Will my 970 become a bottleneck?

[MatteRB26]

So today I've got my new Ryzen 5 3600 arriving to replace my trusty 3570k after 7 years. I'm very excited about the change, but I'm just wondering if my 970 is likely to create a new bottleneck?

I'll be looking to play games such as wow (CPU intensive anyway), BF5, CoD:MW etc amongst others. My 970 has been stellar For the last couple of years, it came pre-overclocked, but I just want to make sure I haven't now flipped my issue around and my GPU is going to hold me back. I only play at 1080p and have no interest in going up any time soon.

 

[random_matt]

It will be fine imo.

 

[RevBillyG]

Its still fine for 1080p

 

[Nasher]

It will be a bottleneck though.

 

[Gray2233]

If you go chasing every bottleneck it'll never end.

What's important in this regard is that you have acceptable performance for what you play, the fact your CPU can feed a lot more than your 970 isn't a bad thing, it just means there's scope for an upgrade down the line if you feel you need one.

 

[SilverCider]

It's usually far easier and better having the GPU as a bottleneck as you can just turn down the eye candy a little to suit you framerate needs. A CPU bottleneck cannot so easily be adjusted for and will affect core gameplay, which I assume most want to be as fluid as possible.

 

[CuriousTomCat]

It depends how often you upgrade. Some people have had the same CPU for 5 - 10 years while they have done lots of graphics card upgrades. In that situation, it's good to start with a CPU that will bottleneck your graphics card. So then you can replace the graphics card in 3 years and have a balanced system. Then the next graphics card upgrade will likely bottleneck the CPU.

If you're the type of person who doesn't do upgrades, then you want a well balanced system from the start. Then just replace the whole lot when it's time.

 

[MatteRB26]

Thanks for the responses! I think the 970 still has a few amount of life left in it for 1080, my CPU (3570k) was becoming a problem in recent titles and software hence the upgrade

I don't upgrade often at all. I've had the same build for 7 years except GPU upgrades (which was only a friend who upgraded gave me his, and my wife bought the 970 as a present a couple years ago) and ram which again, only because a friend gave it away. I'm surprised I'm even spending £350 upgrading my CPU (and mobo, ram) to be honest!

 

[Poneros]

Depends on what you mean. Technically unless you have the best component available in every slot then you're always getting bottlenecked by them. And also, I'd say the 970 was a bottleneck from the day it came out of the factory, because there's always extra eye candy you can add & scale with GPU power.

That being said, that's all academic. The question is, what's your goal? That's the only way to answer your initial question (from a practical standpoint). You certainly won't hit 60 fps in those games at 1080p maxed out, but then there's always certain settings you might never want to max out anyway, etc. Overall it's still a fine card at 1080p but only so long as you keep your expectations in check.