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Will a stock i5 3330 bottleneck a GTX 1060/RX 480 GPU at 1080p60?

H

hsjj3

Member
I'm looking to upgrade to the GTX 1060 or RX 480 class of GPUs. However, at present I "only" have an i5 3330. Paired with my GTX 960, I don't really notice any issues. CPU performance does get high in recent games, but aside from certain points in Hitman (curiously enough, of all games!), it doesn't seem to make me CPU limited.

I play most AAA games now at ~medium/high settings + 50fps lock at 1080p.

When I do get the GTX 1060/RX 480, I plan to go to High-Ultra (and then scale down as performance in newer games decrease over time) + 60fps at 1080p.

Would that result in my i5 3330 being a bottleneck? Would it result in stutter etc?

Also, I would like to know, in general terms, which "graphics settings" tend to be heavy on the CPU? And is it a fair thing to say, that in general terms, most of the CPU workload stays relatively constant and inelastic no matter if you are on Low or High settings because the CPU still has to make the same calculations in the game engine?

The reason I have not upgraded my CPU is because up till now, I haven't noticed it being a bottleneck and it works perfectly in non-gaming conditions as well. And I compared it to the best "non-K" i5, i.e. the i5 6660, and the performance gains don't look that great.

Basically, just 30% performance gains for this 4 year old CPU vs the i5 6660, which is pretty low vs what I got from my GPU upgrades in that same timeframe. From integrated to GT 620, I got 2x performance, then to GTX 750 I got 5x performance, then to GTX 960 I got another 2x performance, and to a GTX 1060 it would be almost another 2x.
 
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hsjj3 said:
I'm looking to upgrade to the GTX 1060 or RX 480 class of GPUs. However, at present I "only" have an i5 3330. Paired with my GTX 960, I don't really notice any issues. CPU performance does get high in recent games, but aside from certain points in Hitman (curiously enough, of all games!), it doesn't seem to make me CPU limited.

I play most AAA games now at ~medium/high settings + 50fps lock at 1080p.

When I do get the GTX 1060/RX 480, I plan to go to High-Ultra (and then scale down as performance in newer games decrease over time) + 60fps at 1080p.

Would that result in my i5 3330 being a bottleneck? Would it result in stutter etc?

Also, I would like to know, in general terms, which "graphics settings" tend to be heavy on the CPU? And is it a fair thing to say, that in general terms, most of the CPU workload stays relatively constant and inelastic no matter if you are on Low or High settings because the CPU still has to make the same calculations in the game engine?

The reason I have not upgraded my CPU is because up till now, I haven't noticed it being a bottleneck and it works perfectly in non-gaming conditions as well. And I compared it to the best "non-K" i5, i.e. the i5 6660, and the performance gains don't look that great.

Basically, just 30% performance gains for this 4 year old CPU vs the i5 6660, which is pretty low vs what I got from my GPU upgrades in that same timeframe. From integrated to GT 620, I got 2x performance, then to GTX 750 I got 5x performance, then to GTX 960 I got another 2x performance, and to a GTX 1060 it would be almost another 2x.
Click to expand...

That cpu will hold you back in newer, well threaded cpu intensive games, especially if you move up to a more powerful gpu. You should be able to drop in an ivy bridge i5 or i7. That would be a lot cheaper than moving up to skylake, which would require a new motherboard and ram.
 
hsjj3 said:
Also, I would like to know, in general terms, which "graphics settings" tend to be heavy on the CPU? And is it a fair thing to say, that in general terms, most of the CPU workload stays relatively constant and inelastic no matter if you are on Low or High settings because the CPU still has to make the same calculations in the game engine?
Click to expand...

Things like model detail, viewdistance are usually cpu heavy. With dx12/vulkan that could be reduced a lot though. Cpu overhead might approach console levels, and compared to the consoles your cpu is a powerhouse.
 
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