When do you know your CPU is throttling your system?

[Wing-Man]

Yeah certainly sounds like it.
I do have a lot of non essential graphics bits turned down to low or off to try and keep FPS up.

you dont need to spend much used AM4 and or LGA1200 can be had for nothing now days and at 1440p thats would do a stellar job.

i would go used AM4 is budget is tight or you just dont want to spend too much i got 5600 / mobo / 16gb ram for 180 in December

 

[RavenLunatic]

Google "bottleneck-calculator" its a great tool. I was concerned my 7980XE would be too slow for a 4090. It told me my setup is only 3.4% bottlenecked by my CPU at 4K gaming.

 

[Wing-Man]

Google "bottleneck-calculator" its a great tool. I was concerned my 7980XE would be too slow for a 4090. It told me my setup is only 3.4% bottlenecked by my CPU at 4K gaming.

well are 4k you can use a calculator to power it, the CPU as next to no involvement in 4k game's
not a GPU on the planet that's not a bottle next at 4k

 

[mpj88]

you dont need to spend much used AM4 and or LGA1200 can be had for nothing now days and at 1440p thats would do a stellar job.

i would go used AM4 is budget is tight or you just dont want to spend too much i got 5600 / mobo / 16gb ram for 180 in December

Yeah there's other bits that'll come into question now; will my PSU be enough, I'll need a new cooler perhaps as different socket....and so on!

Thanks for pointers

 

[Wing-Man]

Yeah there's other bits that'll come into question now; will my PSU be enough, I'll need a new cooler perhaps as different socket....and so on!

Thanks for pointers

AM4 would not pull any more power than you current set up, the age of the PSU could come into question but 750 is fine, that all i use

 

[Calin Banc]

well are 4k you can use a calculator to power it, the CPU as next to no involvement in 4k game's
not a GPU on the planet that's not a bottle next at 4k

Not really true.

 

[Wing-Man]

Not really true.

whats the point in this chart? what are you showing me?
the guy is talking about a 6th gen intel CPU why are you showing me 5800 vs 5800x3d?

also the chart as no into what is the base line? 60fps or 600?
all i see is a CPU 5800x3d that we know is a lot faster that a different cpu 5800x is only 6% fast at 4k
so if anything your chart backed up what i said??? a CPU that is knoen to be a lot fast is only 6% fast at 4K and just to be clear the 5XXX CPU from AMD was only as fast single core and Skylake 6th gen intel...
again i dont get your comment?....

there is a lot of people gaming at 4k still on X99 and stuff like that because 6% like you say is Massive and totally worth a full new system.

any way.. back to the point... what was your point?


you do know it wasn't until amd 5000 that AMD finally match intel's Skylake on a single core base, why do they think that was so cheap?? and AMD was packing cores in to make it batter at multi

 

[Trickle]

What the best way to test this?

With the GPU-Z free app. Or Afterburner if you already have that installed.

 

[Calin Banc]

whats the point in this chart? what are you showing me?
the guy is talking about a 6th gen intel CPU why are you showing me 5800 vs 5800x3d?

also the chart as no into what is the base line? 60fps or 600?
all i see is a CPU 5800x3d that we know is a lot faster that a different cpu 5800x is only 6% fast at 4k
so if anything your chart backed up what i said??? a CPU that is knoen to be a lot fast is only 6% fast at 4K and just to be clear the 5XXX CPU from AMD was only as fast single core and Skylake 6th gen intel...
again i dont get your comment?....

there is a lot of people gaming at 4k still on X99 and stuff like that because 6% like you say is Massive and totally worth a full new system.

any way.. back to the point... what was your point?


you do know it wasn't until amd 5000 that AMD finally match intel's Skylake on a single core base, why do they think that was so cheap?? and AMD was packing cores in to make it batter at multi

You can stand with one foot on the stove and with another in the fridge. On average you're fine, but practically you're scr**ed. You can clearly see that are games where there is a significant bottleneck even at at 4k, CPU depending, since you've said " the CPU as next to no involvement in 4k game " which clearly is not true. He also has a high refresh rate monitor, so you'd more to pump those frame rates.

 

[jigger]

Did the below in COD. At around 100FPS, so not capping out on refresh rate.

CPU not full 100% but GPU only reaching 50% ish.....!

Yeah that’s about what I expected. Losing about half the graphics card performance.

 

[Havana_UK]

FYI I went from 4770K @ 4.5GHz to 12600K @ 5.1GHz with a 2070S, and saw almost double max FPS in some titles just from CPU change. I can imagine with a 4070 you're losing even more than I was!

 

[Alexrose1uk]

The old Sandy/Ivy/Haswell i5/i7 CPUs are still actually great for day to day, as long as the frequency is high enough, but they're definately reaching thier end point for anything more than lower spec or esport gaming.

I mean, for balance I wouldn't partner more than something like a 1650, 1660 tops with a Sandy/Ivy/Haswell era CPU these days, i5 or i7, the IPC and clock speeds are just not good enough (~3.5GHz stock)

For a 4070, you really want to be going modern i5/i7 or AM5.

If you can get a cheap second hand AM4 bundle, then 5800x3D or 5700X3D is also pretty damn good, but you're definately losing substantially on your card, and that seems a shame, when the card will have cost you so much.

Saw a bump going from an i7-10700K to an overclocked 12400 (which performs for gaming ~12600/12700 region or so), with my 3080, so expect an even more noticeable upgrade for you, given the 10700 was higher IPC and clock speed than your Haswell.

It's more noticeable at high refresh rate as well, as you really do need better CPU performance to hold average/minimums at a higher average spot, a drop from 120 to 45FPS, even for a second or two, is much more noticeable than a drop from 60 to 45FPS.

 

[richolmes72]

Sorry for hijacking the thread but this is pretty relevant to me.

I'm on a 9600k (stock at 3.7ghz) with a 2070 Super and keen to upgrade the graphics card to play some slightly newer games.

Play at 4k on the TV and 3840x1600 on the monitor, both are only 60hz and I'm happy with 60fps as not playing anything online / competitive. Don't mind dropping settings slightly. Also do a bit of PCVR but older titles only.

Bottleneck calculator site suggest this is a very balanced system right now and even a 3070 would be bottlenecked slightly - which is a surprise, are games really that CPU intensive nowadays?

Was going to go 4070 Super, but would this be a waste? Would a 2nd hand 3070 be a sensible small upgrade for a year or so before I build a whole new system? Or can I go faster?

 

[Tetras]

which is a surprise, are games really that CPU intensive nowadays?

Not all of them, but some are, yes.

Was going to go 4070 Super, but would this be a waste?

2070 Super is very underpowered for 4K nowadays, so seeing as you just want 'playable', I'd go for it. Worst case: you take it with you if/when you're forced to upgrade the CPU.

 

[Delta3D]

Google "bottleneck-calculator" its a great tool. I was concerned my 7980XE would be too slow for a 4090. It told me my setup is only 3.4% bottlenecked by my CPU at 4K gaming.

I wouldn't believe bottleneck calculators, they're based on user input which 75% of the time is inaccurate and people reporting incorrect figures.



I had to upgrade my 3700x to 5800X3D recently as my 3070Ti wasn't being utilised fully. Typically a good way to check is to see if one or two cores are getting hammered versus the rest of cores, a lot of games don't utilise all cores well/at all.

 

[biuro74]

BTW, "CPU throttling" term points to thermal security process which undervolts and underclocks hot CPU to prevent its damage. You probably mean "CPU bottleneck" and it is what you can observe on CPU usage chart when reaching 100% (usually), whereas graphic card component easily is doing its job on significantly lower level

 

[Phixsator]

Here's a fun little tidbit to confuse the uninitiated even further. Your CPU can be the bottleneck even if it doesn't show near max utilization .

 

[hedgey]

at 4k you might get away with it. But you do you game at 4k with a 4070? I remember upgrading from a 2500k to a 4790k and I thought, 'meh'. But I then I got a 8086k and it blew the doors off at 1200p.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

How to find out if your cpu is throttling:
hwinfo64

when the No's become a yes

 

[MartinPrince]

How to find out if your cpu is throttling:
hwinfo64

when the No's become a yes

The title is misleading which is why you needed to at least read the opening post to understand he meant "bottlenecking"