Is my i5 2500k finally becoming a bottleneck?

[Majcric]

I've been testing it out a lot in different games lately and seeing CPU usage getting hammered. I'll start with The Witcher 3 where I have 98-99 GPU usage until I enter a city like Novigrad and then my i5 is hitting 100% on 3 out of 4 cores. GPU usage drops and of course FPS follow. In GTA 5, I see very high CPU usage across all cores and when I get up to say 95-98 % CPU usage the GPU usage starts dropping. Note, I can go out in the country with a lot of grass and the CPU usage stays at about 60 to 70% while the GPU usage never drops below 97-98%. And finally Crysis 3 pretty much the same thing as soon as I hit in the 90-100% range on the CPU the GPU usage drops once again. Sounds like it is bottlenecking but I'd like to hear what others have to say.

I realize sometimes in certain games you will always be CPU limited but I have this feeling an i7 with higher ipc would help in the ones I mentioned above.

i5 2500k@4.0 (might try overclocking some more but I'm doubting it will make a difference)
980ti
8gb ram
rez 1440p

 

[dark zero]

Overclock it. It will get a strong difference. At 4.5 I say

 

[stockwiz]

Build a skylake build when it comes out. The chips run at 4.2 boost speed out of the box.. should be a decent IPC gain over Sandy. You coughed up over $650 just for a video card... you should be able to afford a new build.

I may do skylake.. may do haswell-e... or wait for skylake-e.. have not decided yet. I don't want to upgrade from 4 cores to 4 cores really... I have no reason to upgrade other than my mother wanting to upgrade from her Q6600 system that used to be mine... I pass down my stuff at a substantial discount when she's ready. I have a 2600K powering my current rig, built soon enough after sandy's launch that I had to send in my motherboard to get the revised versions with different SATA ports.

 

[PG]

Looks like an i7 would give you a nice bump, but maybe overclocking would give you what you need. I would try that first before looking for a new cpu.
http://gamegpu.ru/rpg/rollevye/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-v-1-04-test-gpu.html

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Could probably push it to 4.6 quite easily.

An i7 would probably perform a bit better, but if you want a real upgrade you'd need to get a 5820K or something.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Get a 3770k or wait for skylake. People need to accept that a 2500k is too slow for a 980ti level card.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

And get 16 GB ram. May need it anytime now.

 

[SPBHM]

Could probably push it to 4.6 quite easily.

An i7 would probably perform a bit better, but if you want a real upgrade you'd need to get a 5820K or something.

I think the gain from a 2500K to a 4790K would be easier to notice than the gain from the 4790K to a 5820K for gaming.

 

[.vodka]

Get it up to at least 4.5GHz as mentioned above and see.

If it still bottlenecks your 980ti, you could always try to get a cheap 3770k. If not, then skylake is just around the corner and it'd be a nice time to upgrade. Our beloved 2500k is a 4 and a half year old CPU after all...

 

[ShintaiDK]

Skylake is near

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I don't think he mentioned the motherboard he's using. If he wants to OC an i5-2500K, his success in part depends on the board. Even so, for the Z chipsets, even board with 6-phase power design should allow for OCing that chip to maybe 4.5.

 

[2is]

Yes, it's bottlenecking, but the real question is how is the performance? I see no mention of FPS or lag or anything like that in the OP. If performance is good then it's good, shouldn't matter what your GPU/CPU usage is.

If the performance is lacking or you simply WANT to upgrade, that's another matter. You can likely crank out an extra 2-400Mhz pretty easily out of that 2500k. I certainly wouldn't be spending any money on an upgrade now with Skylake right around the corner.

 

[.vodka]

I don't think he mentioned the motherboard he's using. If he wants to OC an i5-2500K, his success in part depends on the board. Even so, for the Z chipsets, even board with 6-phase power design should allow for OCing that chip to maybe 4.5.

He mentions in the first post that his 2500k is at 4.0GHz. He still has 500 mhz or so easily available to see if his 980Ti can be better put to use.

But yes, he doesn't mention his motherboard.

 

[Majcric]

I don't think he mentioned the motherboard he's using. If he wants to OC an i5-2500K, his success in part depends on the board. Even so, for the Z chipsets, even board with 6-phase power design should allow for OCing that chip to maybe 4.5.

MB gigabyte p67x-ud3-b3

 

[Majcric]

Yes, it's bottlenecking, but the real question is how is the performance? I see no mention of FPS or lag or anything like that in the OP. If performance is good then it's good, shouldn't matter what your GPU/CPU usage is.

If the performance is lacking or you simply WANT to upgrade, that's another matter. You can likely crank out an extra 2-400Mhz pretty easily out of that 2500k. I certainly wouldn't be spending any money on an upgrade now with Skylake right around the corner.

When the CPU hits its ceiling the GPU usage drops and the FPS follow. it can rinse and repeat depending on the area of the game. The issue isn't really that bad but noticeable and I'd rather the GPU be the bottleneck.

 

[Majcric]

I think I will wait until Skylake before doing an upgrade. Otherwise it would be a 4790K or 5820K assuming I could get the latter to hit at least 4.0.

 

[cbn]

For Witcher 3 i7-2600K scales well:

Therefore I would give some consideration to upgrading to that CPU (Hopefully you can find a used one at a good enough price).

 

[escrow4]

A 5820K at 4.0GHz would eliminate any bottleneck for the next few years. Last I played V my 5930K @ 3.7GHz (too lazy to OC) CPU usage was hitting 6 cores ~45%. Witcher 3 CPU usage also picked up in Novigrad. SNB is old and tired. If you don't want to wait for Christmas and Skylake pick up Haswell-E. Problem solved. I also second 16GB RAM, V and Witcher III both swallowed 5GB roughly after taking away ~1.5GB for 8.1.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Overclocking your i5 further won't help in terms of CPU usage. You need more cores.

 

[futurefields]

I've been testing it out a lot in different games lately and seeing CPU usage getting hammered. I'll start with The Witcher 3 where I have 98-99 GPU usage until I enter a city like Novigrad and then my i5 is hitting 100% on 3 out of 4 cores. GPU usage drops and of course FPS follow. In GTA 5, I see very high CPU usage across all cores and when I get up to say 95-98 % CPU usage the GPU usage starts dropping. Note, I can go out in the country with a lot of grass and the CPU usage stays at about 60 to 70% while the GPU usage never drops below 97-98%. And finally Crysis 3 pretty much the same thing as soon as I hit in the 90-100% range on the CPU the GPU usage drops once again. Sounds like it is bottlenecking but I'd like to hear what others have to say.

I realize sometimes in certain games you will always be CPU limited but I have this feeling an i7 with higher ipc would help in the ones I mentioned above.

i5 2500k@4.0 (might try overclocking some more but I'm doubting it will make a difference)
980ti
8gb ram
rez 1440p

Same thing with my 2500k @ 4.2 + EVGA 970 SSC

GTA5 is super cpu demanding.

Also, heavy foilage + 4x MSAA + TXAA is a gpu destroyer I noticed.

 

[RussianSensation]

I think the gain from a 2500K to a 4790K would be easier to notice than the gain from the 4790K to a 5820K for gaming.

i7 4790K @ 4.7Ghz would only be 12-13% faster than an i7 2600K @ 4.8Ghz. I would sell the 2500K and try to find a 2600K that hits 4.7-5Ghz. SB overclocks well and can take a lot of voltage too. Alternatively hunt down a 3770K and overclock it.

^ If that is still not enough, only a 4.8+ Skylake would be a viable upgrade because i7 4770/4790K @ 4.8Ghz is only 15% faster against an i7 SB at the same clocks. The problem is i5 2500K at 4Ghz is clocked low and it doesn't even have HT. That matters a lot in TW3 and GTA V.

If buying an all new platform, at this point might as well go Skylake / 5820K if you don't mind selling all your key platform parts. However, I think selling the 2500K and finding a 2600K/3770K is probably the cheapest and most effective option to get a lot more performance in CPU demanding titles assuming you get one that clocks 4.7Ghz+.

 

[dark zero]

Try to overclock to 4.5 or even 5 Ghz with water cooler. that's the only way to make them still usable.

 

[SPBHM]

i7 4790K @ 4.7Ghz would only be 12-13% faster than an i7 2600K @ 4.8Ghz. I would sell the 2500K and try to find a 2600K that hits 4.7-5Ghz. SB overclocks well and can take a lot of voltage too. Alternatively hunt down a 3770K and overclock it.

^ If that is still not enough, only a 4.8+ Skylake would be a viable upgrade because i7 4770/4790K @ 4.8Ghz is only 15% faster against an i7 SB at the same clocks. The problem is i5 2500K at 4Ghz is clocked low and it doesn't even have HT. That matters a lot in TW3 and GTA V.

If buying an all new platform, at this point might as well go Skylake / 5820K if you don't mind selling all your key platform parts. However, I think selling the 2500K and finding a 2600K/3770K is probably the cheapest and most effective option to get a lot more performance in CPU demanding titles assuming you get one that clocks 4.7Ghz+.

4.8GHz 2600K is very optimistic considering his 2500K is running at 4.0GHz

a 4790K with no OC would provide 200Mhz more than his 2500K OC, higher IPC and HT, without any OC or hunting for a cheap used CPUs, even using a locked motherboard

but anyway, if you keep the CPUs for a long time and want a high end MB the 5820K might make more sense anyway (when OCed), DDR4 is not as bad anymore

and sure, if you can find a cheap 2600K it can't be a bad thing, specially if you can also OC higher than this 2500K but I would assume supply/demand for used 2600K is not favorable at this point,

but Skylake is a good point, if you can hold a little longer...

 

[Sonikku]

Skylake is coming.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Same thing with my 2500k @ 4.2 + EVGA 970 SSC

GTA5 is super cpu demanding.

Also, heavy foilage + 4x MSAA + TXAA is a gpu destroyer I noticed.

Despite conclusive evidence that HT helps gaming significantly now, people are still recommending others to save $100 for a 4690K with no HT and lower stock clocks for some unfathomable reason, for a long lived part that can survive 2 or even 3 GPU cycles.