CPU Bottleneck? Upgrade suggestions?

[Haggisman]

Having recently upgraded my GPU from a 750ti to a GTX970, I think the next component on the agenda is the CPU (and possibly motherboard).

I reckon the CPU is the bottleneck in my system now - I didn't get quite as big a jump in performance with the GPU upgrade as I thought I would, and it seems changing some graphics settings doesn't really make much of an impact on FPS, (e.g. in The Witcher 3, I can change almost all of the post processing effects between Low and Ultra, and the difference is ~3fps) - does this point towards CPU bottleneck?

Current spec:

CPU: i5-2500 (non K)
Motherboard: Gigabyte H61M-S2 Intel H61
Cooler: Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition
RAM: GeIL EVO Leggera 16GB DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
PSU: OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze'
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 "Mini-ITX"
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V-Series 128GB

Would I notice a reasonable increase in performance with a new CPU? And what would be the logical upgrade path? (without getting into stupid money).

Been eyeing up this bundle: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-014-AS

Edit: Although this is looking rather tempting as well: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-012-GI&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=2858

Or would I be just as well of spending half that much on a Socket 1155 i5/i7 "K" chip from the MM (e.g. 2600k/2700k/3770k)?

I don't believe my MB has much in the way of overclock-ability (although "support for EasyTune"?) so would I need a new one to make the most of any CPU upgrade?

Thanks

 

[Mrjobby]

Doubt a stock i5 2500 would be a super significant bottleneck.

 

[Haggisman]

Doubt a stock i5 2500 would be a super significant bottleneck.

So there's not much point spending £250-350 on a new bundle, and a 2500k/2600k/2700k or so would be more than adequate?

 

[joeyjojo]

(e.g. in The Witcher 3, I can change almost all of the post processing effects between Low and Ultra, and the difference is ~3fps) - does this point towards CPU bottleneck?

Not necessarily, if your GPU is just really good at these effects.

Record your CPU and GPU usage during some real gaming (Afterburner is good for this) and share the numbers.

What's your monitor resolution and refresh rate?

 

[Haggisman]

Monitor = 1920x1080 @60hz

CPU usage hovers around 60-70% on all 4 cores, GPU shoots right up to 99% and pretty much sits there, so I guess that means it's the GPU bottlenecking still

I did try play around with the core/memory clocks on Afterburner, and it bumped the FPS up slightly, so, I'll do some more tweaking of that.

Edit: this was during some running around Novigrad, running around the wilderness, and fighting a load of ghouls in the middle of a burning town (using signs etc.)

 

[joeyjojo]

Yep sounds like the GPU is still getting a solid workout.

To make sure you could run a few benchmarks, and do them again with a small underclock on the CPU (since you can't overclock). Down to 3 from 3.3 say (-10%) and see how your games change. If they don't much then there's no problem!