I recently bought a 7700X processor but found a 9700X for a similar price. My current GPU is a 3060 with 12GB of VRAM. I'm worried that this might create a bottleneck with the new CPU. I usually play games at 1080p on high settings and aim for around 90 FPS for story-based games and 120 FPS for competitive shooters. Would it be okay to stick with my 3060 for a few months until I can upgrade my GPU in May? How much of a performance hit should I expect in my games?
1 Answer
When gaming, there's always going to be a bottleneck, usually whichever component is the slowest at the moment. Generally, GPU bottlenecks are more manageable because you can just lower the graphics settings or utilize upscaling to boost your frame rate. If your GPU holds back a better CPU, you won't gain much additional performance, but it won't ruin your gaming experience either. The 9700X isn’t a huge upgrade over the 7700X, often humorously referred to as 'zen 5%' because of how minimal the performance gain is. Still, it might let you see slightly shorter load times.
Sounds like solid advice! Thanks for clarifying!