Check if your CPU is limiting performance by ensuring it can keep up with the GPU's demands.
Check if your CPU is limiting performance by ensuring it can keep up with the GPU's demands.
Hey there, new member! I'm here to help. You're wondering if your GPU is being limited by your CPU, especially with your 49" Samsung 144 monitor. I noticed you're experiencing drops in FPS on games like Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption II, and Apex Legends even when you're running at full 144Hz. Your specs are: Windows 10, I7-8700k CPU, RTX 2080 Ti GPU, 16GB RAM, and a solid setup. It's common to feel this when the bottleneck is unclear. Let me know if you need more details!
Welcome to the forum! In short, no. What would give you a sizable performance boost? Nothing. So you have nothing to be concerned about. the 8700k is still solid, just OC the snot out of it if you want the extra performance.
The problems mainly stem from attempting to push maximum performance in these games, not the GPU being CPU-limited. Edited March 10, 2020 by Spotty
Monitor CPU activity. Launch Task Manager, start a game, play briefly, then press ALT+TAB away from the game and review Task Manager. If CPU reaches 100% (or is very close) while GPU remains low, it's a bottleneck. Otherwise, it shouldn't be an issue. Generally, 8700K performs well and won't cause problems.
It's very uncommon to hit a CPU bottleneck these days. Unless you're using a 2080 with a budget i3 or similar, you'll likely be limited by the GPU.
Yes. My stock i7 8700k did it but my i7 8086k at 5ghz doesn't except when I overclock the 2080 ti FTW3 Ulta and that bottleneck is at 1080p. So my EVGA XC does not bottleneck but my FTW3 Ultra does. They both use the same CPU, motherboard and ram. The difference in the cards is that the FTW3 Ultra runs between 2040mhz and 2070mhz with a 24/7 overclock and the XC runs between 1890mhz and 1985mhz. To test your rig use GPU-Z. Under advanced select Nvidia Bios. Under "Power Limit" you will see the maximum watts used. For my XC it is 338 watts and for my FTW3 Ultra it is 373 watts. Yours will be more or less depending on the model. The max limit is if you have the power limit turned all the way up on your card. If not use the "Default" number. Now click on sensors. Double click on "Power Consumption W" or use the down arrow to set it to "Show Highest Reading" then play your games and if you are not close to the power limit set on the card you are probably bottlenecking. Another way is to use MSI Afterburner and look at the "Power %" graph after a gaming session. If you set your cards power limit to 100% and you are only using 77% you are bottlenecked. Basically your GPU will use less power if it is waiting for the CPU. Some games don't use all the GPU but that is rare nowadays. The problem with task manager is that if you set the power limit on your card to 100% and run a bench the task manager will say 100%. Then if you change the card to run at 130% task manager will still say 100% and if you bring the card back to 100% on the power limit it will still say 100% Bottlenecks on 2080 tis are usually when the card has a maxed out power limit and you are only getting about 109% out of 130% so it won't show up at all in task manager. I just ran some tests and in some scenarios it went the way I said but in others it did not. If I change settings while task manager is open it won't reflect them but if you switch it off and change a setting and then switch it back on again it will show an accurate reading. It confirmed that I will not be using task manager for GPU usage but if you are not in an overclocking session it can give an accurate reading. Edited March 11, 2020 by jones177 Ran some tests.
Quick method to check performance: launch Task Manager in the background, it will display how much resources each app is using, helping you confirm if utilization stays near 100% for the device.