CPU doesn't matter for 4k gaming, is that completely true?

[RBImGuy]

As title I see this thrown around a lot. Is that true completely or just to some degree?
Is it always wise to spend majority on the graphics card over the CPU?
Can it ever be you need a high end CPU and GPU?
I'm not at 4k I'm on 1440p. But if I was 4k did I make a mistake getting a 7800x3d and a 7900xtx when I could have got a 7700 and a 4090. Please don't make that comment a Nvidia Vs AMD I'm just comparing I could have got a better GPU if I was a 4k user.

Not a mistake.
People assume to much.
a pc is a combination of factors.
the X3D cache for example cuts off 70ns of delay that Intel for example has extra.
That would matter in 4k to.
Not as easy to say, cpu or gpu matters like people tend to do here.

I play at 4k with a 7800x3d and a 6700xt.
Best cpu one can have for gaming really.

 

[mrk]

The GPU matters /more/ at higher resolutions, especially 4K. There's a reason why all CPU benchmarks are done at 1080P, because the differences between them are heavily muted at 1440P and above. Your x3d might be great in games, but it doesn't matter one way or the other when a beefy GPU is used at resolutions that are GPU bound. So anything 12600 class and above will fly through the framerates when coupled with a top end GPU like a 4090.

 

[bakes0310]

Not a mistake.
People assume to much.
a pc is a combination of factors.
the X3D cache for example cuts off 70ns of delay that Intel for example has extra.
That would matter in 4k to.
Not as easy to say, cpu or gpu matters like people tend to do here.

I play at 4k with a 7800x3d and a 6700xt.
Best cpu one can have for gaming really.

You play with a 6700xt at 4k, how does it cope wasn't it a 1440p card, do you not play that demanding games or are you tweaking the settings a lot to get a good frame rate?
How does it get along with such a powerful CPU?

 

[RBImGuy]

You play with a 6700xt at 4k, how does it cope wasn't it a 1440p card, do you not play that demanding games or are you tweaking the settings a lot to get a good frame rate?
How does it get along with such a powerful CPU?

BG3 70fps on average using fsr with 4k.
Game runs well.
Path of exile runs well and that game push hardware a lot.
I can put global illumination on the game and it still flows.

yea, you want to run it at the desired fps and may need to adjust a setting or two.
AA isnt needed at 4k.
That helps.

I upgraded the cpu way more than the gpu.
So, overall its a great card for 4k gaming if your able to live with some settings adjusted.
It suprised me.
I bought the card as an upgrade to vega56, then they had this great deal on a oled 48inch lg so, I figure test games with it and hope it works out.
It has to a large extent.

I play usually arpg games nowadays mainly due to illness.
the 7800x3d is mindblowingly good for a game like path of exile as its just so smooth.
It was a step up from the 7600x I had

 

[JollyJamma]

As title I see this thrown around a lot. Is that true completely or just to some degree?
Is it always wise to spend majority on the graphics card over the CPU?
Can it ever be you need a high end CPU and GPU?
I'm not at 4k I'm on 1440p. But if I was 4k did I make a mistake getting a 7800x3d and a 7900xtx when I could have got a 7700 and a 4090. Please don't make that comment a Nvidia Vs AMD I'm just comparing I could have got a better GPU if I was a 4k user.

Look at this review table of 4K gaming.

Look at how close a midrange CPU is to a high end CPU

It’s less important to have a ultra high end gaming CPU at 4K than at 1080P but that doesn’t mean you can pair a dual core pentium with a 4090 and expect smooth 4K gaming

As others have pointed out, it does depend on which game you’re playing

The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Review: AMD's Fastest Gaming Processor

www.anandtech.com

 

[bakes0310]

BG3 70fps on average using fsr with 4k.
Game runs well.
Path of exile runs well and that game push hardware a lot.
I can put global illumination on the game and it still flows.

yea, you want to run it at the desired fps and may need to adjust a setting or two.
AA isnt needed at 4k.
That helps.

I upgraded the cpu way more than the gpu.
So, overall its a great card for 4k gaming if your able to live with some settings adjusted.
It suprised me.
I bought the card as an upgrade to vega56, then they had this great deal on a oled 48inch lg so, I figure test games with it and hope it works out.
It has to a large extent.

I play usually arpg games nowadays mainly due to illness.
the 7800x3d is mindblowingly good for a game like path of exile as its just so smooth.
It was a step up from the 7600x I had

Sounds like you play similar games to me with RPGs, I also play RTS games and third person games all single player.
Love that monitor you got I was looking at that if I do decide to go 4k. How do you get on with the size are you sat using it on a desk?

Still can't decide if my spec is okay at 4k as I've seen videos of people playing at 133fps at 1440p like me and then going 4k and getting about 50-60fps, that's a massive drop and doesn't leave much hope for newer games that might be more demanding over the next year or two. While being at 1440p I wouldn't have that worry for a long time.

Did you go from 1440p to 4k was the image quality improvement a big jump to justify the dip in performance?

 

[offitmassive]

Yeah, the 3600 will be holding back performance particularly with an Nvidia card. I used a very well tuned and overclocked 3800X and that was getting tapped out by a 3080 10gb.

When I upgraded to a 5950X I seen a decent performance jump with the 3080. I’d imagine for many games a 5800X3D would offer more performance again, especially at 1440. I’m unsure if a 5800X3D would fully leverage and tap out your 3080ti, but it would definitely be a huge jump in graphics performance over your 3000 Ryzen.

5800x arrived.... I'm still getting a massive cpu usage. Like around 70% whilst playing warzone 2. Checked task manager and there's nothing else above 1% use in the list.

 

[jigger]

5800x arrived.... I'm still getting a massive cpu usage. Like around 70% whilst playing warzone 2. Checked task manager and there's nothing else above 1% use in the list.

Nvidia cards do hammer CPU usage, but you might have something else going on. Is that 70% on a single core or total?

 

[offitmassive]

Nvidia cards do hammer CPU usage, but you might have something else going on. Is that 70% on a single core or total?

Well a mate also has a 3080ti but with a 5900x and he gets single figure cpu usage. My figure I guess is total as per riva statistics as I only had one figure showing for cpu. In task manager, it showed 2 tabs of warzone open, perhaps 3. Is that correct?

 

[jigger]

Well a mate also has a 3080ti but with a 5900x and he gets single figure cpu usage. My figure I guess is total as per riva statistics as I only had one figure showing for cpu. In task manager, it showed 2 tabs of warzone open, perhaps 3. Is that correct?

I’ve never run Warzone, but I’d hazard a guess one process is the game application and the other some kind of anti cheat system.

 

[mrk]

Most CoD games are AMD architecture optimised engines so run more efficiently on AMD CPUs and GPUs. Nothing new there.

But as long as the CPU is somewhat capable (8 cores), then any modern high end GPU would be sufficiently performant in the latest games when at 1440p or above.

 

[g67575]

No, it's a generalisation.

 

[offitmassive]

I'm still trying to find a definitive answer to this. I understand these x3d chips are the fastest. But is there a massive difference in 4k 144hz. Is it worth going from like a 5600x/xt to an x3d chip at 4k.
I've since sold my 5800x and downgraded to a 5600xt and still getting avg 140fps on fortnite 4k max settings with a 9070 xt
Is that a reasonable figure ?

 

[RBImGuy]

I'm still trying to find a definitive answer to this. I understand these x3d chips are the fastest. But is there a massive difference in 4k 144hz. Is it worth going from like a 5600x/xt to an x3d chip at 4k.
I've since sold my 5800x and downgraded to a 5600xt and still getting avg 140fps on fortnite 4k max settings with a 9070 xt
Is that a reasonable figure ?

The answer is, depends where the bottlenecks are.
Multiplayer games deals different vs a single player game
so, memory ram matters a bit, ssd some, cpu and gpu more.
Its usually why its better generally to have the faster cpu vs buying a gpu that may be held back.

I had a 6700xt and game in 4k.
It worked fine.
I got the 6950xt on a black friday deal and now it works even better in 4k downclocked even.
so I get better performance for same power envelope.
in some games I drop down 75fps due to the downclock but gameplay didnt change.
I usually suggest to check gameplay and if it stays the same your gaming experience wont change vs checking out the fps meter.
if the experience stays the same as in my case with 75fps of difference I chose that and silent hardware when playing.
The performance delta with hardware usually does not change much if any with 20 fps difference.
so if one card cost $100 less then I would get that as the gaming experience wouldnt change.

4k push hardware more but wont mean you need to overpay to have the same gaming experience.
in my case 2 year old cpu and a 5 year old gpu

so in short, the x3d tech allows a better gaming experience as long the cache is used with the cpu.
less latency hit and delay aka stuttering.
in path of exile when I bought the x3d cpu it was highly noticable due to that game use cpu a lot for calculations.

 

[FredFlint]

Its always been better to have a faster CPU, how much better depends on the software. Using RT seems to add a big chuck of extra MT work to the CPU so extra core can help.

 

[simon blakemore]

The gpu is the bottleneck at 4k so to a certain extent, proving your cpu is half decent, it doesn't matter. I had a 5900x and upgraded to a 9800x3d. I play at 4k max settings with 5090 and it made very little difference if any.

 

[Pottsey]

I'm still trying to find a definitive answer to this. I understand these x3d chips are the fastest. But is there a massive difference in 4k 144hz. Is it worth going from like a 5600x/xt to an x3d chip at 4k.
I've since sold my 5800x and downgraded to a 5600xt and still getting avg 140fps on fortnite 4k max settings with a 9070 xt
Is that a reasonable figure ?

There isn't a clear definitive answer as it depends on a ton of factors. I would say now with the current generation more then ever you cannot only look at 720p / 1080p benchmarks to pick the best CPU for 4k and the CPU can matter but it very much varies game to game and with other factors. Some games will show no impact, other games will differ massively so don't just look at 720p or 1080p as that's no good for working out the best CPU across the board for 4k.

 

[offitmassive]

There isn't a clear definitive answer as it depends on a ton of factors. I would say now with the current generation more then ever you cannot only look at 720p / 1080p benchmarks to pick the best CPU for 4k and the CPU can matter but it very much varies game to game and with other factors. Some games will show no impact, other games will differ massively so don't just look at 720p or 1080p as that's no good for working out the best CPU across the board for 4k.

Nah i always look for 4k benchmarks. They always show an x3d chip leading the way which is expected.

 

[humbug]

As title I see this thrown around a lot. Is that true completely or just to some degree?
Is it always wise to spend majority on the graphics card over the CPU?
Can it ever be you need a high end CPU and GPU?
I'm not at 4k I'm on 1440p. But if I was 4k did I make a mistake getting a 7800x3d and a 7900xtx when I could have got a 7700 and a 4090. Please don't make that comment a Nvidia Vs AMD I'm just comparing I could have got a better GPU if I was a 4k user.

Always prioritise the GPU over the CPU, with in reason.

A Ryzen 7700 paired with a 4090 would have been a better combination than what you got for 4K, yes.

The CPU only matters if its too slow to keep up with the GPU, if you're gaming at 4K any decent CPU will keep up no problem.

There is a halo effect around these X3D chips, for good reason they are faster for gaming than anything else but that doesn't make the none X3D chips obsolete, the Ryzen 7700 is a very capable CPU for gaming, no one is going to be unhappy with the frame rates it churns out unless what you're looking for is 300+ FPS gaming at 1080P, for everything else a good gaming CPU will do a good job, that what the 7700 / 9700 Ryzen's are.

 

[humbug]

I came on here to ask pretty much the same question! I play warzone 2 a fair bit on pc. Running 16gb, Ryzen 3600, and a 3080ti @4k on a 120hz monitor. I'm seeing cpu usage according to riva statistics at 100% and my fps will drop to 1 or 2 for a few seconds. I've made a few in game settings so it's less heavy on the cpu. And set amd power to max power rather than balanced. I've looked and can't find any comparison between the 3600 and 5800x3d on 4k or is there a better am4 cpu for me?

I'm still running a Ryzen 5800X, it continues to serve me will paired now with an RX 7800 XT, i have been running it for 5 years.
I upgraded from a Ryzen 3600, it made a significant difference.

Ryzen 5800X review, 55% faster than the Ryzen 3600.

https://www.techspot.com/review/2134-amd-ryzen-5800x/

Ryzen 5800X3D review, 23% faster than a Ryzen 5800X

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Review: Gaming-First CPU

Making CPU cores faster rather than adding more cores is the best way to boost PC gaming performance. That's why AMD has supercharged their 8-core, 16-thread CPU...

www.techspot.com