I recently upgraded from a six-year-old GTX 1660 Ti to a used RTX 3070, anticipating a significant increase in frame rates. Surprisingly, there seems to be no difference at all, and I sometimes feel like performance might even be slightly worse. I've run benchmarks, and everything checks out fine with the card. My system includes an Intel i5-9400F CPU and I play on a 1920x1080 monitor at 164Hz. Could my CPU be bottlenecking the performance? Should I consider returning the GPU?
3 Answers
You should definitely make sure your GPU drivers are fully updated or even reinstall them using DDU. Often with GPU upgrades, this can resolve various performance issues. You might not see a massive jump in performance, but it should definitely be better than what your 1660 Ti offered, especially with features like DLSS on the 3070.
First, have you checked if your old CPU was the culprit before buying the new GPU? It's important to identify if you're CPU-limited. If not, it might be worth checking that your monitor is connected to the GPU and not the motherboard, since that could explain the lack of performance.
It sounds very much like you're facing a CPU bottleneck, especially considering your i5-9400F is quite old by today's standards. If you're seeing a lock on performance at lower resolutions, upgrading your CPU (which would also require a new motherboard and RAM) might be the next best step before returning your GPU. That said, what games are you playing and what frame rates are you actually getting?
I'm not sure about your specific games, but if you're not seeing higher frame rates from the 3070 at higher settings, then a CPU upgrade might really help unleash the card's potential.