I'm running a 1080TI paired with an i7 8700k and planning to upgrade my GPU soon—probably going for a 9070 or 5070TI. My question is, if I use the new GPU while gradually upgrading the rest of my system, what kind of bottleneck issues should I expect? I know there may be some bottlenecking, but will it affect my gaming performance significantly or cause any stability issues? It's been a while since I built a PC, so I'm a bit out of the loop on this.
6 Answers
If your CPU bottlenecks the GPU, you'll mainly just see lower FPS than what the GPU is capable of. But it shouldn't cause any other problems, just less performance from your games.
Keep in mind the PCIe3 limits with your GPU; it will still work, but the newer GPUs support PCIe5. You're probably going to face some CPU bottlenecks in most games. It’s harder to find GPUs than CPUs right now, so starting with the GPU is a solid choice for your upgrades.
I considered upgrading my motherboard too, but I think I’ll just focus on getting the GPU first, even if it takes a while to do everything else.
You’re in a good place—my setup is the opposite; I have a powerful CPU but an older GPU right now. There are no inherent stability issues if you go this route.
It really depends on your gaming resolution. Upgrading your GPU won't necessarily give you a big performance boost at 1080p, but you shouldn't run into any serious issues overall with your setup.
For now, I'm sticking with 1080p, but once my whole new setup is ready, I'll probably switch to 1440.
You should be good if you're gaming at higher resolutions; 1080p might make the bottleneck more noticeable with your CPU. But at 1440p or 4k, your GPU will definitely perform better and reduce the limitations of your CPU.
Your PSU might require an upgrade along with the GPU since modern graphics cards demand more power. However, with your RM750X, you should be okay for now!
I've heard that about PSUs. I think the 750 Corsair RM750X should be sufficient for my current setup.
That's what I was thinking! Thanks for confirming. I guess even with a bottleneck, there should still be a performance boost in newer games.