Time to upgrade my CPU?

[wuchief]

So I recently bought an FX 8350 and I'm planning on upgrading my GPU to a 980. Do I have to worry about any sort of bottleneck from my 8350 or should I drop some money on an Intel-compatible board and an i5/i7? I know that my current CPU will limit my 980 by a little bit, but is it worth spending more money on a new motherboard and GPU? Would the upgrade of the CPU make THAT much of a difference?

[spartaman64]

it depends on the games you are running

[wuchief]

Plan on running newer games at 4K

[itachipirate]

Plan on running newer games at 4K

At 4k you won't see much of a CPU bottleneck. Get the 980 and check your GPU usage

[DavidHawk62]

I wouldn't think you'd be bottlenecking a single 980, the 8350 is still a great CPU, and if you somehow are bottlenecking it I doubt it'd be by much.

[wuchief]

Thank you! When would be a good time to potentially switch over to an intel CPU? I know its mostly opinion based.

[Fluffinator]

My friends GTX 970 getts bottlenecked on that same CPU, and it stutters like mad once his cpu gets going so.. highly highly dought it. My i7 4770k has a hard time keeping up with my 980... so will be a huge bottleneck. You should switch over to a intel CPU.

[DarkEnergy]

Thank you! When would be a good time to potentially switch over to an intel CPU? I know its mostly opinion based.

If you want to make the most out of the CPU, I personally would only upgrade when I notice performance degration that effects doing important tasks or what is important to you.

[wuchief]

My friends GTX 970 getts bottlenecked on that same CPU, and it stutters like mad once his cpu gets going so.. highly highly dought it. My i7 4770k has a hard time keeping up with my 980... so will be a huge bottleneck. You should switch over to a intel CPU.

If i bought a processor, it would be the i7 4770k. I just bought the 8350 the other month without really thinking. Would the switch from an 8350 be that significant? I would have to buy a new mobo and the i7. Would the performance upgrade really justify spending another 400 dollhairs?

[incarnate]

My friends GTX 970 getts bottlenecked on that same CPU, and it stutters like mad once his cpu gets going so.. highly highly dought it. My i7 4770k has a hard time keeping up with my 980... so will be a huge bottleneck. You should switch over to a intel CPU.

 

is your friend playing at 1080p? 4k resolution puts a higher burden on the gpu for each frame rendered. the bottleneck stems from the cpu not being able to feed instructions for the next frame fast enough. in any situation where the cpu is the bottleneck, increasing the resolution decreases the bottleneck because the gpu has to work harder for each frame. stuttering though is caused by dips in minimum framerates and the OP might get those as well, but at 4k he'd be fine with a 980 and only see a slight bottleneck if any at all.

[incarnate]

If i bought a processor, it would be the i7 4770k. I just bought the 8350 the other month without really thinking. Would the switch from an 8350 be that significant? I would have to buy a new mobo and the i7. Would the performance upgrade really justify spending another 400 dollhairs?

 

honestly, get the 980, play at 4k and decide. high detail settings will limit you to around 30 fps anyway on a single 980 and the 8350 can certainly keep up with that framerate. if you dial back the settings to get 60 fps you might start seeing slight bottlenecking. so try it with the 980 first, then see if you'd rather spend money on a new cpu and mobo. also unless you are doing heavy multithreading get the 4690k. you'd see NO benefit from an i7 if all you do is game.

[wuchief]

honestly, get the 980, play at 4k and decide. high detail settings will limit you to around 30 fps anyway on a single 980 and the 8350 can certainly keep up with that framerate. if you dial back the settings to get 60 fps you might start seeing slight bottlenecking. so try it with the 980 first, then see if you'd rather spend money on a new cpu and mobo. also unless you are doing heavy multithreading get the 4690k. you'd see NO benefit from an i7 if all you do is game.

Thank you for the help!

[incarnate]

Thank you for the help!

 

no problem

[Fluffinator]

If i bought a processor, it would be the i7 4770k. I just bought the 8350 the other month without really thinking. Would the switch from an 8350 be that significant? I would have to buy a new mobo and the i7. Would the performance upgrade really justify spending another 400 dollhairs?

I love my i7 4770k, and it's a huge stepup.. my friend is switching his out too, the FX series arn't very good for gaming as we all know. As the single core performance is awful and that's what you need for gaming of course. I would even say a 970 and sli later and get a better CPU if you need the money.

[Fluffinator]

honestly, get the 980, play at 4k and decide. high detail settings will limit you to around 30 fps anyway on a single 980 and the 8350 can certainly keep up with that framerate. if you dial back the settings to get 60 fps you might start seeing slight bottlenecking. so try it with the 980 first, then see if you'd rather spend money on a new cpu and mobo. also unless you are doing heavy multithreading get the 4690k. you'd see NO benefit from an i7 if all you do is game.

that doesn't make sense though, and yes he plays at 1080p. The bottleneck wouldn't decease..it would increase.. do you have a 4k display? just wondering because when I play with 4k settings it wrecks my cpu.

[wuchief]

I love my i7 4770k, and it's a huge stepup.. my friend is switching his out too, the FX series arn't very good for gaming as we all know. As the single core performance is awful and that's what you need for gaming of course. I would even say a 970 and sli later and get a better CPU if you need the money.>

To be honest money isn't much of an issue, but i would rather not spend half a grand for 10 extra FPS if u catch my drift (but then again i am buying a 980>970)

[Fluffinator]

To be honest money isn't much of an issue, but i would rather not spend half a grand for 10 extra FPS if u catch my drift (but then again i am buying a 980>970)

Well it would be a real shame to use that cpu and a 980, wouldn't make any sense to me, and if your gonna be playing in 4k..it would be madness to not have a good cpu would completely deplete the purpose of buying a high end gpu!

[incarnate]

that doesn't make sense though, and yes he plays at 1080p. The bottleneck wouldn't decease..it would increase.. do you have a 4k display? just wondering because when I play with 4k settings it wrecks my cpu.

 

it makes sense when you realize what a cpu bottlenecking a graphics card actually means. the cpu's work that it needs to process never changes based on resolution (ai, physics etc.). its other job is feeding the graphics card with instructions so it can render the frames. the graphics card takes longer to render frames when settings/resolutions are higher so it doesn't need to be fed new instructions as often. the graphics card has to work harder on every single frame so its usage goes up while producing the same, or lower frame rate.

 

cpus bottlenecking graphics card has more to do with frame rate rather than settings and resolutions. the higher the frame rate the more work the cpu has to do to feed the graphics card. if the graphics card doesn't need to be fed as often and works harder on each frame, the graphics card usage goes up thus reducing the bottleneck.

 

keep in the definition of a bottleneck. The cpu running at or close to 100% with the gpu significantly lower.

[Fluffinator]

it makes sense when you realize what a cpu bottlenecking a graphics card actually means. the cpu's work that it needs to process never changes based on resolution (ai, physics etc.). its other job is feeding the graphics card with instructions so it can render the frames. the graphics card takes longer to render frames when settings/resolutions are higher so it doesn't need to be fed new instructions as often. the graphics card has to work harder on every single frame so its usage goes up while producing the same, or lower frame rate.

 

cpus bottlenecking graphics card has more to do with frame rate rather than settings and resolutions. the higher the frame rate the more work the cpu has to do to feed the graphics card. if the graphics card doesn't need to be fed as often and works harder on each frame, the graphics card usage goes up thus reducing the bottleneck.

 

keep in the definition of a bottleneck. The cpu running at or close to 100% with the gpu significantly lower.

Not true! it creates a bigger bottleneck. Higher resolution means more strain on the CPU, when I turn on 4k my cpu usage goes up aswell. Same type of thing with watching or playing videos back at 4k it'll always go up, your reasoning doesn't make sense to me.

[incarnate]

 

Not true! it creates a bigger bottleneck.

 

 

-.-

 

a bottleneck is not measured in framerates. it is measured in gpu usage. if your gpu is not running at 100% usage then it is bottlenecked. of course the framerates are going to be lower when running at higher resolutions. and lower at the same resolution when a processor is severely downclocked. had they run 4k benchmarks with the downclocked 9590 you would have noticed that the framerate at 4k would be about the same as it was when it was fully clocked.

[Fluffinator]

-.-

 

a bottleneck is not measured in framerates. it is measured in gpu usage. if your gpu is not running at 100% usage then it is bottlenecked. of course the framerates are going to be lower when running at higher resolutions. and lower at the same resolution when a processor is severely downclocked. had they run 4k benchmarks with the downclocked 9590 you would have noticed that the framerate at 4k would be about the same as it was when it was fully clocked.

Just saying how can you base your recommendations on guessing when you don't have a 980, or a 4k monitor..on a "ok" computer, no offense....

[incarnate]

hopefully this graph will explain it better to you

 

[incarnate]

Just saying how can you base your recommendations on guessing when you don't have a 980, or a 4k monitor..on a "ok" computer, no offense....

 

elitist much? since when is a 4690k and a 970 "ok"?

 

aside from that, i don't need a 980 or a 4k monitor to know how bottlenecks work.

[Fluffinator]

That's in one resolution we are talking about the difference in a bottleneck going from resolution to resolution. Also not elitest, just saying you shouldn't be recommending things when you haven't used said thing you recommended. Also that game isn't very CPU intensive if I remember correctly, try looking at other games please

[incarnate]

That's in one resolution we are talking about the difference in a bottleneck going from resolution to resolution.

 

so being able to perform similarly to an i7 4930k in metro last light at 4k resolution with SLI 980s isn't enough proof to you that an 8350... with a single 980 at 4k resolution won't significantly bottleneck? right.... so you're saying he should buy an i7 because at 4k his 8350 will perform as well as an i7...