This graphics card is too powerful for your i5 10400f.
This graphics card is too powerful for your i5 10400f.
Hello everyone, yesterday I built a gaming PC with specifications including an i5 10400f, colorful battle ax rtx 3070ti, Corsair vengeance 3600mhz, 16 GB RAM, 650W power supply, 80+ bronze PSU, Gigabyte B460M DS3H V2, and Crucial MX 500 SSD. I didn’t find any CD in the GPU case, so I installed the newest Nvidia drivers from their website. Everything seems to be running smoothly except for Apex Legends, which is puzzling. I’m using MSI Afterburner Riva Tuner Overlay to track performance metrics. When playing training and arena (a smaller map), I achieve around 180fps at maximum settings, but in BR mode (a larger map) it drops to about 60fps. Interestingly, no matter the graphics settings I use—low or high—it stays consistent. I monitor GPU usage at roughly 40-60% with temperatures around 70-80°C. My CPU usage is about 10% lower than the GPU, also around 65°C. What’s going on here? I’m aware my system isn’t throttling due to thermal issues and isn’t severely limited, since the i5 still offers better gaming performance than the R5 3600. Also, I understand i5 supports up to 2666MHz, and with B460 it makes sense to use 3600MHz RAM for future upgrades—don’t treat that as a problem.
I’d like to note that gaming performance isn’t the same as actual performance; a few more frames per second don’t necessarily mean less CPU strain. If this only occurs in Apex, consider reinstalling the game. The temperatures also seem lower than expected. Look at the afterburner settings—it offers a feature to lower the temperature, and my 1070 Ti was automatically set to 80°C.
Your processor is a 6C 12T, which should handle Apex smoothly across various resolutions—especially at 1080p and 1440p. Combined with your 3070, it looks like you have a solid setup for uninterrupted gameplay.
I've noticed benchmark results showing even an i5 9400F (6C/6T) works well with an RTX 2080, achieving over 100fps at 1440P. The 10400F offers a stronger CPU with 6C/12T, so I don't think it's a concern at any point. In fact, higher resolutions demand more GPU power, and the 3070 Ti should handle it easily. IF the setup runs smoothly in other titles and the problem persists with Apex Legend, then it might be driver-related or a hardware-specific bug. By the way, what is your PSU?