CPU or GPU Upgrade

[00101]

I've currently got an old Phenom x6 1050T, 12GB DDR3 1600 and a Strix 970. I mostly game on this machine, and while I used to be on a 1080p TV I'm now on a 4k TV. Obviously my system is not 4k ready, but from a distance 1080 isn't the worst at the moment. 

 

I haven't had my processor overclocked before just recently, but right now I'm stable at 3.4GHz and can probably push a little higher yet.

 

I can probably afford to either do a platform upgrade to the R7 1700 or I can sell my 970 and use the money to try to pick up a used 1070 or 1080 after the prices come down with the 1080ti launch.

 

I'm sure that the GPU will give a lot more bang for gaming than the CPU, but I'm also concerned that I'd be kneecapping it with my old Phenom.

[Himommies]

Cpu for sure

[00101]

Really? I guess I've never really even noticed it bottlenecking the 970 at 1080p 60Hz even before the overclock. Granted I usually have Vsync on so... 

 

But wouldn't 4k be a lot more GPU bound than CPU bound?

[DexterSmythe]

1 minute ago, 00101 said:

Really? I guess I've never really even noticed it bottlenecking the 970 at 1080p 60Hz even before the overclock. Granted I usually have Vsync on so... 

 

But wouldn't 4k be a lot more GPU bound than CPU bound?

Yeah, the CPU would definitely be the lower performer, especially at 1080p. You could get a higher end i3, or lower end i5 that would work fairly well with the 970. I would recommend that you wait for Ryzen 3 though. Keep in mind with 5th gen and up Intel, as well as Ryzen you will need to upgrade your RAM to DDR4.

[Damascus]

I think the 1700 would be great

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

9 minutes ago, 00101 said:

Really? I guess I've never really even noticed it bottlenecking the 970 at 1080p 60Hz even before the overclock. Granted I usually have Vsync on so... 

 

But wouldn't 4k be a lot more GPU bound than CPU bound?

To a certain point, but if the CPU can't even meet the minimum time required to spit a frame out, it doesn't matter.

 

You might've seen it (maybe not) with old school consoles where if too much stuff goes out, the entire game slows down. That's a similar effect.

[LabRat]

I rebuilt my XP machine early last year. 1090T, 8gigs of 1333 and a GTX960. The cpu is way too slow for the 960.

[00101]

Oh I have no doubts that the CPU is the weak link in the chain. But except on newer titles on ultra settings I've never really seen it dip much below 60fps on the frame counter, and since I had it locked at 60 I never really noticed if I wasn't getting the full performance of the 970. I guess what I'm trying to say is that in the 1080p case I don't think I would see a tangible difference between the 1050T and something newer. My screen couldn't go any higher than 60Hz, so 70fps vs 90fps was completely meaningless to me.

 

At 4k, a 970 should be shooting somewhere between 20 and 40 fps on newish games at high settings, right? If I'm getting 5 fps less than its full potential that's not super meaningful, I don't think--especially for the cost of a platform upgrade. But I just don't want to end up in the situation where I'm getting almost the same performance from the 1070 or 1080 because the CPU can't keep up at all.

 

Basically I don't want to spend $500 and get little to no real world improvement.

[LabRat]

you can fight it all you want. the cpu is shit and that is that!

[Crimma]

It really depends on what games you play.

But overall definitely the CPU try to go for at least an i5 due to your current core bottle necking your 970.

The 970 itself is still a very reliable and good GPU. 

[00101]

7 minutes ago, LabRat said:

you can fight it all you want. the cpu is shit and that is that!

I'm not saying its not, just that its not terrible enough to meaningfully hurt the performance of my 970 right now. 

 

For instance, in RotR benchmark, 4k high preset, my GPU usage is 100% the entire time but CPU usage only hit 100% once for a second. That doesn't sound like a bottleneck to me.

 

But will this be the same case on a 1070 or 1080? I have no idea.

 

[LabRat]

you need a cpu that can really render frames, enough frames, and at a proper rate. old cpu architecture isn't really helping. I don't care how much of it's being used.

[00101]

9 minutes ago, LabRat said:

you need a cpu that can really render frames, enough frames, and at a proper rate. old cpu architecture isn't really helping. I don't care how much of it's being used.

Well comparing my results to the benchmarks at Techspot I'm getting pretty much exactly the same thing. I'm having real trouble finding results with 970 at 4k on the built in benchmark, but if you have a link to show what I should be getting and its better than that I'm more than happy to admit that its bottlenecking the 970.

 

I don't really have a horse in the race of which is the better upgrade. Both are going to cost me a few hundred dollars. I'm just trying to maximize the gains for the money I'm spending.

[LabRat]

what can I say, been there, done that. I'm not using my 1090T for anything important anymore.

[LabRat]

I shut down for the night but had to restart to write this.

I have an 8300 with a 970.

and I haven Ivy bridge with a 380 on it.

the ivy bridge computer with the slower card on it is faster than the 8300 with the faster card on it.

[00101]

11 minutes ago, LabRat said:

I shut down for the night but had to restart to write this.

I have an 8300 with a 970.

and I haven Ivy bridge with a 380 on it.

the ivy bridge computer with the slower card on it is faster than the 8300 with the faster card on it.

 

So then how am I managing to get comparable performance in RotR with my phenom and 970 as published benchmarks with a 6700k?

 

And lets say I did upgrade my platform. I'm going to what, get another 5 fps? The 970 is not a 4k capable card by any stretch of the imagination. 

 

By rough comparisons my OC puts me somewhere around a mildly overclocked 2500k (based on cinebench scores). Based on results from systems with a 2500k and a 1070 or 1080 I should see a larger gain than sticking with an "unbottlenecked" 970.

[LabRat]

cya.