i5 6600k with rtx 2070 bottleneck?

[Picklekessel]

Hello everyone so ive owned my pc for about 2-3 years and im about ready for a upgrade mainly looking at graphic cards to start. I mainly play some competitive games such as Rocket League, Csgo, and League of legends in which i am well above 144hz and am not concerned about however I still very much enjoy some single player more demanding games (currently in the middle of Metro Exodus, The Witcher 3, Final Fantasy XV for examples) and have been a bit unhappy with having to lower my graphic settings to compensate for a reasonable frame rate while also keeping in mind i may want to upgrade from 1080p to 1440p eventually. My eye has been attracted to performance benchmarks of the 2070 giving me more what i see as an ideal while at a good price to performance cost compared to higher tier cards. Currently i am running a i5 6600k oc to 4.5 ghz and im worried that buying this card might leave regrets due to bottleneck possibilities. Does anyone have any insight into approximately how much i may be affected by this although i know it would vary from game to game. Would it be worth the upgrade is  what im after,

 

Sorry for long rant just wanted to make sure i give about as much information as possible for anyone who will be helping me out.

 

i am currently running a asus z170e i5 6600k oc to 4.6ghz gigabyte gtx 1060 oc with 130 mhz core clock and 650 mhz memory clock, 16gb ddr4 2133mhz ram, as well as a overkill level of cooling ( cpu water cooler along with 5 good quality case fans [my temps sit at mid 20s c with no load and never go above 55c even with more demanding games] ). 

[mxk]

yeah that'll bottleneck, the old quad core i5's aren't terrible but are weak compared to what's for sale from AMD and Intel now (cough cough AMD value king). If you want, a 7700(k) would help but I would personally wait for Zen 2/Ryzen 3000.

[ch3w2oy]

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i5-6600K/GeForce_RTX_2070/0Fs12xlu/

[Sorenson]

It won’t bottleneck you in most single player games, besides FFXV. FFXV is a whore that eats up all your system resources with its terrible optimization. It is the reason that my 1070ti feels inadequate at 1440p, since it will dip below 60 in certain areas. Anyways, I wouldn’t feel that you would need to immediately upgrade your i5, or that it will cripple the 2070 if you get it. 

[Picklekessel]

3 hours ago, fantasia. said:

yeah that'll bottleneck, the old quad core i5's aren't terrible but are weak compared to what's for sale from AMD and Intel now (cough cough AMD value king). If you want, a 7700(k) would help but I would personally wait for Zen 2/Ryzen 3000.

If thats the casee would a 7700k be good for a long time? the price of the new chips is what im more concerned about tbh, as well as having to switch to a amd compatible mb

[Picklekessel]

2 hours ago, Sorenson said:

It won’t bottleneck you in most single player games, besides FFXV. FFXV is a whore that eats up all your system resources with its terrible optimization. It is the reason that my 1070ti feels inadequate at 1440p, since it will dip below 60 in certain areas. Anyways, I wouldn’t feel that you would need to immediately upgrade your i5, or that it will cripple the 2070 if you get it. 

that may be the best option for me is too grab the 2070 and enjoy it ,  and in a bit when i have the extra cash lying around upgrade to something stronger cpu wise to get the full befits of the upgraded cards

 

 

[WickedStarfish]

1 hour ago, Picklekessel said:

that may be the best option for me is too grab the 2070 and enjoy it ,  and in a bit when i have the extra cash lying around upgrade to something stronger cpu wise to get the full befits of the upgraded cards

that would be my go, i had a 1060 and a 4th gen i5 for ages but, i dont know how it will be for you when that times comes, but when it came time to upgrade the cpu i could not find a second hand 4th gen i7 so i had to upgrade my whole system to suit a 2070. just a heads up on that

[Ardu]

Personally, I would upgrade the CPU instead of the GPU. Your card is more reliable for the future than your CPU is. Although, if you were to upgrade your CPU, I see that someone suggested a 7700k, and even though I agree that would be a good choice, those have been discontinued, so if you were to find one, you'd probably end up buying it for the same price as an 8700k which is like £350. I would recommend you get an i7-8700 which would be like £290. But, once again, you would have to upgrade the MOBO to one that supports the new CPU. I'm not very 'pro AMD' but that's just because I don't invest time to learn about them. But if you were to go AMD, you would also have to buy another MOBO.

Bottom line:

If you upgrade your CPU, AMD or otherwise, you're going to have to get another motherboard, this will probably cost you more, but you will be future-proofed WHEREAS

if you upgrade your GPU to something like a RTX 2070 you're going to notice your PC being slow in other areas. But yes, if you want results now, an RTX 2070 would be the route to go down.

 

PERSONALLY, I'd get a new CPU, but that's just me. Hope this helped.

[Mbowen]

There are a couple of different ways of looking at this issue. 

Bottlenecking is NOT an issue if you have headroom. 

I have a 7940x and a 1080ti. Technically I have a bottleneck at my GPU, and a pretty good one at that. But, I realistically won't start to see any real performance drops in my workload until they come out with more demanding games because my GPU is already kicking all of my games ass and I can play most everything on epic with no issues. There are certain super heavy workload games that I do start to see issues in like Ghost Recon Wildlands running absolutely maxed settings @ 9-10GB+ of vram usage. But normal games only use about 1/5th of that amount.

So in your case, if you think your 6600k is still doing well enough that you do want to upgrade, a 2070 won't hurt. My brother was using a 6600k and a 1070 and having issues running Escape from Tarkov on high until we upgraded him to a 7700k. 

Option 2 is to just take the advice of a bottleneck calculator. 

According to this, the 6600k will definitely choke your 2070. 
https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i5-6600K/GeForce_RTX_2070/0Fs12xlu/

Technically it's also the bottleneck in your current build as well. Though, definitely not by as much as it could have been.  
https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i5-6600K/GeForce_GTX_1060/0Fs0Velu/

I'd suggest looking to see if you can find a used 6700k or 7700k floating around somewhere in your area for cheap and upgrading that first. You would still bottleneck the 2070 if you ever reached a level of performance that maxed out the card, but it would definately be the best way to upgrade cheaply since you would only need to swap out the CPU.
https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i7-7700K/GeForce_RTX_2070/0Km12xlu/

[Picklekessel]

8 hours ago, Ardu said:

Personally, I would upgrade the CPU instead of the GPU. Your card is more reliable for the future than your CPU is. Although, if you were to upgrade your CPU, I see that someone suggested a 7700k, and even though I agree that would be a good choice, those have been discontinued, so if you were to find one, you'd probably end up buying it for the same price as an 8700k which is like £350. I would recommend you get an i7-8700 which would be like £290. But, once again, you would have to upgrade the MOBO to one that supports the new CPU. I'm not very 'pro AMD' but that's just because I don't invest time to learn about them. But if you were to go AMD, you would also have to buy another MOBO.

Bottom line:

If you upgrade your CPU, AMD or otherwise, you're going to have to get another motherboard, this will probably cost you more, but you will be future-proofed WHEREAS

if you upgrade your GPU to something like a RTX 2070 you're going to notice your PC being slow in other areas. But yes, if you want results now, an RTX 2070 would be the route to go down.

 

PERSONALLY, I'd get a new CPU, but that's just me. Hope this helped.

With just the new cpu I won't exactly be future proof as well tho, my 1060 seems to be running full steam on a lot of games I play so your suggesting I upgrade both I assume?

[Picklekessel]

4 hours ago, Mbowen said:

There are a couple of different ways of looking at this issue. 

Bottlenecking is NOT an issue if you have headroom. 

I have a 7940x and a 1080ti. Technically I have a bottleneck at my GPU, and a pretty good one at that. But, I realistically won't start to see any real performance drops in my workload until they come out with more demanding games because my GPU is already kicking all of my games ass and I can play most everything on epic with no issues. There are certain super heavy workload games that I do start to see issues in like Ghost Recon Wildlands running absolutely maxed settings @ 9-10GB+ of vram usage. But normal games only use about 1/5th of that amount.

So in your case, if you think your 6600k is still doing well enough that you do want to upgrade, a 2070 won't hurt. My brother was using a 6600k and a 1070 and having issues running Escape from Tarkov on high until we upgraded him to a 7700k. 

Option 2 is to just take the advice of a bottleneck calculator. 

According to this, the 6600k will definitely choke your 2070. 
https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i5-6600K/GeForce_RTX_2070/0Fs12xlu/

Technically it's also the bottleneck in your current build as well. Though, definitely not by as much as it could have been.  
https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i5-6600K/GeForce_GTX_1060/0Fs0Velu/

I'd suggest looking to see if you can find a used 6700k or 7700k floating around somewhere in your area for cheap and upgrading that first. You would still bottleneck the 2070 if you ever reached a level of performance that maxed out the card, but it would definately be the best way to upgrade cheaply since you would only need to swap out the CPU.
https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i7-7700K/GeForce_RTX_2070/0Km12xlu/

Ya something where I don't have to upgrade mother board is definitely ideal in my eyes currently. Right now I'm only set up for 1080p at 144hz so I feel like a 7700k would be more than enough for my needs at the moment if I'm not mistaken?

 

 

[mxk]

55 minutes ago, Picklekessel said:

Ya something where I don't have to upgrade mother board is definitely ideal in my eyes currently. Right now I'm only set up for 1080p at 144hz so I feel like a 7700k would be more than enough for my needs at the moment if I'm not mistaken?

 

 

That would be fine. A 7700k is pretty good but if you're spending enough money for a 7700k I suggest that you go and spend on a ryzen CPU and motherboard

[mxk]

12 hours ago, Picklekessel said:

If thats the casee would a 7700k be good for a long time? the price of the new chips is what im more concerned about tbh, as well as having to switch to a amd compatible mb

I mean quad cores are kinda out now, 6 Cores is so cheap. I have no idea where you're located so I can't say prices for sure, but a new 7700k's price usually can get you a decent motherboard and CPU. The only thing is that you have really slow ram and ryzen performs better with faster ram

[xg32]

i'd just go with a 2060 and keep the 6600k, wouldn't upgrade to a 7700k just for a 2070

[Picklekessel]

36 minutes ago, fantasia. said:

That would be fine. A 7700k is pretty good but if you're spending enough money for a 7700k I suggest that you go and spend on a ryzen CPU and motherboard

What ryzen cpu and motherboard would be ideal in your opinion? I don't have any experience with them 

[Picklekessel]

16 minutes ago, xg32 said:

i'd just go with a 2060 and keep the 6600k, wouldn't upgrade to a 7700k just for a 2070

The 2060 doesn't really bench well enough for me to justify wanting to upgrade to it, I almost would rather keep my 1060 and save the money to be honest, also keep in mind as @Mbowen pointed out, the 6600k is technically already bottlenecking my pc to

[Picklekessel]

1 minute ago, Picklekessel said:

The 2060 doesn't really bench well enough for me to justify wanting to upgrade to it, I almost would rather keep my 1060 and save the money to be honest, also keep in mind as @Mbowen pointed out, the 6600k is technically already bottlenecking my pc. This was my first of build I've ever done and owned so when I upgrade I want the upgrades to have future performance in mind which is why Im not so sure of a 7700k anymore

 

[ch3w2oy]

43 minutes ago, Picklekessel said:

What ryzen cpu and motherboard would be ideal in your opinion? I don't have any experience with them 

A 2600 with do with a good B450 is all you need.. The MSI B450 Tomahawk is the best B450, unless you need wifi you can consider the B450 Pro Carbon AC.. No need to go X470 unless you don't mind spending $180+, in which case I would recommend the Taichi, Crosshair VII and Gaming 7.

[mxk]

4 hours ago, Picklekessel said:

What ryzen cpu and motherboard would be ideal in your opinion? I don't have any experience with them 

I'm not remembering any boards of the top of my head but there are a few b450 boards that are pretty solid got the price. As for the CPU, a ryzen 2600(or 2600x) or if you get a deal on a better chip is what I would pick

[Picklekessel]

4 hours ago, ch3w2oy said:

A 2600 with do with a good B450 is all you need.. The MSI B450 Tomahawk is the best B450, unless you need wifi you can consider the B450 Pro Carbon AC.. No need to go X470 unless you don't mind spending $180+, in which case I would recommend the Taichi, Crosshair VII and Gaming 7.

I dont need Wifi so something like the Tomahawk or in the price range may be the best option for me, when you say its the best B450 what makes it the best? 

[ch3w2oy]

Just now, Picklekessel said:

I dont need Wifi so something like the Tomahawk or in the price range may be the best option for me, when you say its the best B450 what makes it the best? 

The VRMs basically.. Most B450 boards are underbuilt.. That's the only B450 I would use with a 2700X.. I has great reviews/ratings.. Anyone here will agree, I promise 

[Picklekessel]

 

32 minutes ago, fantasia. said:

I'm not remembering any boards of the top of my head but there are a few b450 boards that are pretty solid got the price. As for the CPU, a ryzen 2600(or 2600x) or if you get a deal on a better chip is what I would pick

 

4 hours ago, ch3w2oy said:

A 2600 with do with a good B450 is all you need.. The MSI B450 Tomahawk is the best B450, unless you need wifi you can consider the B450 Pro Carbon AC.. No need to go X470 unless you don't mind spending $180+, in which case I would recommend the Taichi, Crosshair VII and Gaming 7.

If i find a good deal on a 2700 or 2700x would the b450 boards still be compatible just so i can keep it in mind? Also are the b450 boards overclockable? sorry if dumb questions ive just never done any research into anything amd tbh.

[ch3w2oy]

1 minute ago, Picklekessel said:

 

 

If i find a good deal on a 2700 or 2700x would the b450 boards still be compatible just so i can keep it in mind? Also are the b450 boards overclockable? sorry if dumb questions ive just never done any research into anything amd tbh.

Yupp, the Tomahawk or Pro Carbon are the best choices for a 2700X.. I wouldn't use another B450 for that processor..

[Picklekessel]

4 minutes ago, ch3w2oy said:

The VRMs basically.. Most B450 boards are underbuilt.. That's the only B450 I would use with a 2700X.. I has great reviews/ratings.. Anyone here will agree, I promise 

Just answered my last question lol thank you, im liking the idea of this tbh because after a bit of research the cost for the mb and cpu are not very high which has surprised me quite a bit.

[mxk]

2 hours ago, Picklekessel said:

 

 

If i find a good deal on a 2700 or 2700x would the b450 boards still be compatible just so i can keep it in mind? Also are the b450 boards overclockable? sorry if dumb questions ive just never done any research into anything amd tbh.

I wouldn't get a 2700 or 2700x because 

 

1) depending on where you get the 7700(k) from, you might end up spending more on a cpu+mobo+ram combo rather than a CPU.

2) Zen 2 is coming and I think it's actually your best choice to just tough it out and wait for Zen 2 to get released this July.