Bottleneck Concerns

[Norri_Rad]

I'm planning on getting a new gpu soon, but I don't want to overshoot on performance because I think my cpu will bottleneck if I go too high-end. My cpu is the i7-10700F. My top 3 picks for a gpu right now are the RX 6700 XT, the RX 6750 XT, or the RTX 3060 TI if the prices drop after the release of the 4060 series. I'm heavily leaning towards the 6700 XT or 6750 XT because the price to performance just seems better than the 3060 TI. According to pc-builds' bottleneck calculator, the 6700 XT would be a good pair for my cpu with just a little bottleneck on cpu intensive games. The 6750 XT, however, shows more of a bottleneck all around. I'm wondering if that's something I should really be concerned about, or if I should just get the 6750 XT for the extra power if the price is right. Someone smarter than me please help, thanks!

[FI Fheonix]

2 minutes ago, Norri_Rad said:

I'm planning on getting a new gpu soon, but I don't want to overshoot on performance because I think my cpu will bottleneck if I go too high-end. My cpu is the i7-10700F. My top 3 picks for a gpu right now are the RX 6700 XT, the RX 6750 XT, or the RTX 3060 TI if the prices drop after the release of the 4060 series. I'm heavily leaning towards the 6700 XT or 6750 XT because the price to performance just seems better than the 3060 TI. According to pc-builds' bottleneck calculator, the 6700 XT would be a good pair for my cpu with just a little bottleneck on cpu intensive games. The 6750 XT, however, shows more of a bottleneck all around. I'm wondering if that's something I should really be concerned about, or if I should just get the 6750 XT for the extra power if the price is right. Someone smarter than me please help, thanks!

Bottleneck calculators aren't always accurate, just for your information. However, I would recommend the 6700XT I don't think it will be that big of bottleneck... 

[xAcid9]

Depend on what games you play imo. 
What is your RAM configuration?

[filpo]

4 minutes ago, Norri_Rad said:

I'm planning on getting a new gpu soon, but I don't want to overshoot on performance because I think my cpu will bottleneck if I go too high-end. My cpu is the i7-10700F. My top 3 picks for a gpu right now are the RX 6700 XT, the RX 6750 XT, or the RTX 3060 TI if the prices drop after the release of the 4060 series. I'm heavily leaning towards the 6700 XT or 6750 XT because the price to performance just seems better than the 3060 TI. According to pc-builds' bottleneck calculator, the 6700 XT would be a good pair for my cpu with just a little bottleneck on cpu intensive games. The 6750 XT, however, shows more of a bottleneck all around. I'm wondering if that's something I should really be concerned about, or if I should just get the 6750 XT for the extra power if the price is right. Someone smarter than me please help, thanks!

The 6750 xt is just a light oc over the 6700 xt. Also bottleneck calculators are terrible. It’s based on game so can be decisive on game. I would get the 6700 xt but you wouldn’t have a bottleneck either way

[will0hlep]

If your current GPU isn't bottlenecked (it shouldn't be) and If your planning to upgrade your CPU within the life time of the new GPU, I would ignore bottlenecks entirely and just buy the best gpu in your budget cause you can always unlock the previously bottlenecked performance later.

@PriitM who wrote the post below makes a very good point. With Vram requirements sky rocketing right now it's better to buy a better (but bottlenecked) card with lots of vram than it is to buy a worse (but not bottlenecked) card, because the better card will stay relevent longer. (also, better bottlenecked card will still perform just as well (or better) than a worse non bottlenecked card. A bottleneck is a limit on performance, not a penalty to performance.)

[PriitM]

Only thing you will see is a minor asset loading time. The so called "bottle necks" occur when the application (in your case game) is dependent on CPU features to decode/decompress assets. In most scenarios, you wont see anything more than a few % difference. I would over speck GPU regardless, it will help very much in the long run when you decide to upgrade your CPU

[cmndr]

For most game titles, your video card will be the bottleneck. You shouldn't worry about CPU bottlenecking unless you run a bunch of things in the background AND/OR you have very specific use cases that you know are CPU dependant AND/OR you're in the $1000+ on a GPU category. 

A lot of the "you need a fast CPU" mentality is from 1996. At that point in time A LOT of the video rendering pipeline was done on the CPU. It's been nearly 30 years and the mentality is still kind of going for some crazy reason. 
Like.... don't spend $50 on your CPU and $1500 on the video card... but here and now a $100ish CPU will get you most of the way to where a $700 CPU is. 


For laughs, let's assume that the demands on a 

3060Ti at 1440p are similar to a 3080 at 4K.... 

In this case the 10700k is getting 97% of the performance of the 13900k
Just be aware that YMMV based on use case.

Factorio LOVES certain CPUs. CSGO will hit 200 FPS run on a potato. 

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i9-13900k/20.html

 

[Norri_Rad]

14 minutes ago, xAcid9 said:

Depend on what games you play imo. 
What is your RAM configuration?

16gb ddr4. It only runs at 2133 mhz. Will that hold back a more powerful gpu?

[SteveGrabowski0]

32 minutes ago, Norri_Rad said:

16gb ddr4. It only runs at 2133 mhz. Will that hold back a more powerful gpu?

That's pretty slow RAM. I just bought a 32GB Corsair Vengeance CAS 16 DDR4-3200 kit for $69 last month and Best Buy and Amazon both have that kit for $65 right now:

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/corsair-vengeance-lpx-cmk32gx4m2e3200c16-32gb-2pk-x-16gb-3200mhz-ddr4-c16-dimm-desktop-memory-black/6448611.p?skuId=6448611

 

Though I bought DDR4-3200 because I'm using a locked processor (i5-12400F) and the memory controller can't run DDR4-3600 without crashes in Gear 1 (eg full speed on the memory controller) since I can't up the voltage to the memory controller on a locked chip. So you might be able to go DDR4-3600 fine with an unlocked chip.

 

Anyways, RAM is dirt cheap right now so might as well get how much you think you'll need for the life of the system. I'd just buy a new 32GB kit rather than mix fast RAM and slow RAM to run at slow RAM speeds. Your cpu is plenty for a 6750 XT, no worries about bottlenecks with an unlocked 10th gen i7.

[Norri_Rad]

2 minutes ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

That's pretty slow RAM. I just bought a 32GB Corsair Vengeance CAS 16 DDR4-3200 kit for $69 last month and Best Buy and Amazon both have that kit for $65 right now:

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/corsair-vengeance-lpx-cmk32gx4m2e3200c16-32gb-2pk-x-16gb-3200mhz-ddr4-c16-dimm-desktop-memory-black/6448611.p?skuId=6448611

 

Though I bought DDR4-3200 because I'm using a locked processor (i5-12400F) and the memory controller can't run DDR4-3600 without crashes in Gear 1 (eg full speed on the memory controller) since I can't up the voltage to the memory controller on a locked chip. So you might be able to go DDR4-3600 fine with an unlocked chip.

 

Anyways, RAM is dirt cheap right now so might as well get how much you think you'll need for the life of the system. I'd just buy a new 32GB kit rather than mix fast RAM and slow RAM to run at slow RAM speeds. Your cpu is plenty for a 6750 XT, no worries about bottlenecks with an unlocked 10th gen i7.

I was pretty sure my RAM could run faster than that. Maybe something else is holding it back, but idk. I just looked it up and my motherboard can support up to 3600 mhz. I think maybe my cpu only support like 2933 mhz or something. That's obviously still significantly better than the 2133 it's currently running at. So maybe I'll just grab some 3200 mhz RAM so it runs at its max. Thoughts?

[SteveGrabowski0]

9 minutes ago, Norri_Rad said:

I was pretty sure my RAM could run faster than that. Maybe something else is holding it back, but idk. I just looked it up and my motherboard can support up to 3600 mhz. I think maybe my cpu only support like 2933 mhz or something. That's obviously still significantly better than the 2133 it's currently running at. So maybe I'll just grab some 3200 mhz RAM so it runs at its max. Thoughts?

3200 is really cheap right now so that's probably the way I'd go, especially if I just wanted to turn on the XMP profile and forget it. And definitely go for 32GB as 16GB is starting to get outdated and DDR4 is just so cheap right now no reason not to. For instance The Last of Us Part 1 was nearly maxing out my 16GB of system RAM with everything else closed before I upgraded to 32GB last month.

[Norri_Rad]

1 minute ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

3200 is really cheap right now so that's probably the way I'd go, especially if I just wanted to turn on the XMP profile and forget it. And definitely go for 32GB as 16GB is starting to get outdated and DDR4 is just so cheap right now no reason not to. For instance The Last of Us Part 1 was nearly maxing out my 16GB of system RAM with everything else closed before I upgraded to 32GB last month.

Sweet thanks! I'll do that. Quick question though: what does the XMP profile do?

[SteveGrabowski0]

54 minutes ago, Norri_Rad said:

Sweet thanks! I'll do that. Quick question though: what does the XMP profile do?

You just set the xmp profile in your bios for an automatic ram overclock based on the speed the ram has been validated for. If you don't all ddr4 will run 2133 speed.

[Norri_Rad]

7 minutes ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

You just set the xmp profile in your bios for an automatic ram overclock based on the speed the ram has been validated for. If you don't all ddr4 will run 2133 speed.

Lol ok after checking the bios I in fact did not have my xmp profile enabled, so now it's running at 3000 mhz. That's definitely helpful. I'll still consider a ram upgrade just because it's so cheap right now so it'd be a good time to jump up to 32gb, but it's not as dire as I thought.