Edited title as dont want it to appear as though im bashing the card!
 
Hi,
 
I was lucky enough to get a FTW Ultra this week, but so far, regretting my purchase.
Now i knew there would be some CPU bottle neck, but the main game i play shows little improvement at all over my 1080ti FTW.
 
Ill post my specs, what ive got in which games etc. Hopefully there is some ideas, if not, think ill be selling my 3080. As dont really want to build a new pc until Intel offer a new CPU, with PCIe 4/5, which is apparently 2022!. Seems counter intuitive to build one now, when I cant even make use of the new PCIe 4 M2 drives etc. Its not like my pc is terrible, or unplayable, I just thought a fancy new GPU would get me to my 140 fps target.
 
Maximus Hero 8
6700k @ 4.5ghz
32gb Corsair @ 3200mhz
Samsung M2 SSD
EVGA 1080ti FTW / EVGA 3080 FTW Ultra (not at the same time!)
1440p / 144 hz
 
My main game is Escape from Tarkov, which i gather is not very well optimised. Then the odd bit of BF5.
Ive not changed any settings in games (unless it was super sample / DXR for testing). Base settings are Borderless, tested on same maps, same place etc. 39
 
1080ti
Tarkov 90-105 fps. Fullscreen gives me 115 fps solid. 45% CPU 90% GPU usage (Fullscreen menu gives me 260+fps) 
If i super sample to 2x 70 fps (testing only)
BF5 140 fps. 60-70% CPU 90% GPU. This seems capped, might have set it to 140 for gsync in a file somewhere and forgot about it?
Witcher 3 85-90 fps. 99% GPU
 
3080
Tarkov 110-120 fps. 60% CPU 60% GPU. Fullscreen only increase 5 fps. (Fullscreen menu only 140 ish?!)
Super sample 2x 90-100 fps (testing only)
BF5 140 fps. 80-90% CPU. DXR on 130-135 fps. Again, think ive capped this in a cfg somewhere @ 140 for gsync years ago
Witcher 3 120-130 fps. 99% GPU, now this is an decent gain!
 
Witcher has a decent improvement, kind of what I hoped for in Tarkov. Ive logged in HWinfo, and Tarkov cpu will spike to 82%, but mostly its sat around 60% on the 3080. Now BOTTLENECK i hear and know, but BF5 CPU sits 80% plus a lot of the time, and gets more fps. Is this just poor optimisation? Can i do anything to fix it?
Tarkov doesnt have many settings to even ramp up, and make the card work harder. 
I have the power level for card to 105%, PerfCap is VRel, card is drawing close to 400W, its not limiting to thermal or power. When i say CPU use, im checking cores, not just overall. So 1 core isnt maxxing out etc.
 
 
Hoping someone has some ideas, right now, i have a very fancy GPU for in my eyes, not much gain in the game i play.
 
Thanks

you are definitely bottlenecked. to get out of the bottleneck you pretty much have to get 9th-10th gen. amd has a new releases in early november that are finally surpassing or matching intels highest cpus in gaming and they’ve long passed them in workloads. not to mention they’re already using pcie gen 4 and won’t increase their power draw. the 3000 series cards are not meant for 1080p. keep the card and upgrade your system and resolution.

finally tarkov is not any kind measurement of components. i had a 9900ks running at 5.3ghz and a 2080ti and i was only getting 5-15 fps faster than my pal who was using a 6700k and 1070. even at different resolutions, the game reallllly sucks like that. i haven’t played it in over a year.

Others have already said it and I think you already know that you are being severely bottlenecked by your cpu. 60% gpu utilization at 1440p screams that there is a cpu bottleneck. I would advise you to not wait until 2022 for intel and just move to the ryzen 5000 lineup coming november 5th as you already need to buy a new motherboard to upgrade to an inel cpu so there is nothing tying you to that platform. The ryzen 5000 series will have a better single thread performance than the current top of the line intel chip or at least will be comparable (wait for actual reviews).

My 8700K @ 5GHZ is CPU limiting the 3080 @ 1440p. Gamers Nexus confirmed this.
 
I literally was in shock. Like "No way am I CPU limited on this CPU already"

Intel’s 11th is set to release Q1 2021. I would get a new cpu and pcie 4 supported mobo then.

using a 6th gen processor appears to be the issue you are having. 

PCIe4 M.2 is already proven to not be worth the premium for gaming or boot drives: (literally came out yesterday) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COofLeqk_tM Getting higher capacity and at least moving from HDD is the best you can do, though decent PCIe 3.0 drives do show an improvement as OS drives.
 
If it really matters to you, then, as other suggested I would just jump on the Ryzen boards; they're already better value chips for gaming anyway and you can get ryzen 2 3000 chips super cheap, as well as mobos that support them. Or Ryzen 3, I guess, though they're expensive enough that ironically Intel has the value buys this gen. Either way, you can't really blame the card, that's an old CPU, lol.
 
Or I guess just sell the 3080 as you planned and stick to your 1080ti even longer. The games you have are already running at pretty high FPS already and honestly the 3080 shows better gains the higher you go. Most people who get it reaaaaaally don't need it. It's for 4k and 1440p ultrawide gaming at highest FPS, really. Definitely not a 1080p card and barely worth it as a 1440p card in most games, especially most MP games, so unless someone is planning to hit stuff like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk way more often than CSGO and Fortnight, a 3070 would probably be more than enough with a CPU that won't gimp it.
 
 

A cpu can show not close to 100% and still bottleneck. That depends on how it counts the 100%. For example a game that's going to use two cores max instead of a four cores (without hyperthreading) might show up as 100% CPU Usage on some software but as 50% usage on another software. Still would be considered a bottleneck as it's hitting 100% cores and can't use other cores because it's not coded that way. To be sure the best way is to list all the cores on the software to get an idea of how many and by how much cores are used.
 
I have a 7700k with a not good silicon lottery (I can get 4.7Ghz but I need 1.3v already.... and can't seem to go higher unless I really increase the voltage too much for my liking) and I've already bought mobo (B550 Mortar Wifi) and ram (Ballistix 3200Mhz CL16 that I'll up to 3600 CL16 if I can), only waiting for the Zen 3 CPUs to drop now. Don't know if 5600X or 5800X yet. One or the other is still going to be way better for the multiple usages (mostly gaming but also video editing rendering etc). With a 3080 FTW that will come... When it'll come... I'll be ready for my new adventures in 1440p 144Hz :P

I tried turning Hyperthreading off, limiting it to physical cores, didnt make enough difference either way.
 
Im looking at the 5950 or 5900 I think. Not got to a decision, or even looked at boards yet! Though see Tomahawks mentioned.
 
My 6700k isnt the greatest either, i did try going over 4.5, but think i chickened out about 1.42v, just wasnt worth the heat for an extra 100mhz

One way you may be able to test your CPU is to try Dynamic Super Resolution, if NVidia still has that.  You use to be able to turn the resolution up through DSR, to overpower the CPU and make the GPU the primary workhorse.  
 
If you can use DSR, try turning your resolution up to 4k, and see if that helps you get away from the CPU bottleneck.
 
 
DSR = "you have a 1080p/1440p Native Monitor and want to force 4K resolution"
 
DLSS2.0 = "You have a 4k Monitor and want 1440p resolution upscaled instead of native."

Cerulean_Shaman
Or I guess just sell the 3080 as you planned and stick to your 1080ti even longer. The games you have are already running at pretty high FPS already and honestly the 3080 shows better gains the higher you go. Most people who get it reaaaaaally don't need it. It's for 4k and 1440p ultrawide gaming at highest FPS, really. Definitely not a 1080p card and barely worth it as a 1440p card in most games, especially most MP games, so unless someone is planning to hit stuff like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk way more often than CSGO and Fortnight, a 3070 would probably be more than enough with a CPU that won't gimp it.

 
If im honest, I got caught up in the hype. I wasnt really looking for a new card, but saw the hype, and fancied a new toy. Next thing you know, im dropping £800 
My thinking was it would be an improvement 'for now' with the idea of maybe building a new pc next year for it to go in. Selling my 1080ti, should get £300 ish, so it isnt so terrible. 
Now im probably gonna spend another £1200 or something on parts to upgrade, just so my gpu isnt bottlenecked. The gpu I didnt even need....gotta love pc's 

I upscaled in Tarkov, get almost the same FPS at 2 x , which should be 4k? And at 4 x i get around 60 fps

Crap I also have 8700k 5ghz. You think if I go 5.2 Or 5.3 it will improve much?

fofal
Crap I also have 8700k 5ghz. You think if I go 5.2 Or 5.3 it will improve much?

FAST ram is important too.

Definitely the CPU is holding you back.