Will an i5-8400 bottleneck a 1080Ti at 3440x1440@120hz?

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kostaskostoglou

Feb 15, 2018
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I am trying to pick parts to drive my new monitor (AW3418DW) at 3440x1440 at 120hz.

Will a i5-8400 be enough to drive a 1080Ti? Is the expense for a i7-8700k justified or I'll be just fine with i5-8400?

I had ordered an i5-8400 but I have time to cancel it if needed.
 
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kostaskostoglou

Feb 15, 2018
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Thanks for the recommendation but the website is not very helpful. It cites 9% bottleneck without mentioning which part of the build is the bottleneck (or how the percentage is measured).
 
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K

kostaskostoglou

Feb 15, 2018
4
0
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Since the monitor can achieve 120 hz, I want to get as close to that as possible with my current GPU. I heard that at higher resolutions games are most likely GPU bound rather than CPU bound and that's why I am asking this question.

At 3440x1440 will the games be GPU bound or CPU bound?
 
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jay32267

Champion
Mar 16, 2017
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The website says that anything below 10% isn't considered a bottleneck.

When I entered your info I didn't know your RAM/HD info so I guessed and got 14%. It then told me your processor was the bottleneck.
 
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Dragos Manea

Dragos Manea

Splendid
Mar 30, 2015
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Watch games that you play benchmarks and see what fps they get, also if your gpu cant achieve 120 fps in the desired games there is no point to buy a 120 fps monitor. I repeat my self if you want to play at 120 fps buy i7, if 60 fps is ok with you then i5 is good enough. There are games that can achive 120 fps at 4k if you lower the settings.
 
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A

aquielisunari

Judicious
Mar 31, 2011
6,499
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33,015


I'm going to say no. That's on the low end of the i5 CPUs. Pairing it with a top end card isn't a good move. The 8700K with an Z370 board is justified if only to balance the system.

I'm lucky to have the 4690K. It handles the 1080 Ti beautifully with DSR enabled so the effective resolution is 1440p/ 2,560 x 1,440 instead of its native 1080p. The Ti easily picks up the slack and the CPU load is reduced. The Ti i have is an EVGA 1080 Ti FTW3 Hybrid. Even though chips have gotten better I wouldn't have such good frame rates with a 4460. It would be outclassed.

The 8700K is my recommendation. I7s seem to be offering more of an advantage these days so I think its value is only going to increase with future titles.

The 8700K would also be more apt to offer 120FPS+ on most titles whereas the 8400 would struggle possibly causing stuttering. Your target FPS is your monitor's refresh rate.
 
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K

kostaskostoglou

Feb 15, 2018
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0
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I am confused by your answer. The i5-8400 is a stronger CPU than the 4690k, it is actually on par with an i7-7700 (non-k). If your cpu is enough to drive a 1080 Ti then this is good news for me.
 
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