Is my CPU Bottlenecking my Graphic cards?

[Morthor]

Hello.

Here are my specs for anyone who could help me:

CPU: i7 4790k 4.0GHz

GPU: Gigabyte 1080ti x 2 (SLI)

MB: Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 (32GBs RAM)

OS Drive: Kingston KC1000 NVMe PCIe SSD M.2 480GB

Monitor: LG 34' on 3440x1440

 

I've had feedback from other people who have similar GPUs and Monitors but have very high FPS all the time (120+) on any game. That is not the case for me, and I've always blamed it on the very high resolution of my monitor. Could it be the CPU bottlenecking? Any advice is welcome.

 

Thank you

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Why don't you sell one of you TI's and buy An 8700k? Even a single 1080 Ti can HAUL in games, and SLI scaling is awful on Pascal with modern games

[Morthor]

Would it make a large difference?

[Maximusfoximus]

3 minutes ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

Why don't you sell one of you TI's and buy An 8700k? Even a single 1080 Ti can HAUL in games, and SLI scaling is awful on Pascal with modern games

 

I agree. Even Linus says SLI is a sham. It doesn't really improve your framerates that significantly, and you can use that money to get a better CPU. Now is a good time to sell anyway considering there is still some market inflation for GPUs. 

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

5 minutes ago, Morthor said:

Would it make a large difference?

Losing one of the 1080 Tis? Not really - SLi scaling is usually negligible and sometimes it's actually worse than a single card. The extra 2 cores and higher clocks of the 8700K, on the other hand, will be a significant improvement, although if you really wanted to be a megaballer you could the X299 route instead.

[Morthor]

1 minute ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

Losing one of the 1080 Tis? Not really - SLi scaling is usually negligible and sometimes it's actually worse than a single card. The extra 2 cores and higher clocks of the 8700K, on the other hand, will be a significant improvement, although if you really wanted to be a megaballer you could the X299 route instead.

I meant between my current CPU and the 8700k.

[Wingfan]

You would also need a new motherboard and RAM for a 8700K
Would the sale of the 1080Ti cover that upgrade?

 

[Morthor]

Just now, Wingfan said:

You would also need a new motherboard and RAM for a 8700K
Would the sale of the 1080Ti cover that upgrade?

 

Yes, it probably would. That's not an issue though.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

1 minute ago, Wingfan said:

You would also need a new motherboard and RAM for a 8700K
Would the sale of the 1080Ti cover that upgrade?

 

Almost certainly. A quick eBay search shows 1080 Tis going for about $700 used which should cover a board and 16GB of RAM as well

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

2 minutes ago, Morthor said:

I meant between my current CPU and the 8700k.

Yes, there would be. The higher clocks and 2 more cores on the 8700K mean significantly better gaming performance especially in properly multi-threaded titles or DX12 games

[Morthor]

1 minute ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

Yes, there would be. The higher clocks and 2 more cores on the 8700K mean significantly better gaming performance especially in properly multi-threaded titles or DX12 games

What did you mean by "X299 route instead" though?

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

1 minute ago, Morthor said:

What did you mean by "X299 route instead" though?

For more money you can get a more powerful CPU, that's all. A 7900X is a better CPU than the 8700K but at 2.5x the cost

[xriqn]

Yep you're getting a bottleneck of around 25%. I'd recommend getting a newer i7 or even a ryzen based setup if you're feeling brave, though thebottlenecker.com recommends an i9-7980XE. 

[Maximusfoximus]

4 minutes ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

For more money you can get a more powerful CPU, that's all. A 7900X is a better CPU than the 8700K but at 2.5x the cost

 

Its a better CPU in general, but does not really yield better performance in games. The 8700k is the greatest gaming CPU right now, where x299 is more for rendering and high-end desktop and creative purposes. I would definitely stick to the 8700k as the 7900X is really unnecessary. 

[Morthor]

4 minutes ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

For more money you can get a more powerful CPU, that's all. A 7900X is a better CPU than the 8700K but at 2.5x the cost

I wasn't sure which kind of processor was an X299. At the current price, they don't seem like a smart investment. Unless I was doing a lot of multi-threading operations instead of gaming.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

2 minutes ago, xriqn said:

Yep you're getting a bottleneck of around 25%. I'd recommend getting a newer i7 or even a ryzen based setup if you're feeling brave, though thebottlenecker.com recommends an i9-7980XE. 

As I said earlier SLI scaling with Pascal is abysmal and I'd sell one of the Ti's and buy a more powerful CPU

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

1 minute ago, Morthor said:

I wasn't sure which kind of processor was an X299. At the current price, they don't seem like a smart investment. Unless I was doing a lot of multi-threading operations instead of gaming.

In that case get the 8700K and be happy with the best consumer CPU on the market

[Morthor]

Alright, thank you for everyone's help. I'll probably be getting an 8700K.

Any advice on an MB? I was looking into a Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming 2.0

[Maximusfoximus]

4 minutes ago, Morthor said:

Alright, thank you for everyone's help. I'll probably be getting an 8700K.

Any advice on an MB? I was looking into a Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming 2.0

 

I would go with an ASUS board if you can find a good one in your price range. I personally find their overclocking bios and reliability to be better than other boards. 

[Wingfan]

Newegg has deals on 8700K and motherboard combos

[Morthor]

13 minutes ago, Wingfan said:

Newegg has deals on 8700K and motherboard combos

I appreciate the suggestion, but I live in Europe. I have already a place where I buy all my hardware over here.

[Morthor]

16 minutes ago, Maximusfoximus said:

 

I would go with an ASUS board if you can find a good one in your price range. I personally find their overclocking bios and reliability to be better than other boards. 

I've had really poor experience with Asus MBs over the years. Sometimes it's just bad luck.

[Fasauceome]

Here's something interesting to note about the "bottleneck" of 4th gen CPUs. I myself use a 4790k, as well as a 1070, and benchmarks I've found online show the diminishing returns curve for 4th gen i7 chips is really similar to modern chips. With older, weaker chips, what you'll see is a plateau of performance as you get close to the really high end, such as if you put a 1080 ti with a core 2 quad, you'll have the same performance as with a 1050 ti. what this means is that your investment of your given graphics cards has still returned a lot of value, even though a newer CPU would technically give better performance. Not all that much in most cases though.

 

TLDR; you good dawg. keep rockin that haswell.