i7 4790 with 4070 Super

frogzila · 12 Oct 2024 at 09:18

I'm looking to do a big upgrade soon, ideally to 9800X3D if I can be patient enough. I recently saw a great deal on a 4070 Super and jumped on it, so in the meantime I'm on an i7 4790 (non k) with a 4070 Super. Coming from a 2060 Super I'm surprised at how little extra performance I'm getting with the 4070 Super.

I would say around +5% - +10% in fps but 1% lows haven't changed much. Mainly play GTA V, PUBG, Diablo IV @ 1440p.

There is obviously a major imbalance between the CPU and GPU but I am surprised at just how much. Does this sound about right or should I be getting more?

My existing board is a H81 (PCIe Gen 2)

tamzzy · 12 Oct 2024 at 09:36

you need to check your cpu utilisation
if it's already pegged at 100% then your new 4070super is severely bottlenecked

mickyflinn · 12 Oct 2024 at 09:36

Ddr3 Memory will also be a big limiting factor .

frogzila · 12 Oct 2024 at 09:47

CPU utilisation sits around 80%

RAM (16GB DDR3 1600Mhz) utilisation is around 12GB/16GB

Joxeon · 12 Oct 2024 at 10:01

For the same price as just the 9800X3D is likely to cost you could do a full AM5 upgrade right now, I doubt there would be a noticeable difference at 1440p on a mid range card like the 4070S compared to the much more costly 7800X3D/9800X3D.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-375-MS) = £164.99
1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £179.99
1 x G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - B (SKU: MEM-GSK-01360) = £109.99

Total: £454.97 (includes delivery: £0.00)

mickyflinn · 12 Oct 2024 at 10:09

frogzila said:
RAM (16GB DDR3 1600Mhz) utilisation is around 12GB/16GB

The speed of it will be limiting, the amount will cause slow down if not enough

Trickle · 12 Oct 2024 at 10:16

If money is tight I'd be looking at half that £455 AM5 price on AM4 B550 5600x. Or 2nd hand Intel 12th/13th gen.

frogzila · 12 Oct 2024 at 10:16

Joxeon said:
For the same price as just the 9800X3D is likely to cost you could do a full AM5 upgrade right now, I doubt there would be a noticeable difference at 1440p on a mid range card like the 4070S compared to the much more costly 7800X3D/9800X3D.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-375-MS) = £164.99

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £179.99

1 x G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - B (SKU: MEM-GSK-01360) = £109.99

Total: £454.97 (includes delivery: £0.00)

I've been sat with that exact same spec in my basket for the past week (however with the 7600x and the crucial PRO OC 6000MHz CL30 kit)

Does the G.Skill kit have any benefit over the crucial set?

Crucial Pro OC 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit

Order Crucial Pro OC 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

I think I'll probably just pull the trigger this weekend... Waiting is torture

Joxeon · 12 Oct 2024 at 10:21

frogzila said:
I've been sat with that exact same spec in my basket for the past week (however with the 7600x and the crucial PRO OC 6000MHz CL30 kit)

Does the G.Skill kit have any benefit over the crucial set?

Crucial Pro OC 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit

Order Crucial Pro OC 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

I think I'll probably just pull the trigger this weekend... Waiting is torture

The Gskill kit has better timings CL30 vs CL36 from the crucial so I'd say that's worth the extra tenner.

frogzila · 12 Oct 2024 at 11:47

mickyflinn said:
The speed of it will be limiting, the amount will cause slow down if not enough

Is there any way to measure this? Like an option within the rivatuner/afterburner software.

CaptainRAVE · 12 Oct 2024 at 11:55

tamzzy said:
you need to check your cpu utilisation
if it's already pegged at 100% then your new 4070super is severely bottlenecked

Even at 70-80% utilisation my old 9700k was bottlenecking my 7900xtx, even at 4K. Was well worth upgrading to a 7800x3d.

mickyflinn · 12 Oct 2024 at 12:21

frogzila said:
Is there any way to measure this? Like an option within the rivatuner/afterburner software.

Task manager but there are loads of software just Google pc memory usage software.

Trickle · 12 Oct 2024 at 12:39

frogzila said:
Is there any way to measure this? Like an option within the rivatuner/afterburner software.

Yeah, by decreasing resolution and graphics settings, but not getting much more fps you can work out when you are CPU limited. [with game engine issue exceptions for high frame rates]

Task manager can be tricky. The overall % utilization isn't too helpful. You are really trying to judge when a single core hits 100%. Games get diminishing returns after the first core. Some are better than others at sharing their load.

Beyond that in your case you have additional factors that are starving the cpu. 1600hz DDR3 is a killer. You might be just running it at bios defaults and its true specs might be more like 2333/2666.

Tetras · 12 Oct 2024 at 14:04

frogzila said:
There is obviously a major imbalance between the CPU and GPU but I am surprised at just how much. Does this sound about right or should I be getting more?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but not particularly demanding games those? Ideally, you'd want to ramp up the graphics settings to max and play graphically demanding games that don't hammer the CPU. i7-4790 non-K is a decent CPU for older games, but for newer games the low clock speed and single thread will be a bottleneck.

McGraw · 13 Oct 2024 at 20:25

frogzila said:
I'm looking to do a big upgrade soon, ideally to 9800X3D if I can be patient enough. I recently saw a great deal on a 4070 Super and jumped on it, so in the meantime I'm on an i7 4790 (non k) with a 4070 Super. Coming from a 2060 Super I'm surprised at how little extra performance I'm getting with the 4070 Super.

I would say around +5% - +10% in fps but 1% lows haven't changed much. Mainly play GTA V, PUBG, Diablo IV @ 1440p.

There is obviously a major imbalance between the CPU and GPU but I am surprised at just how much. Does this sound about right or should I be getting more?

My existing board is a H81 (PCIe Gen 2)

I had a 4790k with a 1070. I upgraded to a 3070 and definitely noticed some improvement.

Then I changed platform to a 7700x and it was like I’d upgraded my GPU again.

A 4790 cripples a 4070s.

hytin11 · 14 Oct 2024 at 11:21

Last GPU I used with a 4790K was a 2080Ti and even that was a CPU bottleneck. I've updated CPU twice since then.

Good chip for it's time, but things has moved on. Not sure how you've managed with a 4790K in modern titles tbh. lol

Alt0153 · 15 Oct 2024 at 10:54

itd like putting a 1l engine in a lambo

CuriousTomCat · 15 Oct 2024 at 14:13

frogzila said:
CPU utilisation sits around 80%

RAM (16GB DDR3 1600Mhz) utilisation is around 12GB/16GB

Have you checked the utilisation of each core? If 3 cores are at 100%, the CPU utilisation would be 75% if the 4th core is at 0% for example

frogzila · 15 Oct 2024 at 14:30

I ordered the following over the weekend: 7600x, 32GB DDR5 6000MHz CL30, B650 Tomahawk.

in summary, the i7 4790 was completely hamstringing the 4070 Super (big surprise) but by how much was just astonishing.

tamzzy · 15 Oct 2024 at 16:49

i know it's a different scenario, but the same rules apply