Is my CPU or GPU a bottleneck?

[Faruko]

So, this might not be the best location for it but I'm honestly stumped on which subforum to post this in. I'm hoping that someone in this forum has experience with my so called "problem". Anyway, long story short, I built a PC around end 2018 early 2019 and it has served me well up till now but I was wondering if my CPU or GPU is being bottlenecked. Here are the specs of my machine.

• Motherboard: MSI MPG Z390 GAMING PRO CARBON
• CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700K
• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Royal 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 Memory @ 3600MHz
• GPU: Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Ultra W OC 8G-V (used to be a GALAX RTX2080 EX (1-Click OC) 8GB VRAM GDDR6 until a peculiar issue occurred where if I had 3 monitors plugged in and played specific games, I'd get a no signal after a random period of time and need a hard reboot. Machine still worked, just no display period.)
• OS Drive: Corsair Force MP510 480GB M.2 NVMe SSD
• Game Drive 1: Kingston SSDNow 480GB SATAIII SSD
• Windows Game Drive 2: Kingston A400 960GB SATAIII SSD (Yes it's DRAMless I know but I was on an extremely tight budget)
• Windows Storage Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB Hard Disk Drive @ 7200rpm
• PSU: Cooler Master V1000 1000W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply

So I guess this brings me to my "issue" so to speak. I have been running a triple monitor setup for pretty much since the start of this PC's lifespan. However, by triple monitor setup, I mean I just have 3 monitors cause I want more screen real estate, not that I'm into surround panel gaming. I have a BenQ EL2870U 28" 4K 60Hz monitor for my casual games, a Acer Predator XB252Q 24.5" 1080p 240Hz monitor for the competitive games (eg Valorant, CoD MWII, etc. Basically games that require aim) and finally an AOC G2460PQU 24.5" 1080p 144Hz monitor that I put in portrait mode running at 60Hz for Discord only. I've read some conflicting information online saying that the more monitors plugged in, the lower the FPS with some saying there's no noticeable difference and others saying there's quite a large difference. My questions are as follows:

1. Since I'm running 3 monitors with widely different resolutions, how much FPS am I losing in games like Valorant and Call of Duty Modern Warfare II?
2. If I am losing FPS, can I regain them by just turning off the other monitors while I'm playing? Or do they have to be unplugged to take effect?
3. Finally, is either my CPU or GPU a bottleneck? If so, how much of a bottleneck am I looking at and do I need to replace anything urgently?

Please feel free to ask any further questions you may need to. I'll respond pretty much within 5-15 minutes as long as it's at a reasonable hour. My timezone is GMT+8. Thanks for everyone's time to read this long winded post.

[2PC21]

1 minute ago, Faruko said:

So, this might not be the best location for it but I'm honestly stumped on which subforum to post this in. I'm hoping that someone in this forum has experience with my so called "problem". Anyway, long story short, I built a PC around end 2018 early 2019 and it has served me well up till now but I was wondering if my CPU or GPU is being bottlenecked. Here are the specs of my machine.

• Motherboard: MSI MPG Z390 GAMING PRO CARBON
• CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700K
• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Royal 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 Memory @ 3600MHz
• GPU: Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Ultra W OC 8G-V (used to be a GALAX RTX2080 EX (1-Click OC) 8GB VRAM GDDR6 until a peculiar issue occurred where if I had 3 monitors plugged in and played specific games, I'd get a no signal after a random period of time and need a hard reboot. Machine still worked, just no display period.)
• OS Drive: Corsair Force MP510 480GB M.2 NVMe SSD
• Game Drive 1: Kingston SSDNow 480GB SATAIII SSD
• Windows Game Drive 2: Kingston A400 960GB SATAIII SSD (Yes it's DRAMless I know but I was on an extremely tight budget)
• Windows Storage Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB Hard Disk Drive @ 7200rpm
• PSU: Cooler Master V1000 1000W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply

So I guess this brings me to my "issue" so to speak. I have been running a triple monitor setup for pretty much since the start of this PC's lifespan. However, by triple monitor setup, I mean I just have 3 monitors cause I want more screen real estate, not that I'm into surround panel gaming. I have a BenQ EL2870U 28" 4K 60Hz monitor for my casual games, a Acer Predator XB252Q 24.5" 1080p 240Hz monitor for the competitive games (eg Valorant, CoD MWII, etc. Basically games that require aim) and finally an AOC G2460PQU 24.5" 1080p 144Hz monitor that I put in portrait mode running at 60Hz for Discord only. I've read some conflicting information online saying that the more monitors plugged in, the lower the FPS with some saying there's no noticeable difference and others saying there's quite a large difference. My questions are as follows:

1. Since I'm running 3 monitors with widely different resolutions, how much FPS am I losing in games like Valorant and Call of Duty Modern Warfare II?
2. If I am losing FPS, can I regain them by just turning off the other monitors while I'm playing? Or do they have to be unplugged to take effect?
3. Finally, is either my CPU or GPU a bottleneck? If so, how much of a bottleneck am I looking at and do I need to replace anything urgently?

Please feel free to ask any further questions you may need to. I'll respond pretty much within 5-15 minutes as long as it's at a reasonable hour. My timezone is GMT+8. Thanks for everyone's time to read this long winded post.

it would be a cpu bottleneck atm

as for the monitors id say not awhole lot but id unplug them or turn them off till you hear windows disable them

[Faruko]

Just now, 2PC21 said:

it would be a cpu bottleneck atm

as for the monitors id say not awhole lot but id unplug them or turn them off till you hear windows disable them

How much of a CPU bottleneck are we talking about here? Is it noticeable (like over 5% or under)?

[2PC21]

7 minutes ago, Faruko said:

How much of a CPU bottleneck are we talking about here? Is it noticeable (like over 5% or under)?

round about 15% -17 % so not abunch but a bit

[2PC21]

8 minutes ago, 2PC21 said:

it would be a cpu bottleneck atm

as for the monitors id say not awhole lot but id unplug them or turn them off till you hear windows disable them

i have a pretty big bottleneck myself

10400 308012gb

[Faruko]

Just now, 2PC21 said:

round about 15% -17 % so not abunch but a bit

Wow 15-17%? That seems like a lot. Just to clarify, I'm only concerned about bottlenecks for 1080p since that's where I need the most FPS. Is it 15-17% of a performance loss on 1080p gaming?

[Vishera]

10 minutes ago, Faruko said:

Since I'm running 3 monitors with widely different resolutions, how much FPS am I losing in games like Valorant and Call of Duty Modern Warfare II?

You are losing a lot.

10 minutes ago, Faruko said:

If I am losing FPS, can I regain them by just turning off the other monitors while I'm playing? Or do they have to be unplugged to take effect?

Just configure the game to use only one monitor.

12 minutes ago, Faruko said:

Finally, is either my CPU or GPU a bottleneck? If so, how much of a bottleneck am I looking at and do I need to replace anything urgently?

What is the the GPU usage during gameplay?

[2PC21]

Just now, Faruko said:

Wow 15-17%? That seems like a lot. Just to clarify, I'm only concerned about bottlenecks for 1080p since that's where I need the most FPS. Is it 15-17% of a performance loss on 1080p gaming?

yes for 1080p

[Faruko]

Just now, Vishera said:

Just configure the game to use only one monitor.

The game is configured to only use 1 monitor yes.

 

1 minute ago, Vishera said:

What is the the GPU usage during gameplay?

Haven't checked recently but I know on Valorant it doesn't really get much use. I haven't checked for CoD MWII though.

[Vishera]

Just now, Faruko said:

Wow 15-17%? That seems like a lot. Just to clarify, I'm only concerned about bottlenecks for 1080p since that's where I need the most FPS. Is it 15-17% of a performance loss on 1080p gaming?

It's possible that there is no bottleneck, It depends on the GPU usage.

As long as the GPU usage is at 90% and above it's fine.

[Faruko]

Just now, Vishera said:

It's possible that there is no bottleneck, It depends on the GPU usage.

As long as the GPU usage is at 90% and above it's fine.

The GPU is definitely about 90% for sure in Modern Warfare II. The exact number I'm not sure. I'll have to check

[Vishera]

Just now, Faruko said:

The game is configured to only use 1 monitor yes.

 

Haven't checked recently but I know on Valorant it doesn't really get much use. I haven't checked for CoD MWII though.

Check it with MSI Afterburner OSD.

[Faruko]

2 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Check it with MSI Afterburner OSD.

It jumps between 83%-100% depending on what's on screen. In the Shipment map it's pretty much stuck at 100% but without intense firefights, it's lowest usage is 83%

[Dukesilver27-]

2 or 3 monitors won't affect your level of hardware.

As for CPU bottleneck, depends on the game and resolution. Since you play in 4K, I doubt there's bottleneck for games that are GPU intensive.

3070 Ti is a 1440p GPU anyway, so in 4K it might not be performing well therefore the weak CPU won't bottleneck it.

If CPU intensive however, like CSGO, there might be a slight bottleneck.

[Vishera]

5 minutes ago, Faruko said:

It jumps between 83%-100% depending on what's on screen. In the Shipment map it's pretty much stuck at 100% but without intense firefights, it's lowest usage is 83%

How often does it dip below 90%?

[Faruko]

Just now, Dukesilver27- said:

2 or 3 monitors won't affect your level of hardware.

As for CPU bottleneck, depends on the game and resolution. Since you play in 4K, I doubt there's bottleneck for games that are GPU intensive.

3070 Ti is a 1440p GPU anyway, so in 4K it might not be performing well therefore the weak CPU won't bottleneck it.

If CPU intensive however, like CSGO, there might be a slight bottleneck.

Haven't played CSGO in a long time and even if I do return, I don't think there's a problem there since I can get well over 240fps. I believe Valorant should be CPU intensive, or at least it doesn't use much GPU power if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty okay with the level of performance in Valorant but I was wondering if I could get more fps in MWII

[Faruko]

2 minutes ago, Vishera said:

How often does it dip below 90%?

Usually only right at the beginning of a match when everyone loads in and no fighting starts yet. Or if I deliberately find a quiet area in that giant Taraq map

[Vishera]

Just now, Faruko said:

Usually only right at the beginning of a match when everyone loads in and no fighting starts yet. Or if I deliberately find a quiet area in that giant Taraq map

Seems like a mild case of bottleneck.

Overclocking the CPU should help.

[Dukesilver27-]

1 minute ago, Faruko said:

Haven't played CSGO in a long time and even if I do return, I don't think there's a problem there since I can get well over 240fps. I believe Valorant should be CPU intensive, or at least it doesn't use much GPU power if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty okay with the level of performance in Valorant but I was wondering if I could get more fps in MWII

Ah MWII, well, online games usually are optimized for 4-6 cores, therefore having faster single core performance would be more beneficial.

That said, 9700K might bottleneck 3070 Ti a bit, and OCing the CPU or getting a faster CPU would definitely give you more FPS.

[Faruko]

3 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Seems like a mild case of bottleneck.

Overclocking the CPU should help.

 

2 minutes ago, Dukesilver27- said:

Ah MWII, well, online games usually are optimized for 4-6 cores, therefore having faster single core performance would be more beneficial.

That said, 9700K might bottleneck 3070 Ti a bit, and OCing the CPU or getting a faster CPU would definitely give you more FPS.

Hmm... I see... If I were to replace the CPU (which would mean a new motherboard and potentially DDR5 RAM), what would I be looking at for an upgrade? 12th Gen? Ryzen 5000? I am a bit concerned with OC since I don't have much overhead with the cooler I have on right now

Edited January 29, 2023 by Faruko

[Vishera]

11 minutes ago, Faruko said:

Hmm... I see... If I were to replace the CPU (which would mean a new motherboard and potentially DDR5 RAM), what would I be looking at for an upgrade? 12th Gen? Ryzen 5000? I am a bit concerned with OC since I don't have much overhead with the cooler I have on right now

I would recommend Intel 13th gen or Ryzen 7000.

[Faruko]

1 minute ago, Vishera said:

I would recommend Intel 13th gen or Ryzen 7000.

While the 13th gen or Ryzen 7000 might be the best option, unfortunately for my country, PC component prices are kinda whack. I'd like to replace as little parts as possible. If I were to switch to 13th gen or Ryzen 7000, I'd need DDR5 RAM. Unfortunately, DDR5 RAM would be extremely expensive on top of a CPU and motherboard replacement

[Vishera]

4 minutes ago, Faruko said:

While the 13th gen or Ryzen 7000 might be the best option, unfortunately for my country, PC component prices are kinda whack. I'd like to replace as little parts as possible. If I were to switch to 13th gen or Ryzen 7000, I'd need DDR5 RAM. Unfortunately, DDR5 RAM would be extremely expensive on top of a CPU and motherboard replacement

There are LGA 1700 motherboards with DDR4 support for 13th gen.

[will0hlep]

Are you actually getting performance issues? are you noticing hitching or stuttering? Cause tbh it sounds like your setup is fine and you shouldn't fix what ain't broken.

[Vishera]

5 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

Are you actually getting performance issues? are you noticing hitching or stuttering? Cause tbh it sounds like your setup is fine and you shouldn't fix what ain't broken.

It's a mild case of bottleneck, nothing serious.