4K gaming and cpus

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
C

chickenballs

Honorable
Dec 18, 2016
504
20
11,215
www.deviantart.com
So I have seen people recommending new and expensive cpus like i7 9700k and i9 9900k for gaming and started to wonder whether we really need high end CPUs with 6+cores and 12+ threads for 4K games.
Back when Pascal gpus was released I have seen reviews and videos showing that even the lowly Pentium g4560 was able to keep up with the i7 7700K in many games running at 4K

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3498981/pentium-g4560-performance-7700k-gaming.html

The question is, is it still true today? Can I pair a "low end" cpu like the i5 8600k or even 8400 with a RTX 2080Ti and still get close to the same fps as with a much more expensive cpu like the i9 9900k when play games at 4k?

I have tried to google for it but couldn't find any real numbers. It seems nowadays all the review sites want us to buy the latest and badest cpus
 
Solution
TerryLaze

Even the lowest CPUs get 88% of the FPS that the 9900k get's!!!
Granted it is "only" with a 1080ti and doesn't show minimums,but as already said at the low FPS you will be getting at 4k the chances of getting worse...
Sort by date Sort by votes
prince_xaine

prince_xaine

Honorable
Feb 3, 2018
1,025
31
11,890
Honestly, you shouldn't notice much FPS difference at 4K. This is because as the resolution increases, more load is transferred to the GPU from the CPU. This means your CPU is waiting for your GPU to give it information, causing the GPU to be the bottleneck. So yes, you should be able to use a 'lower' end CPU for 4K gaming with your card, as long as it can handle 4K.

A good example? I used to have an i7-3770K (@3.5GHz) paired with a 1080 Ti. 4K games would usually run between 30FPS and 60FPS at ultra settings, depending on the game of course. I now have an i7-8700K (@4.5GHz) paired with a 1080 Ti and its honestly about the same.

I also upgraded to the Samsung 970 Pro and DDR4 memory. So no bottlenecks there either.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
C

chickenballs

Honorable
Dec 18, 2016
504
20
11,215
www.deviantart.com
That's what I thought too but there should be more benchmarks to show how much of a difference the cpu could/couldn't make at 4K. If you search for RTX 2080Ti reviews you would find all the reviewers using at least an i7 with no comparison with other lower end cpus in their benchmarks.
That also makes me wonder how many of those who have spent tons of money on high end gpus like gtx 1080ti, rtx 2080 and rtx 2080ti actually use them for playing games at 4K or if most of them just buy these cards to play csgo at 200+fps
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
TerryLaze

TerryLaze

Polypheme
May 9, 2016
9,507
2,444
60,940

Even the lowest CPUs get 88% of the FPS that the 9900k get's!!!
Granted it is "only" with a 1080ti and doesn't show minimums,but as already said at the low FPS you will be getting at 4k the chances of getting worse minimums are very low.
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Core_i9_9900K/19.html
relative-performance-games-38410-2160.png

 
Upvote 2 Downvote
Solution
prince_xaine

prince_xaine

Honorable
Feb 3, 2018
1,025
31
11,890


The only thing I don't like about your chart: It doesn't show what FPS 100% is.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

chickenballs

Honorable
Dec 18, 2016
504
20
11,215
www.deviantart.com


thanks!
this chart is what I have been looking for
Now if only there are more details like which games they tested and as you said 1% and 0.1% low fps

I am more curious about at the rtx 2080Ti as I believe it is currently the only worthy upgrade to my gtx 1080
because I don't want to waste money on some half-assed upgrade like 1080ti or rtx 2080 that are only 30% faster
The only downside is its price. It's basically a Titan class card with the same price tag as a Titan.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
cryoburner

cryoburner

Judicious
Oct 8, 2011
5,756
1,366
34,840
He provided a link there to the review, where they have frame rates listed for individual games at 4K on another page...

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Core_i9_9900K/15.html

Scroll down past the similar percentage-based chart to get to the average frame rates. They don't list minimums though.

I would say that any Ryzen or Intel Core processor with at least 6-cores/6-threads or 4-cores/8-threads from recent years should be able to keep up with a high-end graphics card in just about any game at 4K. 4-core/4-thread processors might be starting to limit performance a little in a few recent titles like Battlefield that can make heavier use of more threads, but should be enough for most titles.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

chickenballs

Honorable
Dec 18, 2016
504
20
11,215
www.deviantart.com


i see.
It seems Civilization is the only game in which the pentium is really bottlenecking the gpu.
I wonder if it is true for new games like Shadow of the tomb raider and BF5 which have 4770k/4790 as the recommended cpu.

Also this guy is having problem with his 4790K, the same cpu I am using, and the rtx 2080 which performs much like the gtx 1080ti
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3814991/4790k-bottleneck-rtx-2080.html



dont think some games would even run on the core 2 duo

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Core2-Duo-E8400-vs-Intel-Pentium-G4560/955vs2925

its just too old
it MAY work when running at 8K though
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

s1mon7

Reputable
Oct 3, 2018
96
4
4,635
I upgraded to a 1080Ti and then upgraded from the Pentium G4560 to a 7700k to create a 4K multimedia Kaby Lake build, so I could see the G4560 and the 7700K both running the 1080Ti for a while. While I didn't play Battlefield 1 in multiplayer, I noticed 0 difference in everything I did play, with everything locked to the monitor's 60hz refresh rate pretty much all the time on both processors. Thinking about it, that CPU upgrade was literally the worst upgrade I could have made for $300.

Even if you get the 2080Ti, you simply won't have to turn down AA or other graphics presets to hit the monitor's 60hz refresh rate at all times, and that's it, the CPU won't make any difference. I'd probably pair it with a i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 at best, and that's for pure longevity and guaranteeing you won't see sub-60fps minimums probably for the build's lifetime.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
feelinfroggy777

feelinfroggy777

Glorious
Dec 13, 2016
5,721
135
45,990
CPU does not matter much with 4k. But I would not run a dual core chip either. Many of the benchmarks are done with little to no background processes. So if you like to stream, listen to music, chat on discord, ect. while you play, you will want some more threads.

Hard to beat the price and performance of the Ryzen 2600. Seems like an easy choice when you can get it for around $150 and it is within 1% of the fps of all other CPUs.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Ryzen_5_2600/15.html
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

s1mon7

Reputable
Oct 3, 2018
96
4
4,635


Yup, that's the processor I'd get for a 4K gaming build if I were to build now. It's much more than enough for 4K gaming probably for long years to come and will do everything else really well too.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

chickenballs

Honorable
Dec 18, 2016
504
20
11,215
www.deviantart.com
Though I do agree that the Ryzen cpus are great for 4K gaming BUT that is only if you are going to build a completely new system from scratch.
If you already have a somewhat modern CPU with at least 4cores I think you should be fine as shown by the numbers above.
correct me if I am wrong but I believe my current i7 4790K and 16gb ddr3 should still be enough for 4K gaming in the next few years even if I decide to upgrade to something like the rtx 2080Ti
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

chickenballs

Honorable
Dec 18, 2016
504
20
11,215
www.deviantart.com
Well it looks like the ancient Sandy Bridge i7 2600K is still good for gaming even when paired with the RTX 2080 Ti
sure it won't give you 200-300 fps like with the new but super expensive 9900k at 1080p but for those who have 1440p and 4K monitors the Sandy Bridge still seems to be able to get the job done:

GamersNexus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn9EMlxdCrM


EDIT:
although I don't usually agree with everything Linus says but I think he is totally right about intel and their HEDT cpus. It makes even less sense for gamers to get intel HEDT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEw-3vpqhbQ
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom