How important are CPUs when gaming on high resolutions (1440p/4k)?

[CoolMarquis97]

So I have a 3080 paired with a 3600 and I have gotten interested in the idea of upgrading to B550/Ryzen 5600x. However, I never realized how little CPUs seem to matter when it comes to trying to increase performance when gaming at 1440p or 4K. Unless I'm looking at the wrong videos, the benchmarks I'm seeing show best case scenarios of an increase of maybe 10fps in some games if I was to upgrade from the 3600. 

 

Would a move to 5600x be pointless if I'm gaming at 4k? Also, what about the people who say to not buy 6 cores headed into this new console generation? Would a move to 5800x make more sense?

 

Thanks for any advice! 

[jones177]

There are such things as CPU frames. At 4k they become very important since most GPUs struggle to do 60fps. It does depend on the game. 

 

In Assassins Creed Odyssey my CPU overclock alone is good for an extra 7 frames. This is not a big deal at 1080p but at 4k it is the difference between averaging 52fps to 59fps. Most frames end up over 60 in the game so vsync works a lot better.   

 

Here is what it look like.

 

For some fun.

My i7 8086k overclocked runs about the same as a 5600X but I have a 2080 ti. There is a good chance I could beat your score even though you have a more powerful GPU. If you had an 5600X I would have no chance.

For more fun do a 4k bench like Superposition. 

 

 

[CoolMarquis97]

22 minutes ago, jones177 said:

There are such things as GPU frames. At 4k they become very important since most GPUs struggle to do 60fps. It does depend on the game. 

 

In Assassins Creed Odyssey my CPU overclock alone is good for an extra 7 frames. This is not a big deal at 1080p but at 4k it is the difference between averaging 52fps to 59fps. Most frames end up over 60 in the game so vsync works a lot better.   

 

Here is what it look like.

 

For some fun.

My i7 8086k overclocked runs about the same as a 5600X but I have a 2080 ti. There is a good chance I could beat your score even though you have a more powerful GPU. If you had an 5600X I would have no chance.

For more fun do a 4k bench like Superposition. 

 

 

Very interesting. Thanks for the info! Definitely gives me something to think about. 

[xg32]

the best article on this imho

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/features/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-ampere-cpu-scaling-benchmarks

 

obviously zen 3 cpus are faster and mitigates the problems further.

[CoolMarquis97]

6 minutes ago, xg32 said:

the best article on this imho

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/features/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-ampere-cpu-scaling-benchmarks

 

obviously zen 3 cpus are faster and mitigates the problems further.

Thank you! Needed info like this. Article definitely convinced me it isn't worth upgrading for maybe an increase of 10fps.