minimum CPU that will not bottleneck GTX 1070!?

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
The "minimum CPU" depends on how CPU-intensive and GPU-intensive the games you want to play are and how much of an impact on CPU usage increasing graphics detail has in the games in question. Some features like display resolution, texture resolution, texture filtering, full-screen aliasing, etc. have no impact on CPU usage but drastically increase GPU usage and you can make the GPU the bottleneck in nearly any game with almost any CPU that way. Some games have fancy lighting post-processing that will nuke the shaders of almost any GPU.

Mileage varies. There is little point in losing sleep about it today, wait until the benchmarks come out before worrying.
 

Harri_

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Jun 17, 2016
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I was looking at the path to get an i5 but then to be safe (performance ways) I am choosing to get either an i7 4790k or an i7 6700k.
The 6700k is a tiny bit cheaper and worse performance but it isn't far off of the i7 4790k. So my only decision now is to either get little more performance but little more expensive or worse performance and cheaper. Im heading towards the better performance only because I want the best performance for my GPU in the I7 range.
 

REKTER

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Jan 29, 2016
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There will not be any major difference between i5 and i7, only 1-5 extra fps on i7 (10 if comparing with crappy i5's)
 

fattyfatchops

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May 13, 2012
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Heya,

So I just got a 1070 and Im running an i5 4670k clocked to 4.5ghz with 16g of ram...
For the most part it is absolute BEAST MODE.... 1080p has never looked so nice... and for all the people saying the 1070 is overkill for 1080p -lets just say First Person Shooters @ 144hz gaming is intense and YES, you can totally tell the difference, and its for that reason that I much prefer running the settings as high as possible to keep around that 144hz mark and with this card I can... for the most part.

Now as it is early days, I havent had a chance to fully tweak things but I have noticed in the following games:

Dying Light - Max - CPU locked @ 95-100% use constantly frame rate just around the 120 mark
Tomb Raider - Cranked to max exc hairworks - CPU works wonders with an avg of 230+fps in the benchmark
Battlefield 4 - CPU working harder than with the 770 I had previously, 70ish% instead of 50ish% but constantly hitting a 200fps cap
Battlefield 4 with 200% oversampling(synthetic 4K) - there was a small hint of lag and frame rate dropped to around 70... the CPU struggled HARD for this and game was unplayable, well for me at least, with some minor stuttering.... didnt try turning the settings down though.


Now with that said, all of the CPU issues could be driver related - hence the preface of "early days".... but there has been a noticable increase in CPU usage since slotting the 1070 in...

Its at this point I really wish I had gotten the 4770k..... Put it this way, if your spending 700+ (ossie dolla) on a shiny new 1070, why would you scrimp a 120ish on the CPU? with this round of **70 series, it really isnt focused for budget gaming, so if your money allows, I would go the i7 for sure, K series of course.... but thats my opinion on my experiences,

Hope this helps.
Fatty
 
+REKTER If I were buiding new, I personally wouldn't pair a GTX 1070 with anything less than an overclocked i5-6600K. Also, you'll need to budget for a CPU cooler, as that specific i5 does not come with a stock Intel cooler. A Cryorig H7 or Hyper 212 EVO would do the trick. However if the i5-6600K pushes your build over the budget, then a i5-6400 will be fine.
 

REKTER

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Jan 29, 2016
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Actually i'm planning to buying a 6600k, when prices drop to 220$ so i need to wait for that



 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator

Then you may be waiting for a very long time.

Intel hasn't had price drops on its chip in the past 10 years or so. Instead, Intel discontinues chips quicker when new chips get introduced to eliminate unsold inventory that would have needed price drops to clear. Even worse, Intel has increased prices on some models by $10-20 over time.

If you are lucky, you may be able to snatch a somewhat discounted 6600k from a retailer with excess inventory it wants to get rid of but don't expect downward pricing guidance from Intel.

The only thing which may change that would be Zen actually delivering on AMD's hype and AMD pushing it aggressive price points that would force a price bomb from Intel. Since AMD cannot afford to under-sell its margins too much, Zen likely won't get priced low enough to trigger an immediate reaction from Intel.
 
The 1070 is a pointless buy unless you're running a 1080p 144 htz screen (in which case you'll be wanting a has well or skylake unlocked CPU running at 4ghz+) or a 1440p 60htz screen (in which case a 4460 will absolutely do the job)

For 1080p 60htz a 1060 or RX 480 is enough.
 

REKTER

Reputable
Jan 29, 2016
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4,510


Actually i've saw i5 6600k at 225 dollars like 3 times (and yes, new condition). Btw when Zen will be released until october, right?
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator

You may see it occasionally listed at lower than the MSRP but that's just an occasional sale. Directed price drops from Intel haven't occurred in almost 10 years. Put another way, Intel hasn't dropped their prices to distributors and OEMs in 10 years. If vendors sell it cheaper, the lower price come out of their margin, not any price cuts from the supply chain or Intel.

As for when Zen is coming, October is an optimistic guess. Late 2016 (as in Q4) is the best indication AMD has put in any official announcement that I have seen. That could mean anywhere from October through December and a launch in October would likely mean limited availability through the remainder of 2016 anyway.