GPU advice

[[MEOW]]

Hi everyone, just looking for some GPU advice. Will a 4070 or 6800xt bottleneck my system and can my system even handle either of those cards?

System specs:
i7 9700k @ stock clock
aorus z390 wifi pro
32g of ddr4 @3200
Win 11
Samsung 970 evo plus
1080p 165hz monitor
750w gold psu

The reason I ask is because I just bought a 3070ti and now it seems it may be better to have a card with more vram for the future. I'd also need a bigger psu for a 6800xt. Currently I am still in the window of the 30 day return for the 3070ti. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

[hackintoshchap]

This is something that Hardware Canucks covered in a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08TWw7zv5hA

Hardware Unboxed looked at some other video cards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh7kFgHe21k

Daniel Owen looked at what AMD cards you can buy for the price of a 4070:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z109Di2g5s8

As you are on 1080P, high refresh rate, then it depends on the games that you play. Some new titles may not see the frame rate that more recent titles can provide. Your CPU will bottleneck performance on many games with the higher end graphics cards. A 3070 for 1080P, high refresh rate may be a good compromise. Moving to 1440P would remove some load on your CPU.

At the end of the day you want your system to achieve the framerate that you like with the latency that you enjoy. You should be able to use the i7-9700K for a little longer, but you may need to turn down settings on CPU heavy titles where very high IPC is king.

Edit for better explanation on IPC CPU usage.

[DasWulf]

4070 will be more than enough for that build. The biggest benefit you will get from the 4070 is its power efficiency, which would work in your favor.

[emoticorpse]

You should probably worry about now first. Future of pc gaming looks pretty bad.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

From two bad choices of 3070 Ti and 4070 the 4070 is better choice.

[Illusion of Progress]

Originally posted by MEOW:

Hi everyone, just looking for some GPU advice. Will a 4070 or 6800xt bottleneck my system and can my system even handle either of those cards?

There is always a bottleneck. It is not constant, either, so worry about it is pointless.

Simply worry about something if it is limiting performance to below the level you desire.

It doesn't need to be made more complicated than that. Doing so is creating arbitrary problems for yourself.

Originally posted by MEOW:

The reason I ask is because I just bought a 3070ti and now it seems it may be better to have a card with more vram for the future.

I was about to say that the time to worry about this has passed if you already bought it, but if you can return it, then yes I'd do so for that very reason.

There's not really a point to buying new RTX 30 series GPUs at the prices they nominally go for because every one of them has better alternatives. Not unless you absolutely must have nVidia, but then you are going to be paying for that.

If you must have nVidia, the RTX 4070 is the "least bad" option around that price range. But it's at parity at best with a two and a half year old alternative that is cheaper. Namely, the RX 6800 XT has slightly better rasterized performance, but lower ray tracing performance. It has 25% less VRAM and costs more. So it's a slightly worse option IMO than one that has existed for years, unless you absolutely must have nVidia. It will use quite a bit less power (and also likely run cooler?) than the RX 6800 XT though.

Originally posted by MEOW:

I'd also need a bigger psu for a 6800xt.

Why do you think this?

I ask because I also have a 750W PSU and am considering a 6800 XT, and from what I've found, that amount of wattage should be fine.

Originally posted by hackintoshchap:

Moving to 1440P would remove some load on your CPU.

I don't like this thought process, and here's why.

Going from 1080p to 1440p isn't reducing the load on the CPU. Like for like, it's going to remain the same because higher resolutions aren't less CPU demanding.

Instead, what may happen is, because higher resolutions are more GPU demanding, you may be more likely to have a GPU limitation that is larger than the CPU limitation is to begin with.

But then this means the performance will be down even more. Ergo, the performance was at a point that (apparently) warranted a purchase to rectify, and the solution instead brings performance down more. Am I the only one who sees this as backwards? As working against itself?

[[MEOW]]

Thanks for the replies and information so far, I appreciate.

[_I_]

there is always a bottleneck
it really depends on the game or task, most often cpu or gpu are the limit

if your goal is high fps, it takes more cpu and gpu
if the goal is high res, then more gpu

[[MEOW]]

I'd also need a bigger psu for a 6800xt.
[/quote]
Why do you think this?

I ask because I also have a 750W PSU and am considering a 6800 XT, and from what I've found, that amount of wattage should be fine.
[/quote]

I was looking at the product description on Microcenters website and saw that the recommended psu was 800w so that's why I thought I may need a bigger psu if I went the amd route but I haven't researched it much so I could totally be wrong.

[♠Jade♠]

Considering you just bought the 3070ti, I would say enjoy that for a while until you decide to do a bigger system overhaul and go 1440p or higher.

[[MEOW]]

Yeah I am sort of leaning that way, it is just slightly frustrating because I waited to upgrade my monitor and gpu until now (was still using an old 720p tv from 2011) for different reasons (built this pc right before the pandemic) and now I am just doubting my purchase with the release of the 4070 with some models $50 USD cheaper or only $20 USD more than what I paid for this 3070ti

Again thanks for the replies and advice so far everyone

[_I_]

psu brand/model/age?

80+ is easily faked

[🦜Cloud Boy🦜]

i7 9700k is fine, it's still an acceptable CPU. It has 8c/8t, which is equal to similar generation's 6c/12t CPUs like the i7 8700k. It comes with sufficient cores and threads, and still fairly modern, So, No it won't bottleneck either 4070 or 6800xt by any major margin.

As for the GPU, 4070 / 3080 / 6800xt are similar in performance, 6800xt has more VRAM but 4070 has better Ray Tracing and upscaling (DLSS) , prices are also similar if you can find the 4070 at MSRP. Both options are good, you can't go wrong with any of these cards.

[Guydodge]

if you can get the 4070 near the same price do it.its a no brainer.honestly though at 1080
the 3070ti will still perform quite well.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

I'd go with the one that has the lower power consumption if I were looking at the 4070 and the cards with equal or higher specs for better fps.

[ヤスクニ Heroes]

i run 5700g with 4070ti, i usually only 180w of power draw from the gpu* technically it can draw up to 280W, which means that im bottlenecking.

i have 750w psu, 32 gb ddr4 ram