Will i5 4690k bottleneck gtx 980 ti sli?

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Alister Allen

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May 30, 2015
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Hey I am planning on buying a gtx 980 ti to do ultra 1440p gaming 60fps+. However im worried that around 5 years later i might need to sli it. I want to make my build as cheap as possible. So im planning to get a it 4690k. Will my i5 4690k bottleneck 980 ti sli if i ever sli it? Please tell me.

Thanks
 
Solution
holyprof
I wouldn't consider $1400 worth of GPUs driven by a $220 CPU ... especially knowing that the platform (MoBo + CPU) normally outlasts the GPU (my old PC had the GPU upgraded 3 times keeping all the rest).

So my advice: the i5-4690K is really the best gaming CPU at the moment (i got one myself a month ago), but that could change in the next year or two with heavy games coming and as others mentioned above, some games can saturate an i5-4690K even today.

Get at least an i7-4790K or even better, a six-core socket 2011-v3 CPU with corresponding motherboard to serve as a platform for future upgrades.

If money is a concern, an i5-4690K + single GTX 980Ti is an excellent base for a gaming PC today and in the next year or two. I have an...
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filippi

filippi

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Oct 18, 2012
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i5-4690k is a fantastic cpu for a gtx 980-ti. This should be your main concern.
Will i5-4690k be enough for your SLI. Absolutely.

But you should not care about what will happen five years from now as far as pc gaming is concerned.
Five years is just too long for any realistic estimative anyway.

Nobody can foresee a time when four strong independent oced cores wont be enough for playable gaming.
I dont think this will be a strong concern for next four years but this is just my personal opinion.
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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Aug 9, 2011
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I would recommend an i7 if you have the budget. Depending on the game the i5 can very much bottleneck SLI of those two powerful cards. My i5 bottlenecks my 280x CF setup in GTA V and a little bit in BF4. Both of these games are pretty heavy on the CPU and there is a CPU over head that comes with multiple graphics cards. This might become less of an issue though with DX12 but I can't be for sure about that right now.

All I know is I can't give a blanket statement that the i5 will never bottleneck that GPU setup.
 
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Shark1965

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Mar 6, 2014
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I'll give you an experience of my own. I had a 4670k@4.2 with 2xHD7870 @ 1080 and in certain BF4 maps (like firestorm) it would bottle neck the gpu's. My advice is i5 for single gpu and i7 for multiple gpu's. Buy the way I had to upgrade to the i74790k.
 
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holyprof

holyprof

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Dec 16, 2011
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I wouldn't consider $1400 worth of GPUs driven by a $220 CPU ... especially knowing that the platform (MoBo + CPU) normally outlasts the GPU (my old PC had the GPU upgraded 3 times keeping all the rest).

So my advice: the i5-4690K is really the best gaming CPU at the moment (i got one myself a month ago), but that could change in the next year or two with heavy games coming and as others mentioned above, some games can saturate an i5-4690K even today.

Get at least an i7-4790K or even better, a six-core socket 2011-v3 CPU with corresponding motherboard to serve as a platform for future upgrades.

If money is a concern, an i5-4690K + single GTX 980Ti is an excellent base for a gaming PC today and in the next year or two. I have an i5-4690K + GTX960 and play everything on high-ultra at 1920x1080 (i don't play the latest graphics intensive games though).
 
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Bartendalot

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Apr 18, 2010
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You won't bottleneck those 980ti's but there are some games that take advantage of multithreading now and with DX12 coming next month, games may go in that direction.

I usually never advise people to wait but in this case, with DX12 and Skylake with its new socket - if future proofing is something you are thinking about and you will be spending close to $2k on a new computer, I would wait and get the new socket so you will have the best chance to avoid bottlenecks down the line without having to buy a new mobo.

This coming from someone who dropped an $80 x5650 @4.4Ghz on air into a motherboard from 2009 which will let me sli 980ti's without bottlenecking for at least another generation or two. By getting something I considered more futureproof, it will last me 8 or so years of top shelf gaming.
 
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