Hi smart people, I apologize in advance if this a dumb question.

I'm thinking of upgrading my midrange gtx970 to a 1080ti, while probably keeping my current CPU the i7 4790k, but I don't know how well it has aged and if it would bottleneck the GPU at 1080 gaming which I will be playing until I can get a new monitor. Or if it'll bottleneck at higher resolutions when I get said monitor.

So should I get a new CPU to keep up with the GPU? If so, which should I take a look at :)

Thanks.

You might as well stay on your 970 until you're ready to move up from 1080p.

I concur with this. I got a 1060 because I am still running at 1080p. The 1080ti just won't offer you any better performance really at that resolution.

Well I agree, somewhat, except I can't get 60fps on a lot of the new titles at the highest settings at 1080p, and since I want a 4K monitor within this year anyway, I will buy a 1080ti to future proof. Anyway I hope someone will actually answer my question.

Plenty of tests have shown that you absolutely see a benefit by upgrading to a 1080Ti. Devil's Canyon is still a very good chip, especially because you purchased an i7.

Also, if you don't have an SSD yet, you should definitely pick one up.

The 4790K is fine, you should in no way upgrade your intel CPU now unless you are pondering going with an AMD R7 part. intel is supposedly rushing to get Coffee Lake out before the end of 2017 to obsolete the Kaby Lake line.

Of course if you happen to have obscene amounts of money X299 is coming before Coffee Lake.

@tothenines:

You're CPU won't bottleneck the video card. The previous responses may not have answered you actual question, but it was sound advice. There's no sense in upgrading you're video card until you have a 4K monitor. There's no such thing as future proofing when it comes to PC's. If you know you're getting a 4K monitor later this year, you're best bet is to save the money you'd spend on a GPU now, then buy everything at once. Doing that way will save you money in the long run, since everything will drop in price within the next few months.

@gizmo88: thanks! I do have a TB SSD, but its quickly running out of space. So it might be time for another one.

So what I gather from you and MeierTheRed, buying a new CPU would be waste of money. Though I might look into that AMD line, and see what that is about. :b

Your good to go with that cpu, and you will certainly see good gains. There havent been big improvements with intel quads, any gains from upgrading to a newer quad would be insignificant. Your weak point ismcertainly your gpu.

On top of that, generally the harder you push the graphics and resolution the less important cpu overhead is. increasing resolution may do the opposite you expect - it doesnt increase the cpu workload for the most part, and by decreasing the number of frames the simulation is running at, as you become gpu bound, it actually decreases the cpu workload. Thats generally why you see good cpu gaming benchmarks at lower settings and resolutions.

For the moment, gaming at 1080p and highest settings would get you an easy 60fps in current games, and you should be ready tackle 4k... just remember if you enter 4k gaming, future titles will push your 1080ti and you will find yourself wanting to drop to 1440p - so make sure you buy a 4k monitor with a good clean 1440p, as some look baaaad when not running their native 4k. The gap between 4k and 1080p is enormous.

Edit: I should clarify - you may get cpu bottleneck at 1080p, depending on the game, because that gpu is a beast. Its nothing to be concerned about though, as Im not sure many cpus would fare much better. You will still certainly have enough frames to keep you happy.

@yabbering_yeti: thanks, very informative. How do I make sure a 4K monitor can also put out good 1440p?

@tothenines:

Thats a great question, and a hard one to answer. 1440p on a 4k panel is never going to look great, your still going to be displaying 2560x1440 logical pixels on 3840 x 2160 physical pixels - and that doesnt even up, so there is scaling needed. Some monitors do it better than others, but none can physically do it well. You really have to just hope to find reviews that cover that topic. Its hard to rely on users for this information because many dont have the eye for it.

This issue is what led me to buy a 1440p ips monitor instead of 4k. That, and I dont want to commit to keeping a 4k capable pc for the 10 years my monitor lasts.

I run a 4790k and 2 1080ti's at the moment and the 4790k has no problems keeping up. I mostly game at 4k on my TV.

Definitely agree with going 1440p if you are planning to upgrade to a 1080ti. 4k is super nice but only makes sense on a big screen (50" or more) for games. A 27" 1440p monitor seems to be the sweet spot for gaming at the moment.

Get a new GPU. Your CPU is fine.

I have 12, 1080 Tis in this house right now. But that's because I'm a crazy Bitcoin person, lol, I game on a single 1080 Ti for 1440.

But I concur, although I am really tempted by 32" 4k monitors, those make much more sense to me than 27" 4k, because you have to use display scaling at that size which kind of wastes the 'real estate' potential of 4k no?

Video games haven't been taking advantage of CPU advances for a little while now so that 4790k is still good enough for pretty much anything short of some hefty rendering, video editing, folding@home, etc. Even the shiniest new Titan wouldn't be bottlenecked by a 4790k. Stick with that CPU until it either dies or you start to feel like it can't handle what you're throwing at it.

If you get a 1080ti and you stick with a resolution of 1080p, you're probably not going to need a new graphics card until the damn 1080ti just decides to kick the bucket. If you're still running games at 1080p, I wouldn't get a new card anymore powerful than a 1070 and even that's some overkill. I'm personally still using a 970 and an i5 3470 with a 1080p monitor and have only run into problems with two games (Shadow Warrior, for some reason, and Dishonored 2, which actually runs fine now).

Thanks guys, and yeah I think a 1440p monitor is the way to go since I just learned that no 4K monitor goes above 60hz, which sounds so low to me. but I guess no game is going to run above 60 fps anyway in 4K.

@justin258: thanks, but try running total war warhammer on the highest setting on a 970, runs out of memory right quick :b but yeah most games are fine I guess the dream is just to run anything on ultra with stable 60 fps. But I think 1440p is where it's at on 27 inch and a 1080ti should definitely do the job. Just glad this 2013 CPU is still optimal.

Btw a mod can close this thread if they want :) thanks people

Just to echo the other posters here:

Your i7 is more than fine, as long as it's OC'd, it's going to be within 5-10% of the current top of the line. I wouldn't even consider upgrading until we know more about coffee lake ( the Intel response to Rizen).

Your 970 should be fine for 1080p. There's generally a big performance cost between very high and ultra for little in return, so I'd suggest turning down settings if need be. I know that sucks to hear, but games are usually built from console levels (i.e. Medium settings) up instead of top of the line ultra settings down.

If you're looking for a monitor upgrade, I think current best practice is to get a high refresh rate 1440p monitor + gsync. 4K is a big performance hit but isn't generally worth it vs a good 1440p monitor. A 1080ti is a good card for 1440p + high frame rates, while a 1070 is slightly overkill for 1440p + 60 fps.

It will bottlekneck but it wont be noticeable at all since the raw power if the card destroys 1080p itself. You will see a huge boost but a 1080ti is overkill for 1080p and barely standard for 4k right now. If you are ok with your setup stick with it until the next gen cards imo

I'm in a similar boat, but my CPU is worse, only a 2500 i5. If I plan on gaming exclusively on a television at 1080p is it worth upgrading from a 970 to a 1070?

My girlfriend and I just lost our 180 hour Witcher 3 save, so we are starting over from scratch. Being able to play without fiddling with settings would be nice.

i5 2500 is fine unless you want to push really high framerates for a high refresh monitor (which you don't)

There's a case to be made for upgrading an i5 2500 for CPU intensive games like Cities Skylines but it's not worth upgrading for edge cases

A 970 to a 1070 is a worthwhile upgrade, I may even push you towards buying a refurbished or second hand 1080 instead, you can get some great deals on those

The CPU is fine, Intel's performance hasn't really increased meaningfully in 6 years.

@wynnduffy: I just know as soon as I buy anything, the 11000 series will come out. But that's probably overkill for 1080.

I have a gut feeling those won't arrive until end of year (or next) and Nvidia will take a look at AMD's next GPU and then decide how to respond.

Oh yeah, that is a good point... AMD's Vega GPUs are out next month, now that might be worth hanging on for.