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Where does CPU overkill begin with 4K gaming?

SeeNoWeevil

SeeNoWeevil

SeeNoWeevil

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Obviously assuming a high-end (e.g 3080+) GPU. At what level do you think CPU gains disappear? Those who do game at 4K and are looking at upgrades, how high up the ladder are you going?
 
Anything over 8 cores offers mediocre performance gain for the money.

The 6 core Ryzens for example, have always been heralded as the perfect price to performance gaming CPU.
 
jigger said:
Not sure I’d consider the RTX3080 a 4K card. Nvidia need a product with something around 16gb of VRAM.
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d22347b90e74accf434d27fe0e7e5db2.gif
 
SeeNoWeevil said:
Obviously assuming a high-end (e.g 3080+) GPU. At what level do you think CPU gains disappear? Those who do game at 4K and are looking at upgrades, how high up the ladder are you going?
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Possibly lower down the list than most people think? CP2077 4K bench w/ 3090 .... look how 4 core i3-10100 does!
FwrXu9r.png
 
Well quite a few influencers covered it but the most common one is HU. They stated in the last Zen release a 6 core will be ample for 4k gaming as the top end CPU's only net you about 2% above it.

So assuming your on something weaker than a 3600, the 5600X will be ample if you have a beast of a GPU and your a 4k gamer. :)

You could also chance a cheaper 3700X if you find someone offloading. I am aware the 5000 units will offer better single threaded performance but until intel release their offering which is soon I cant see them dropping prices till pressure commences.
 
Th0nt said:
Well quite a few influencers covered it but the most common one is HU. They stated in the last Zen release a 6 core will be ample for 4k gaming as the top end CPU's only net you about 2% above it.

So assuming your on something weaker than a 3600, the 5600X will be ample if you have a beast of a GPU and your a 4k gamer. :)

You could also chance a cheaper 3700X if you find someone offloading. I am aware the 5000 units will offer better single threaded performance but until intel release their offering which is soon I cant see them dropping prices till pressure commences.
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With a AMD RDNA2 card maybe a 3700X or 8700K might be pretty good.
 
There is no such thing, new games have RT and have started pushing streaming harder as well as adapting to the extra CPU available with the consoles. Even for a solid 60 fps min you'll need at least a 5800x, but really more, and for >60fps then you need the best of the best. Going forward you'll need even more, especially if you plan to get an MCM GPU next year. Look at the results below, notice how the 3090 is outclassed by the 6900 XT in this Nvidia-favoured title and despite it being a superior RT card by a mile? It's down to CPU, because Nvidia requires so much more CPU grunt to operate properly. And here the game is still made for older consoles & has severely hamstrung its streaming system, so with a proper next-gen version even that 60 fps min would be a fantasy.

wocvtCB.jpg.png

I've had my 6800K for a few years now and it's been a real trooper, and still going strong - with the exception of RT, where it hit a wall. For future-proofing, if you want a CPU that can go for many years strong like good ol' 2500K & 2700K's used to, then what's available is still not quite there yet. We'll see about Alder Lake, but I'd say look at Zen 3 v-cache. Today I'd only really get a 5950X with the future in mind, or slum it with a 5600X and replace properly once DDR5 matures in 2-3 years (Zen 5 et al).
 
As ray tracing was not mentioned (I don't play using it either) it blows the field open and your back to just buying the best you can possibly afford. The sentiment generally from people upgrading with these types of questions is: what can I get away with that wont cost me the earth.

That's how I took it anyway! ;)
 
The issue with Ampere and probably Nvidia in general is they don’t scale well with cores. I need to get another air drop card to do some more testing.

I suppose the 5900X would be a good choice. Drop a little boost speed compared to the 5800X but has a lot more multi core grunt.
 
I have a 4k monitor and 3600 (and 3090). Mainly game with visuals for offline RPG's (I dont play Warzone anymore for example) and stick settings within the sync range.

I dont stream but aware all the bells and whistles (incl. ray tracing) to mash the CPU harder would change the dynamics a lot. I wont be dropping £750 on a cpu at this stage in the game that's for sure! :p
 
@Joxeon Sorry to say but those results are useless. The WD:L benchmark lets the CPU sleep but go into the open world and drive around and then you'll see it sweat properly. 6c vs 8c I'm not sure if it really makes a difference in this game with RT on because I can't find any good benches, but for sure the 5800X should smoke the 3600.

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Watc...ls/Raytracing-Benchmarks-DLSS-Test-1360745/3/

Additionally, in a properly challenging scene no CPU can get it to 60 fps mins:
https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Rayt...acing-CPU-Cost-Benchmarks-Frametimes-1371787/

You can see the CPU limit in this game clearly because there's a dramatic difference in FPS between in-doors, outdoors, and driving fast vs slow, and hitting a car (usually fps drops when there's a physical collision) here (just skip around); also this is not even with 100% extra details but also notice the limited GPU usage:
https://youtu.be/OMe5xpniyTs
 
The 5700G might work out well for a lot of systems/users looking for a 4K capable system. Performance is between a 3800XT and 5800X for a little less money and power use.
 
Danger Bri said:
Im on a 10900k @ 4.9, 3090. I’m looking at upgrading at the back end of 2022, just simply because of the new GPU’s releasing around then. I will sell this one and pay the extra to upgrade, so not too bad. All depending on where DDR5 is at the time though, hopefully we have some decent kits by then.

The only time I seen my 10900k get pushed to some degree @4k was while playing Cyberpunk. Some very strange behaviour in that game to say the least though.
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DDR5 isn’t aimed at the PC console builder market. It’s main gain is to improve memory density and bandwidth. I don’t think gaming performance will see a huge performance uplift from either of those.

How many games require more than 16gb of system ram currently? When will 32gb become the norm?
 
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