GPU upgrade, CPU bottleneck?

[Ron]

My current GPU is a RTX 3070 and I've saved enough money to afford a 4080.

Is my 10th gen i5 (6x5Ghz) going to be a bottleneck?

[Adam Beckett]

Nope.

A 10th-gen 6-core (before the p-core/e-core nonsense), is beefy enough for all the current AAA games ... and the ones coming out.

The ONE bottleneck I see could the mainboard. You have to check the PCIe support of the CPU and the Mainboard. Not that it currently matters (PCIe 4/5) for a new RTX 40xx. Not much to gain from 4.0 or 5.0. But, drivers matter.

The downside of a 10th gen is lower speed DDR RAM support, and above mentioned PCIe bandwidth. Other than that, latest gen Intels do better (more fine-grained) energy efficiency, while also introducing new problems - especially 13/14th gen CPUs - as we all heard about those this year, since January.

Latest games will run fine with a beefy single-core and 6-full-core 10th gen Intel. But, long term, a switch to a more modern CPU/MB combo and DDR5 should be on your radar. You don't want your RTX 4080 to wait for the mainboard.

[hawkeye]

gpu performace is mostly resolution dependent whereas cpu performance is not. So it's hard to tell without knowing full details. The i5-10600k is slow w.r.t. current cpus.

[andreasaspenberg575]

i think it shoul work fairly well. if your gpu does get bottlenecked by the cpu however, you can upgrade your cpu to an i7 or an i9.

[Missing Spartan]

Your 10th gen i5 will bottle neck a 4080 but your not going to notice it. You'll be able to up your resolution and graphics settings while still maintaining 100+ fps in almost all games.

[r.linder]

Depends on the scenario, any LGA1200 CPU can and will bottleneck an RTX 4080 in some situations, just not all situations.

If you're worried about maximising your gaming performance then you should get a faster CPU, ideally on socket AM5, because you will be bound to get higher FPS in many games if you do so.

[UserNotFound]

Originally posted by Adam Beckett:

Nope.

A 10th-gen 6-core (before the p-core/e-core nonsense), is beefy enough for all the current AAA games ... and the ones coming out.

While what you've said may be true, as of now, I think certain games might stress a 6C/6T CPU, Space Marine 2 has a minimum of an i5 8600K, the hordes of Tyranids in Space Marine 2 might be one of the newer games that would make a 6C/6T CPU really stretch its legs, so to say.

Edit - Wait, isn't a 10th Gen i5 (i5-10400/10600?) capable of HT? Like 6C/12T? Ao, what's the problem, it may not be the fastest, but with HT it should hold up well in games. Forget about chasing that mythical balanced system nonsense, as long as games run well enough with good (enough) framerate, what does it matter?

I have an RX 7900XTX paired with an R7 5700X3D, and I think my CPU is good enough for a good experience playing games. Sure an R7 5800X3D would net me a few extra frames, but when games are running smooth enough with good framerate, why chase higher frames?

[Ron]

Thanks to everyone that commented!

[Tonepoet]

I'd wait. The rumor mill is anticipating new graphics cards at that time, and with Battlemage being confirmed for this year, and Lunar Lake[www.intel.com] being announced, that's looking quite likely. You'd think Intel would want to release Battlemage alongside Arrow Lake, and Arrow Lake is right on the horizon with the corresponding Lunar Lake mobile processors being announced.

We're really looking at Quarter 1 2025 being the very latest anybody anticipates new G.P.Us., and with the G.P.U. life cycle being around 2 years it'd really, really suck to drop a large chunk of change on a beefy G.P.U. only to have it outclassed in a matter of just a few months. Tech drops in value hard and fast, so there's no point in investing prematurely, especially if you've been saving up.

Granted, you might not be interested in Intel targeting the mid-range market or waiting until Spring, but you might be interested in A.M.D. since they also might be doing something in October.

Rumor even has it that the 5080 might be 10% more powerful than the 4090, and that'd really shake up the entire G.P.U. line up if that even ends up even being a half-truth.

I mean it's just rumors but still.

[Ron]

Originally posted by Tonepoet:

I'd wait. The rumor mill is anticipating new graphics cards at that time, and with Battlemage being confirmed for this year, and Lunar Lake[www.intel.com] being announced, that's looking quite likely. You'd think Intel would want to release Battlemage alongside Arrow Lake, and Arrow Lake is right on the horizon with the corresponding Lunar Lake mobile processors being announced.

We're really looking at Quarter 1 2025 being the very latest anybody anticipates new G.P.Us., and with the G.P.U. life cycle being around 2 years it'd really, really suck to drop a large chunk of change on a beefy G.P.U. only to have it outclassed in a matter of just a few months. Tech drops in value hard and fast, so there's no point in investing prematurely, especially if you've been saving up.

Granted, you might not be interested in Intel targeting the mid-range market or waiting until Spring, but you might be interested in A.M.D. since they also might be doing something in October.

Rumor even has it that the 5080 might be 10% more powerful than the 4090, and that'd really shake up the entire G.P.U. line up if that even ends up even being a half-truth.

I mean it's just rumors but still.

I appreciate the information!

[smokerob79]

yeah i would say almost the same....your current set up is a great match and if you can deal with the performance for a year or so WAIT.....what everything coming down the pipe line it, will make the current tech even cheaper.....that 4080 money could end up getting you CPU, mother, memory and GPU in 6 to 12 months.....

[Ron]

Originally posted by smokerob79:

yeah i would say almost the same....your current set up is a great match and if you can deal with the performance for a year or so WAIT.....what everything coming down the pipe line it, will make the current tech even cheaper.....that 4080 money could end up getting you CPU, mother, memory and GPU in 6 to 12 months.....

I wouldn't mind waiting but I'm older and have health issues. I figure I only have about 5 years left of enjoyable life (if I'm lucky) so even 6 months is too long to wait. This will be my last upgrade.

I've decided to pick up a used i7 8 core to accompany the 4080.

Thanks for the insight :)