CPU Bottleneck

[Zetsumei]

Hello!

I recently upgraded from a 3070 to a 5070 Ti but noticed high CPU usage and low GPU usage in some games. My CPU is a Ryzen 9 5900X, and upgrading would pretty much mean building a new system. My target resolution is 3440x1440.

I'm interested in hearing what others would do in this situation and any upgrade suggestions.

Here’s a quick parts list I put together to get an idea of cost: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/sFL3Dj

 

[TatamiMatt]

16 minutes ago, Zetsumei said:

Hello!

I recently upgraded from a 3070 to a 5070 Ti but noticed high CPU usage and low GPU usage in some games. My CPU is a Ryzen 9 5900X, and upgrading would pretty much mean building a new system. My target resolution is 3440x1440.

I'm interested in hearing what others would do in this situation and any upgrade suggestions.

Here’s a quick parts list I put together to get an idea of cost: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/sFL3Dj

 

Widescreen 1440p is almost 50% more pixels than standard 16:9 1440p, with a 5900X you shouldnt really be bottlenecking as its such a high resolution with a 5070Ti. What are your other current specs? What games are you playing to get this? What framerates are you hitting in these games? And what is the usage of both with a bit more accuracy than high/low?

 

also just for reference

MUCH cheaper version of your build while sacrificing almost nothing, ive reduced RAM to 32GB, unless you specifically need 64GB for anything, 32 is plenty. I.e. If youre like, on the fence, youre not sure if youll need 64GB for...just something, then you probably dont. Generally people who need 64GB or higher know why they need it. And its quite a bit of money saving to go for 32gb instead, cheaper than half the price.

Also ive gone for cost saving, which means ive taken out most if not all rgb for cost saving priority, if youd like the RGB added back in i can rejig it

 

£610 of cost saving, just to give you the exact number

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor  (£333.17 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  (£33.00 @ Computer Orbit) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard  (£123.95 @ AWD-IT) 
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (£85.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Silicon Power UD90 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (£186.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: Lian Li O11D EVO RGB ATX Mid Tower Case  (£139.99 @ AWD-IT) 
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£111.99 @ Box Limited) 
Total: £1015.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-08 12:07 BST+0100

[venomtail]

Sure, 5900X might not be the fastest CPU but it's not really gonna be a bottleneck at 1440p. Only is if you have a 4090/5090.

 

When you say your target resolution is 1440p, does that mean you're yet to be at 1440p? At 1080p, yea, I can see how a 5900X could struggle to keep up.

[YoungBlade]

What sort of games are you playing, what settings are you using, and what framerate are you trying to achieve?

 

The 5900X can play basically anything at 60fps+, but if you are turning down settings and using DLSS to try to push really high framerates, it's going to struggle to keep up with a 5070 Ti. I can even be CPU limited with my 5900X, and I've only got a 9060 XT, but I always get over 100fps in anything I've tried dialing down settings on. I just can't always max out my 170Hz monitor.

[Zetsumei]

Thanks for the replies

22 hours ago, YoungBlade said:

What sort of games are you playing, what settings are you using, and what framerate are you trying to achieve?

 

The 5900X can play basically anything at 60fps+, but if you are turning down settings and using DLSS to try to push really high framerates, it's going to struggle to keep up with a 5070 Ti. I can even be CPU limited with my 5900X, and I've only got a 9060 XT, but I always get over 100fps in anything I've tried dialing down settings on. I just can't always max out my 170Hz monitor.

I think this might be it, i'm not aware of how the CPU affects high frame rate, I'm not getting low frame rate, 80-100s but i was expecting high frame rates maybe 200s but i might be expecting too much form some games. This also explains why I'm seeing a fps limit in CS2.
 

23 hours ago, venomtail said:

Sure, 5900X might not be the fastest CPU but it's not really gonna be a bottleneck at 1440p. Only is if you have a 4090/5090.

 

When you say your target resolution is 1440p, does that mean you're yet to be at 1440p? At 1080p, yea, I can see how a 5900X could struggle to keep up.

Sorry i worded that weirdly, i have a Alienware AW3423DWF monitor
 

On 8/8/2025 at 12:01 PM, TatamiMatt said:

Widescreen 1440p is almost 50% more pixels than standard 16:9 1440p, with a 5900X you shouldnt really be bottlenecking as its such a high resolution with a 5070Ti. What are your other current specs? What games are you playing to get this? What framerates are you hitting in these games? And what is the usage of both with a bit more accuracy than high/low?

Around 80s -100s depending on the game, i was expecting a lot more but maybe what YoungBlade said about DLSS trying to force more frames.
The games I've tried with are probably shouldn't count at all Star Citizen where the game isn't waiting on the GPU at all, but there is no performance difference between the 3070 and 5070ti for that game so i think i should just ignore it. 
CS2 i was messing with the setting and the most i could get was a bit over 200 frames average

I'll see if i can get some other actual benchmarks run and see what comes back maybe my expectation of a new GPU doesn't hope up as it used to.
 

On 8/8/2025 at 12:01 PM, TatamiMatt said:

MUCH cheaper version of your build while sacrificing almost nothing, ive reduced RAM to 32GB, unless you specifically need 64GB for anything, 32 is plenty. I.e. If youre like, on the fence, youre not sure if youll need 64GB for...just something, then you probably dont. Generally people who need 64GB or higher know why they need it. And its quite a bit of money saving to go for 32gb instead, cheaper than half the price.

Also ive gone for cost saving, which means ive taken out most if not all rgb for cost saving priority, if youd like the RGB added back in i can rejig it

 

£610 of cost saving, just to give you the exact number

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor  (£333.17 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  (£33.00 @ Computer Orbit) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard  (£123.95 @ AWD-IT) 
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (£85.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Silicon Power UD90 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (£186.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: Lian Li O11D EVO RGB ATX Mid Tower Case  (£139.99 @ AWD-IT) 
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£111.99 @ Box Limited) 
Total: £1015.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-08 12:07 BST+0100

Thanks for this that really helpful, only game that i play that would use 64GB is StarCitizen, i didn't release how much RGB adds to pricing

[TatamiMatt]

On 8/9/2025 at 12:27 PM, Zetsumei said:

Thanks for the replies

I think this might be it, i'm not aware of how the CPU affects high frame rate, I'm not getting low frame rate, 80-100s but i was expecting high frame rates maybe 200s but i might be expecting too much form some games. This also explains why I'm seeing a fps limit in CS2.
 

Sorry i worded that weirdly, i have a Alienware AW3423DWF monitor
 

Around 80s -100s depending on the game, i was expecting a lot more but maybe what YoungBlade said about DLSS trying to force more frames.
The games I've tried with are probably shouldn't count at all Star Citizen where the game isn't waiting on the GPU at all, but there is no performance difference between the 3070 and 5070ti for that game so i think i should just ignore it. 
CS2 i was messing with the setting and the most i could get was a bit over 200 frames average

I'll see if i can get some other actual benchmarks run and see what comes back maybe my expectation of a new GPU doesn't hope up as it used to.
 

Thanks for this that really helpful, only game that i play that would use 64GB is StarCitizen, i didn't release how much RGB adds to pricing

Its not so much the RGB, you could probably still get like over £500 of saving when adding the RGB back in, you just have to know which components etc to look for that are good price to performance and arent high on the named brand tax