Because there's no such thing, when we talk about bottlenecks it's referred to the cpu.
A 480 gtx doesn't restrain an i5-3570k outside gaming, the question should be if the 480 gtx is still a valid option for gaming or there're better cards out there.
 


Huh no such thing as a GPU bottleneck? That is news to me! And who are these "we" that only use bottlenecks to refer to the cpu?

And yes you could get more performance out of your CPU if you upgraded your GPU.
 
There's no mention of the resolution, i just said, the question should be asked in another terms, like if the 480 gtx is capable of gaming in x or y game at z resolution, because we could also say that a 670 or 7970 "bottlenecks" the i5, and go for multi gpu setups...
 


Yes you have a point about the game and resolution... But that works the same way when talking about a CPU bottleneck... The only point you made i had an issue with is when you said there is no such thing as a GPU bottleneck.
 
All i'm saying is that the question should be asked in another terms, in my opinion in the Graphic & Displays forum.
I just don't see the point of saying a card bottlenecks x cpu, it doesn't work the way you do in a cpu, you change a cpu and you can verify 100% if the other one with the same card can be better, with a gpu change, you can verify the card is better, obviously like any other generation step, but not because it will take a huge advantage of the cpu performance(there're several cpus out there that doesn't bottleneck the high end cards of today)
We could speculate what card or not can bottleneck the i5, but you never know for sure.
For e.g. the 480 gtx at 1080p in some games would not get 100% gpu usage, if it's at a lower resolution it can play any game @60 fps, no restrains for the cpu.
 
yes, a 3570k would get more performance with a better gpu, so yes bottleneck. But it doesnt mean you will get bad performance, you should still get reasonable performance at 1080p on high detail in most games, you may have to step down to medium on some. Also the gtx480 sucks power like a blow heater, so i wouldnt advise buying it, but if you already have it, then oh well....
 

bwrlane

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Regardless of your GPU, it will almost always be the bottleneck in games (if you have a good CPU).

That's true of a GTX 480. But it is also true of a GTX 690.

The real question isn't about if there's a bottleneck. It's about whether you could achieve better performance with a better GPU. And the answer is categorically yes.