Bottleneck at 9900k?
Bottleneck at 9900k?
I improved my RTX 3090 to RTX 5080 and tried running some games. I checked with 3DMark, Cyberpunk 2077, Kingdom Come Deliverance 1 and The Callisto Protocol. 3DMark performed well without issues. KCD and Callisto experienced significant FPS drops, while my GPU usage stayed around 80-100% depending on the scene. In KCD Rattay at night, FPS fell to 38 and power consumption often dropped below 200W. Could this be due to a driver problem or is the hardware too demanding? There seems to be no clear upgrade path using my current DDR4 setup. I’m wondering if upgrading to an AM5 7800X3D would work, and whether that bottleneck would affect the RTX 5090.
A 9900k could slow down a 5080 and definitely a 5090. I run it overclocked to 5.2ghz on all cores with an RTX 4080, which was a bad experience. Most games stuttered and had very low frame rates at 1% and 0.1%. Switching to a 7700x gave noticeable gains in performance and much better lows with the RTX 4080. Then moving to a 9800X3D improved things a bit, especially at 1440p, though a 7800X3D/9800X3D combo might still limit the 5090 in some titles. It’s a rare situation though.
You're questioning why you're sticking with DDR4 when you could be using a better option like the 9850X3D with 64GB RAM. Just wait for the 5090 to arrive instead of forcing it.
I originally intended to replace my GPU with the RTX 6000 series and upgrade my CPU once DDR6 became common. Perhaps being too hopeful, I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I had my 9900K. With the RTX 5090, it seems like it could be a valuable asset for some time, while CPUs and RAM aren’t as promising. That’s my current perspective.
Be mindful that the 5090 is intended for production builds, not gaming. Even with a 9850X3D, you won't be maximizing its potential. I'd prefer the 5080 if you're focused on gaming, and consider a 5700X setup for DDR4 or a 7800X3D for a well-rounded configuration.
JLax might be interested in selling an i9 14900K, motherboard, and RAM. This should resolve any performance limitations you're facing.