i5 4690k bottle necking my 1080ti

[Connor_46]

I'm experiencing some nasty CPU bottlenecking with my 1080ti while gaming. I have my i5 4690k overclocked to 4.6 Ghz and I'm constantly at 100% CPU usage in the resource monitor.

I also like to watch youtube on my secondary monitor while gaming which I know makes matters even worse. There are also certain games which hardly utilize my GPU, such as Friday the 13th, while CPU remains at a constant 100%.

I was thinking of upgrading to an i7 4790k to alleviate this but it would not be cheap, best offer is $390 cad right now and I doubt I'd get much for my i5.

Would such an upgrade be worth it for such a small performance increase or should I take the plunge and buy a new motherboard and ram to upgrade to the new 1151 CPUs?

 

[The Paladin]

the difference betrween i5 and I7 is pretty big, but I agree with you , for the price you can get an I7 7700K for cheaper, but of course you have to add the cost of heatsink, ram, motherboard on top of it all.

390$ now and enjoy your 4th gen pc for next 2 years or upgrade.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($318.46 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Corsair)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME Z270-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($175.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $734.43

 

[Rexper]

Definitely no need to upgrade to 1151 yet, as your current platform is still very relevant and that i7 4790k still performs very well in games. The difference is not small between that and your current CPU, it is quite large as mentioned.

Also, bottle necking isn't necessarily a bad thing (it is inevitable in all computers, anyways), unless the CPU is limiting your FPS below your frame rate goal.

What framerates are you receiving and what is your exact monitor?

If you want to utilize your GPU more, simply increase graphical settings/resolution.

 

[Connor_46]

Thanks for the responses.

I guess I'll go ahead and get the i7 then because I'm not in a hurry to switch out my motherboard and ram as well.
I'm using a 27" Acer Predator 1440p 165Hz monitor in addition to two 23" 1080p 60hz monitors and a 43" 1080p hdtv.

As is I'm getting around 115-80 fps in Rainbow Six Siege at 1440p, but the drop are jarring even with g sync on. The biggest issue I have is with the microstutter, I'm assuming because my CPU is at 100% the entire time.
Also playing games like Hitman and Civilization VI which are CPU intensive I can barely get to 60fps at 1440p. Playing Friday the 13th has been the worst so far with an average around 45-50fps on medium settings. Then I play a game like Doom 2016 which is far more GPU intensive and I max out the fps constantly at max settings.

Does anyone know if the multi-threading on the i7 helps with background usage like youtube while gaming?

 

[The Paladin]

your stuttering is because of the I5 yes, I bet if you ran it at 1080p you would not get that stuttering, (at least until you get your I7-4790k)

 

[Rexper]

your stuttering is because of the I5 yes, I bet if you ran it at 1080p you would not get that stuttering, (at least until you get your I7-4790k)

Decreasing resolution will not reduce any load for the CPU. In fact, it would likely increase the load at times since the gpu is less likely to be the limiting factor.

 

[Connor_46]

I got the i7 4790k and my framerates are much better. Around 15-30 fps higher on average. I still get a little micro stuttering on Rainbow Six Siege but I'm starting to think that has more to do with their servers, also far less than before.

I did get a nasty surprise in temperatures when I switched out for my i7 though. When I first put it in, ran my Asus BIOS overclocking and ran Aida64 it shot up to almost 100c. I turned off my PC and tightened by water cooler screws which seems to have helped it some. On idle It runs at about 35c. Opening new chrome tabs and watching youtube it jumps up to 53c. I haven't tried Aida64 again for fear of burning out my CPU but while gaming it doesn't go above 70c it seems at least. I know the i7 is supposed to run hotter but I didn't realize that much hotter. My i5 never got above 72c under maximum load. Do you think I possibly didn't apply enough thermal paste? Judging by images on google it was more than a sufficient amount. I'm also using Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste so no issue with quality paste I don't think. For water cooling I have a DeepCool Maelstrom 240m.