Is i5-6600K future-proof - how many GPU upgrades can it handle?

PCTechguy · Feb 13, 2017

Hey,

I wanted to know. I have a i5-6600K in my rig. How future-proof is it? By that, I mean, how many GPU upgrades can it handle before it becomes a bottleneck?

Say, can my i5-6600K take a GTX 1080? 1180? In comparison to i7-6700K??

Now that I think about it. Maybe i7-6700K would have been the best option in terms of upgrading GPU.

Deniedstingray · Feb 13, 2017

PCTechguy :

Hey,

I wanted to know. I have a i5-6600K in my rig. How future-proof is it? By that, I mean, how many GPU upgrades can it handle before it becomes a bottleneck?

Say, can my i5-6600K take a GTX 1080? 1180? In comparison to i7-6700K??

It can definitely take a 1080

Let me retype. A 6600k will be good enough for a couple more GPU generations at least. I have an older i5 from 2013 and im not having any issues whatsoever yet. As long as the games you play arent from companies like ubisoft or something and are actually well made i dont think you will have any problems any time soon.

RCFProd · Feb 13, 2017

4C/4T will never be future proof. It is just great right now, but processors with more cores/threads might be the more future proof ones. To be fair, it is simply unknown.

synphul · Feb 13, 2017

No way to know. In some cases it may bottleneck right now. Depending on your resolution even an i7 7700k can bottleneck with a gtx 1080 if you simply don't give it enough pixels to power. Pair it with a 1080p or 720p resolution and the cpu will likely bottleneck every time.

Bottleneck isn't a finite 'condition', it's the result of poorly matched components. A core 2 duo e8400 with 2x gtx 1080's in sli is a poor match. An i7 7700k with a gt 740 is a poor match. Future proof doesn't exist, a game could be out right now or be released next month that will cripple the best pc and produce 25fps if it's poorly optimized. A game could release 2 years from now that's coded beautifully and scales extremely well and plays nicely with 6yr old hardware.

Since each game is a separate program or application with separate requirements it's tough to say. Solitaire, cs:go and witcher 3 all have very different hardware needs. To determine which gpu you need it helps to know what resolution monitor you're using and playing at. That has a bigger effect on the gpu and which one is needed vs which cpu you have.

If a game's physics run well on an i5 the gpu consideration really depends on the game in terms of how much eye candy it has, what graphics settings are used (medium, high, ultra) and whether you're gaming at 1080p, 1440p or 4k. If you're playing witcher 3 at 1080p a gtx 1080 might be a bit overkill. If playing witcher 3 at 4k a gtx 1060 will have trouble keeping up. At a certain point, looking at say witcher 3 and using the latest/greatest i7 7700k, a 1080 may go under utilized at 1080p resolution. While technically it could be seen as a bottleneck the other way of looking at it is the gpu is overkill. A gtx 1080 is more suited to 1440p/4k resolutions. Pairing it with too low of a resolution you'll be creating your own bottlenecks due to the overall setup being mismatched. You don't need a semi truck to run to the store for a gallon of milk.

PCTechguy · Feb 13, 2017

So mere GPU and CPU pairing is not enough

Atm, I have i5-6600K with GTX 1060, with a 1080p res. monitor. As of now, all the games I have tested, (BF1, CSGO, Minecraft,) seem to run just fine at maxed out settings.

At 4K res. in BF1 set in the options, my FPS takes quite a dip below 60.

Weird how my PC runs Battlefield 1 better than minecraft.. lol. Minecraft runs smooth, but sometimes after dying, my fps goes down to 10-25 fps.

I then have to go in and out of the world. Tried to delete the whole world, and start a new one, don't seem to have any / very little lag after death.

So aside from GPU / CPU combinations there are other factors, such as:

1. resolution,
2. game optimization,
3. Under perfoming because of the game being too easy.

Say, buying a GTX 1080 with i7-7700K just to play Minecraft, may be way overkill. Since it might underperform.

So a monitor or a game might be a "bottleneck" because it aint utilizing the CPU and GPU's full potential. But I don't see how a game can be a bottleneck, unless it is poorly optimized, and therefore not using the full power of CPU / GPU.

I just thought that in i7 might give me some more headroom in terms of upgrading my GPU.

Cuz it is easier to upgrade GPU than it is to upgrade CPU, I think. Not that I will upgrade any time soon.

HHJ_99_12 · Mar 14, 2017

The 6600K already bottlnecks in games such as BF1. In fact, its performance is WAY behind. So is it future-proof? NO. Its already a limiting factor in newer games

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Is i5-6600K future-proof - how many GPU upgrades can it handle?

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