Hey everyone! I recently upgraded my setup to play at 3440x1440 resolution, and I was hoping to get a significant performance boost. I switched from an RTX 3070 to an RTX 5070Ti, which has been a powerhouse compared to my previous GPU. However, I didn't see the expected 2x improvement in performance while gaming. I checked my CPU and GPU usage using Afterburner, and it seems like my GPU usage is quite low, suggesting a CPU bottleneck. I wanted to ask if any of you with an i9-12900K have experienced similar issues. I've linked a document with my testing results, and I'd love it if you could check and compare your experiences with the 5070Ti and i9-12900K setup. (Please ignore Valheim in my results.)
3 Answers
Have you tried running your Alder Lake CPU with faster memory? Switching to 3600 MHz DDR4 could unlock more performance as it's well-suited for the memory controller in your CPU. You'll likely see better performance in gaming.
It's surprising that the i9-12900K would be bottlenecking anything. Are you sure it's not the settings you're using? If you're running at native resolution with high settings, it might not be that big of an issue. And with your games not being the most GPU-intensive, it makes sense if the GPU usage stays low. Plus, DDR4 has lower bandwidth compared to DDR5, which could impact performance too. Have you thought about switching to faster RAM?
It's definitely something to consider! I run a similar setup, and going to a higher RAM speed made a noticeable impact.
I can relate! I had a similar bottleneck with my Ryzen 5800x3D and an RTX 5080 at 1440p ultrawide, especially noticeable with DLSS settings. After switching to a 9800x3D, the performance issues really cleared up. Older CPUs often struggle with newer high-end GPUs in demanding scenarios, making it tough when you want to push higher FPS.
It feels like we sometimes hope our CPUs can keep up, but they just hit their limits with certain games.
Exactly! Some benchmarks seem way higher just because of different setups, like DDR5 vs. DDR4.
Yeah, it seems like the DDR4 could be holding you back. Switching to DDR5 could give you a nice bump in performance. Plus, don't forget that the 12th gen could be constrained by overall bandwidth as well.