Is my CPU bottlenecking my GPU?

[Arterion]

Hi all,

I recently got a 1080Ti Strix OC, which I've put in a PC with a 6600K (stock) and 16GB RAM.

Am I likely to be experiencing any bottlenecking with this configuration? It occurred to me that the CPU isn't as high-end as the new card, and I wanted to make sure I'm getting the best of it.

Many thanks!

 

[Finners]

What resolution do you play at?

 

[Arterion]

What resolution do you play at?

4K.

 

[andicole0]

Take a look at HW Monitor when you run a game and see if either are being extended.
Andi.

 

[dholdi]

Interested in this, thinking of a 1080ti with a 4770k.
I'm at 1080 144hz.

 

[arby1]

There will always be a bottle neck in any system. In an ideal case you'd want the cpu to bottleneck you approx the same amount of times the gpu bottlenecks. That would be a fair balance. You'll be able to find 1 game in 10 (20? 30?) where the cpu is the bottleneck, but that means in the other 9 in 10 your gpu is the bottleneck.
However, the simple answer is no, it won't be anything to worry about, especially not at 4k.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

In an ideal case you'd want the cpu to bottleneck you approx the same amount of times the gpu bottlenecks. That would be a fair balance

What??? Just, no.

You want the GPU to be the bottleneck each and every time, and at 4k the GPU will be the bottleneck.

 

[jigger]

What??? Just, no.

You want the GPU to be the bottleneck each and every time, and at 4k the GPU will be the bottleneck.

Hmm... Once you hit playable frame rates then you can increase settings/resolution to even out the processing over head.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Hmm... Once you hit playable frame rates then you can increase settings/resolution to even out the processing over head.

What? It's 4k, the load's on the GPU and that's exactly where it should be. The only way to increase load on the CPU would be to reduce settings/resolution and why would he want to do that?

 

[arby1]

What??? Just, no.

You want the GPU to be the bottleneck each and every time, and at 4k the GPU will be the bottleneck.

That's a very simplistic view that assumes money is no object. And it clearly is otherwise everyone would have the best commercially available GPU/CPU/Drive/RAM etc.
If your GPU is the bottleneck in every single game ("each and every time" as you put it), then that means you spent too much on your cpu and it is simply wasted. So in a balanced system, there will and should be times that the cpu is the bottleneck. For the OP, a 6600k might bottleneck the system in a few % of scenarios (if that), but the cost to reduce that further is absolutely insane vs the benefit, and I would imagine the improvement would be unnoticeable anyway.

 

[arby1]

What? It's 4k, the load's on the GPU and that's exactly where it should be. The only way to increase load on the CPU would be to reduce settings/resolution and why would he want to do that?

Exactly, that shows the CPU is already overspecced. It's a great situation to be in, but it means you've got a piece of hardware sat there not being used to its full potential. I know this always comes down to personal opinion, and it is good to get the best you can, but there does seem a tendency to think that if the CPU is ever the bottleneck then the system should be improved. I don't buy into that. The cost to ensure that one piece is never the bottleneck is almost always better spent ensuring a well balanced system.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

@arby1 what are you going on about? The CPU isn't the bottleneck at higher resolution, and it doesn't need to be. Just because it sits at 35% usage, it doesn't mean you need to start tweaking settings to the detriment of visual fidelity just to make the CPU work harder. That's just ridiculous. What next, make sure the SSD is 95% full? How shall we get the system to use all 16GB of system RAM?

The goal for a 4k system is to get it pushing 60fps at the highest possible graphic settings, and the CPU plays a much lesser part than the GPU. If money is an issue like you say, then why buy a 4k monitor and a 1080ti in the first place?

 

[arby1]

@arby1 what are you going on about? The CPU isn't the bottleneck at higher resolution, and it doesn't need to be. Just because it sits at 35% usage, it doesn't mean you need to start tweaking settings to the detriment of visual fidelity just to make the CPU work harder. That's just ridiculous. What next, make sure the SSD is 95% full? How shall we get the system to use all 16GB of system RAM?

The goal for a 4k system is to get it pushing 60fps at the highest possible graphic settings, and the CPU plays a much lesser part than the GPU. If money is an issue like you say, then why buy a 4k monitor and a 1080ti in the first place?

Perhaps I explained myself terribly or maybe you're not taking the time to consider your opinion might not be 100% correct all the time? If your CPU is never the bottleneck, then you've wasted money on it. That is a simple fact. In a well balanced system, there should always be some scenario where one component may be the bottleneck. So linking that back to this thread, yes, it's possible one or two situations may show that the OP's CPU is bottlenecking his system, but that is both normal and fine. The cost to ensure the CPU is never a bottleneck is totally disproportionate to the benefit it brings.

 

[passifid]

Perhaps I explained myself terribly or maybe you're not taking the time to consider your opinion might not be 100% correct all the time? If your CPU is never the bottleneck, then you've wasted money on it. That is a simple fact. In a well balanced system, there should always be some scenario where one component may be the bottleneck. So linking that back to this thread, yes, it's possible one or two situations may show that the OP's CPU is bottlenecking his system, but that is both normal and fine. The cost to ensure the CPU is never a bottleneck is totally disproportionate to the benefit it brings.

You're just wrong tbqh. If he has a CPU bottleneck getting a 1
I7 6700 is 170 from certain exchanges. Why waste a gpu that is likely over £730 for the sake of £63 after trade in. This is also assuming he won't overclock. If we were looking at a budget build fair enough but a 4k machine isn't really budget.
Also to OP you may get some bottlenecking at stock. Since I lost the CPU lottery o have my 4770k at stock and I sometimes see 80% usage on all 8 threads. But it won't notice at 60 FPS as these are on game I run at 140-170fps never at 60

 

[Lokken86]

Your CPU is very fast. Games are generally GPU bound at 4k you'll be fine OP

 

[arby1]

You're just wrong tbqh. If he has a CPU bottleneck getting a 1
I7 6700 is 170 from certain exchanges. Why waste a gpu that is likely over £730 for the sake of £63 after trade in. This is also assuming he won't overclock. If we were looking at a budget build fair enough but a 4k machine isn't really budget.
Also to OP you may get some bottlenecking at stock. Since I lost the CPU lottery o have my 4770k at stock and I sometimes see 80% usage on all 8 threads. But it won't notice at 60 FPS as these are on game I run at 140-170fps never at 60

Ok, prove me wrong with facts then.
Show me the fps increases by improving the CPU.
You're saying that he could spend £60 and improve by an average of what?? 0.5 fps? I'd say less than that. Or he could save that money and put it towards a better GPU in 6 months where he'd probably get 30fps increase for a spend of £250 (after selling his 1080ti). One of those plans is trying to balance the system, the other is trying to make sure the CPU is never the bottleneck, which typically isn't cost effective.

So CPU spend would be £120 for each fps, my plan would be ~£10 per fps.
Yes, these figures are approximate, but that doesn't mean the principle is wrong.
If money's no object then of course you get the best cpu you can, but if you do care about money, then cpu is a good place to save and suffer the very occasional bottleneck.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

If your CPU is never the bottleneck, then you've wasted money...

If we were discussing video editing then I could see your point, but we're discussing gaming at 4k resolution with a 1080ti so you wouldn't need to waste much money to ensure the CPU wasn't the bottleneck. The OP is concerned that his i5 may be the bottleneck, and in my experience his GPU will be the bottleneck in most games and that's just fine for what he's using it for. If his CPU was a bottleneck to a 1080ti at 4k then he wouldn't want to wallow in the glow of having spent wisely on his CPU while his £750 GPU chugged along at 60%.

 

[arby1]

If we were discussing video editing then I could see your point, but we're discussing gaming at 4k resolution with a 1080ti so you wouldn't need to waste much money to ensure the CPU wasn't the bottleneck. The OP is concerned that his i5 may be the bottleneck, and in my experience his GPU will be the bottleneck in most games and that's just fine for what he's using it for. If his CPU was a bottleneck to a 1080ti at 4k then he wouldn't want to wallow in the glow of having spent wisely on his CPU while his £750 GPU chugged along at 60%.

I fully agree it can be annoying, but I'm not sure the thrill of having one game play at a few fps faster is worth it either though. In my opinion i'd rather wait and buy something that would give a noticeable improvement later.

 

[Sasahara]

I pretty much agree with Sting here, but this thread has turned into a bad bun fight.

Simple answer here, overclock the 6600k and most games will use the full power of the 1080ti at 4K 60fps.

The number of games that require more CPU grunt to hit 60fps will be quite low and a lot of those games may be bottlenecked even by a i7-8700k.

If the OP has any specific games that they want to run using the 1080ti at 60fps we need to know which ones to give an accurate opinion.

 

[imginy]

Hi all,

I recently got a 1080Ti Strix OC, which I've put in a PC with a 6600K (stock) and 16GB RAM.

Am I likely to be experiencing any bottlenecking with this configuration? It occurred to me that the CPU isn't as high-end as the new card, and I wanted to make sure I'm getting the best of it.

Many thanks!

Depends what games your playing, but no reason to have that CPU at stock get it clocked up.

You can always swap that i5 for second hand i7 if the games you are playing like the extra threads.