if you want to consistently be able to hit anything over 100fps at 1440p using very high or ultra settings. If you're willing to drop some settings and don't mind some lower FPS dips because you intend to go with a G-sync or Freesync display that is G-sync compatible, then you can probably make some allowances for that anyhow. Bottom line though is that the 7700 IS going to be a bottleneck and the only real question is whether it's one you can live with or not. Only way to know that, is to try it.
 
At 1440p your 7700 will still do a very good job. At 1080p yes I would expect the cpu to be limiting. You do need to upgrade your RAM to dual channel.

Don’t use those bottleneck calculator websites, they are worse than garbage.


Huh? How do you figure that a 60hz 1080p configuration is going to be a bigger issue for that system than a 144hz display? Especially if it's not a G-sync compatible one? Do you really think that 7700 is going to have trouble with 60fps compared to something approaching 100+fps, which, without being able to do that, would make having that level of display pointless? I don't get your reasoning here. Obviously the 2070 Super is going to be overkill for 1080p and the CPU would not be able to keep up with the GPU in that scenario, but it's almost a moot point since you'd already be well beyond the requirements of that display at 60fps anyhow.
 
Huh? How do you figure that a 60hz 1080p configuration is going to be a bigger issue for that system than a 144hz display? Especially if it's not a G-sync compatible one? Do you really think that 7700 is going to have trouble with 60fps compared to something approaching 100+fps, which, without being able to do that, would make having that level of display pointless? I don't get your reasoning here. Obviously the 2070 Super is going to be overkill for 1080p and the CPU would not be able to keep up with the GPU in that scenario, but it's almost a moot point since you'd already be well beyond the requirements of that display at 60fps anyhow.
As soon as you introduce any artificial bottleneck such as an FPS limiter the whole bottleneck discussion is mute. We know at 1080p there will be times when a significant amount of the 2070S performance will not be utilised. You can shift the bottleneck to the monitor by adding a FPS limit inline with the 60Hz refresh rate but you are still bottlenecking/limiting the gpu.
 
Sep 25, 2019
2
0
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First thing you will want to do is dump that Thermaltake Smart series unit into a bog somewhere. No joke. Replace that unit with something that has better quality BEFORE you even think about installing a new graphics card.

Secondly, yes, that i7-7700 is undoubtedly going to be holding back that 2070 Super but that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't capable enough to USE with it. My advice would be to get the graphics card and PSU, FIRST, and try it. You might find that it has acceptable performance for you and THEN if it doesn't, well, you haven't lost anything and can still upgrade the platform without sacrificing any ability to continue playing at a level that would be more than adequate for your 60hz 1080p display in the meantime. It's a win win.

Overall though, I think that you will absolutely want to upgrade to a model with better single and multicore performance if you change to a 144hz 1440p display, if you want to consistently be able to hit anything over 100fps at 1440p using very high or ultra settings. If you're willing to drop some settings and don't mind some lower FPS dips because you intend to go with a G-sync or Freesync display that is G-sync compatible, then you can probably make some allowances for that anyhow. Bottom line though is that the 7700 IS going to be a bottleneck and the only real question is whether it's one you can live with or not. Only way to know that, is to try it.

Yeah Im going to get rid of that PSU for sure and replace it with a EVGA supernova 650W g2. I may just go all in because you bring up a good point I want this last 5-6 years again and maybe thats unrealistic but at this point in time im leaning towards going for the 9700k. Even if by some miracle its not that bad you are right that its still only 4 core and alteast with the 9700k super fast and more cores. I'm gonna be honest man i have no idea what the heck G-sync is its just the cheapest/highest rated 1440p 140mhz moniter i found which i think was like over $500 but maybe i didn't look hard enough to be honest.

If i do stick with the i7 7700 for now at the end of the day while its still an "ok" cpu i feel like i wont ever get the most out of the GPU because it's always gonna hold it back more then other CPU's would plus lately I've been getting into streaming and i feel like thats gonna be a problem with this cpu on the settings i imagine i would wanna play at.

GTX 780 > 2070 super i can only imagine the difference lmfao thats like a pretty good amount of time between gpu's the 780 was a beast for me. But yeah I just dont wanna spend all that money and keep the i7 7700 and be like 60-70% satisfied knowing my GPU is essentially being wasted.
 
G-sync:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-gsync-monitor-glossary-definition-explained,6008.html


G-sync compatible Freesync displays:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/8/18220853/nvidia-g-sync-support-freesync-monitor-gaming


List of actually compliant (User submitted. Some might not be "official" but can still have various levels of "it works"):

https://www.esportstales.com/tech-t...patible-freesync-monitors-tested-by-community


And, the OFFICIAL list of G-sync and G-sync compatible monitors: