8700K 3070Ti bottleneck?

[testgcd]

Been through some free online bottleneck calculators, and got mixed results.

 

I have 16gb RAM 3200MHz, Intel's i7 8700K CPU  and EVGA's 3070 Ti GPU, is it worth doing a CPU upgrade right now, is there significant bottleneck? I use the system to play games at med-high settings, 60fps minimum, 2k resolution, and also to render videos.

 

Is there any point to me waiting more to upgrade my system? are prices expected to go much down in 2023? 

[jaslion]

Nah no point worst case oc it to 5ghz and enjoy your modern performance cpu. Or dont and enjoy your still good gaming cpu

 

Those bottleneck calculators are bs dont trust em.

[AndreiArgeanu]

No. Your 8700K is fine for a 3070ti. At the end of the day given certain scenarios there's always going to be a bottleneck in your system. For example in eSport titles such as CS GO or Valorant your CPU will bottleneck your GPU but in an intensive AAA title your GPU is going to bottleneck your CPU. You should only upgrade your system if the performance it offers is not satisfactory any more. If your games and software run well, there's no reason to upgrade.

[cmndr]

Flowchart

1. Is performance acceptable, if so then skip upgrading
2. If performance is unacceptable, then are there reasonably priced products out there (or in the near future) that you can get that check the box?

My best guess is that unless you're multitasking a bit you're fine. 

Here's a benchmark showing a 3090 at 1440p


performance is averaging ~120FPS in the handful of titles listed. 
Going to a 12700k (similar to a 13600) gives a moderate uplift but it's not experience shifting. Given that your graphics card is about 35% slower than a 3090, I'd expect most of the gap to disappear. 
https://www.gpucheck.com/compare/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-ti-vs-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3090/intel-core-i9-10900k-vs-intel-core-i9-10900k/


Overall, I'd take a guess and say that you're usually more held back by the GPU than the CPU at 1440p, though it'll depend on the title and the scene. 

[thrasher_565]

39 minutes ago, cmndr said:

Flowchart

1. Is performance acceptable, if so then skip upgrading
2. If performance is unacceptable, then are there reasonably priced products out there (or in the near future) that you can get that check the box?

My best guess is that unless you're multitasking a bit you're fine. 

Here's a benchmark showing a 3090 at 1440p


performance is averaging ~120FPS in the handful of titles listed. 
Going to a 12700k (similar to a 13600) gives a moderate uplift but it's not experience shifting. Given that your graphics card is about 35% slower than a 3090, I'd expect most of the gap to disappear. 
https://www.gpucheck.com/compare/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-ti-vs-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3090/intel-core-i9-10900k-vs-intel-core-i9-10900k/


Overall, I'd take a guess and say that you're usually more held back by the GPU than the CPU at 1440p, though it'll depend on the title and the scene. 

that i5-11600k thow...

[Mark Kaine]

Thats quite the bottleneck,  but if you're ok with 60fps it shouldn't be an issue most of the time.

 

Also online "bottleneck calculators" are trash... they may be right sometimes but it's just not reliable. 

 

This is more a you thing , are you ok with the performance you get or no?

 

if no, then its very likely the cpu holding you back (generally this isnt really a recommended combo)

 

10th gen intel and up or a ryzen 3600 and up would be probably appropriate. 

 

edit: see below,  you're 8700k is probably pretty similar to those,  so it should be ok.

[cmndr]

4 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

10th gen intel and up or a ryzen 3600 and up would be probably appropriate. 

8th gen and 10th gen intel are the same design more or less.

 

The 8700k is very similar to the 10600k. 

[Mark Kaine]

24 minutes ago, cmndr said:

8th gen and 10th gen intel are the same design more or less.

 

The 8700k is very similar to the 10600k. 

hmm, i see, looked it up,  and you're right... they're pretty similar,  so there isn't really a big bottleneck if at all, right? (i mean for the majority of games) 

[cmndr]

56 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

hmm, i see, looked it up,  and you're right... they're pretty similar,  so there isn't really a big bottleneck if at all, right? (i mean for the majority of games) 

It'll vary by title and even the scene in the title. 

OP says he's playing at 2K, which I assume is 1440p so I found a benchmark outlining "overall" performance across a handful of games with a 3090 at 1440p. 

The average frame rate is 120 and the 1% low is 89FPS, which is "fine" though his GPU is about 35% slower than a 3090 so he'll have a little bit of a loss from 120. The gap between CPUs will mostly shrink though. 

----

 

Most of the time people don't need to worry about CPU bottlenecking. Yes it's a thing but in practice unless you're really cranking the settings down and gunning for max frame rate it doesn't matter that much unless you're really into Factorio (get a 5800x3D then or wait for the Zen4 3dVcache chips). In nearly all cases the GPU is the thing that NEEDS upgrading.  

 

The usual rule of thumb for gaming is "get the i5/r5 and then dump $$$ into the GPU" and that's mostly worked. If you have some cash to burn and want a bit better multitasking then there's a value in going for a few more cores. If you're in AMD land it might even be worth it to go a bit lower and to then upgrade the CPU in 3ish years to something better. 

[QuantumSingularity]

Well you actually kinda missed the window for cheap upgrades. There were great deals on both Intel and AMD cpus last week, but prices are now steadily going up. Going into 2023 i don't expect them to fall... actually i expect quite the opposite. Manufacturing is slowly turning away from China and is bound to become more expensive.  

As for the GPUs, it all depends on how RDNA 3 is gonna launch and the new low we can expect with crypto. If the predictions for $10k BTC towards the end of December turn out to be true (so far everything is exactly on point as predicted), then expect A TON of ultra cheap GPUs, which will cause even the new prices to be cut severely. But i wouldn't bother upgrading the 3070Ti yet, only the CPU. Everything before 10th gen is properly old. Like trying to keep an 80s car running as a daily driver today - it can do the job, but not without serious hustle. 

[Ebony Falcon]

I went from 5 ghz 8700k to a 13600k and sufferance was massive in gaming even at 1440p