Does 6700K still cut it (gpu upgrade path)

Khrest

Khrest

Khrest

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So 7 years ago I bought a binned 6700k and Gigabyte Gaming 7 mobo from OCuk and it has served me well over thousands of hours. I started with a 980ti and about 3 years ago upgraded that to a 2070 super. I game at 1440p ultrawide so 3840x1440. My eyesight isnt great at 58 so I'm happy at 60hz and have no plans to go full 4k.

To replace my full setup with a sensible level system I'm looking at a 7800X3D and a 7800XT combo, but that's a lot of money.

Is anybody running a similar old processor with a modern card like a 7800XT or 4070 and do they feel they are losing out on performance due to CPU bottlenecking at those sorts of resolutions?

City Skylines 2 runs like a three legged dog (but I think that's more down to the game being released 6 months early) and having recently started Act 3 in Baldurs Gate 3 (another poorly optimized game) I'm seeing stuttering and struggling to maintain 50fps.

The 7800XT vs 2070S seems to be around a 75%-100% uplift, but all those benches are done with modern processors and I dont want to buy it and then find myself wanting to spend another £1200 to upgrade the rest of my PC?
 
Best bet is to actually monitor CPU and GPU usage (using an overlay like Rivatuner Statistic Server etc) whilst playing the games.

If your GPU is maxed out but your CPU isn't, then a GPU upgrade will likely give you gains to maximum and average framerates (but normally minimum framerates/framerate drops are most impacted by older CPUs).

If your CPU is maxed but your GPU isn't, then you should be able to turn up graphics settings slightly without affecting framerate, but a CPU/motherboard upgrade may actually free up some performance in your existing card.

Also worth checking what speed your RAM is running at, as another user recently found out that their faster RAM had been running significantly slower than it should, and that was an easy 10%+ performance boost.
 
Khrest said:
To replace my full setup with a sensible level system I'm looking at a 7800X3D and a 7800XT combo, but that's a lot of money.
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This idea is false. The 7800X3D is a luxury top level gaming CPU and not a sensible level system at all. You dont need to spend that much.

The 7600 non X is a superb gaming CPU, people greatly underestimate it because it is the bottom end product but it is great for mid range gaming systems and very efficient. It would compete very well with the previous generation high end CPUs in gaming. Cpus that were paired with the 6950 XT and 3090.
 
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dave28 said:
This idea is false. The 7800X3D is a luxury top level gaming CPU and not a sensible level system at all. You dont need to spend that much.

The 7600 non X is a superb gaming CPU, people greatly underestimate it because it is the bottom end product but it is great for mid range gaming systems and very efficient. It would compete very well with the previous generation high end CPUs in gaming. Cpus that were paired with the 6950 XT and 3090.
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100% this, I have a 7500f (Basically a 7600 without GPU) and with a 7900XTX - it runs brilliantly at 4K.

Secondary PC with another 7500f and a 6700XT at 1440p too and still runs like a champ with no bottlenecks to the gpu.
 
i have just replace my son's 6700 and it was struggling to gaming at sub 50FPS in games like warzone and Battlefield @ 1080p his GPU was a 5700xt about same as your 2070s and the GPU was fine with a newer CPU

Based on the minimum requirements for City Skylines 2 your system should be fine, i think the problem your having is 1440p ultrawide.

Your CPU is getting to END of life but i would think the GPU would be needed first if not done at the same time
 
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Changed my 6700k and Nvidia 1080 last month as it was struggling on bg3 and other titles. My am5 system to me was a worth while upgrade with a massive jump to an extra 100fps to my games.
7600 and a 7800xt would be a good upgrade but if your not sure on spending a lot then look at playing about with settings.
 
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I run a 6700k still with a 2080ti and for the games that I play it performs well enough. Its not the best and it is starting to creak a little, but I think I can get a couple of years out of it still yet.
 
I'm currently running a 4770k, albeit with a 3070 ;)

It's not so much creaking as doing an impression of a haunted house:p

Slightly more seriously it still plays most games reasonably well at 1080p, but I am in the process of upgrading (literally, I've got a 14700k system half assembled on the dining table).
 
Looking at CPU usage in BG3 Act 3 it's regularly hitting 100% in the city with only 40-70% on the GPU. So at least I know that upgrading the card wont help much in that game in particular. With my 2070s seemingly only worth £140-150 now, instead of the £450 I paid for it just over 3 years ago :-(, I think I will tough it out a bit longer and then do a new build next year.
 
Khrest said:
Looking at CPU usage in BG3 Act 3 it's regularly hitting 100% in the city with only 40-70% on the GPU. So at least I know that upgrading the card wont help much in that game in particular. With my 2070s seemingly only worth £140-150 now, instead of the £450 I paid for it just over 3 years ago :(, I think I will tough it out a bit longer and then do a new build next year.
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When the time is right Would consider AM5 7600 upgrade with 32gb ddr5 b650 would be in the ball park of £450 and would also give you upgrade potential .

On the other hand you could reuse your ddr4 if fast enough speed.and get something like a 12400f and a b660 motherboard for £250.

Should get a few pounds for your old stuff to ofset the cost.
 
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Khrest said:
Looking at CPU usage in BG3 Act 3 it's regularly hitting 100% in the city with only 40-70% on the GPU.
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If you're leaving up to 60% of your current GPU performance on the table surely it's worth an upgrade, even if it's just a stop gap with a DDR4 board and a AM4 processor (currently some good deals on 5600x/5700x/5800x if you shop around), or as above a 12400F.
 
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It depends what you play but 6700k is not sufficient for modern games. My brother had his 6700k paired with a 1080ti and even that was bottlenecking hard. He upgraded to 7800x and 4090.
 
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