I have an OC-ed i7-4790K at 4.7ghz. Playing red dead redemption 2 at 4K on a 60 fps monitor. I turned up some settings so my gpu is not capped by the monitor. Picture shows gpu utilization 99% while all cpu cores are in the 50-60% range. For anyone still holding on to an old cpu and wonder if you need to upgrade, now you know an 6 or 7 year old i7 is still going strong.
 

kyleqianlima
I have an OC-ed i7-4790K at 4.7ghz. Playing red dead redemption 2 at 4K on a 60 fps monitor. I turned up some settings so my gpu is not capped by the monitor. Picture shows gpu utilization 99% while all cpu cores are in the 50-60% range. For anyone still holding on to an old cpu and wonder if you need to upgrade, now you know an 6 or 7 year old i7 is still going strong.
 

Thanks for the info. 

anarchy998
yep, at 4k your cpu doesn't really matter at all. The gpu takes over 90-95% of the workload. Older  cpu's will still do fine.

This might be true in a given situation, but in general it's not the resolution that determines whether your CPU matters, it's the framerate.
 
In other words, his situation is the result of him targeting 60 fps, not of him selecting 4K. His CPU utilization would be basically the same no matter what resolution he were running--as demonstrated by his framerate staying the same when his GPU went from underutilized to fully utilized by changing settings. We're assuming that he's using VSync, or otherwise capping the framerate*
 
Once AAA games begin being designed for next-gen consoles, it should no longer be the case that 60 fps means 25 - 50% utilization on a 4770K/4790K. This is because the CPUs of the next-gen XBox are reportedly ~4x the power of the XBox One.
 
If a next-gen console game targets 30 fps, you could expect PC CPU utilization at 60 fps to quadruple. If a game targets 60 fps, you could expect PC CPU utilization at 60 fps to double.
 
* Though VSync should always be used for the elimination of judder in addition to the elimination of tearing. I don't know about Windows 10, but on Windows 7, whenever there is a game with poor VSync--such as noticeable latency or framerate halving--I have very rarely been unable to find a solution, either via the NVIDIA CP or D3DOverrider. In at least one case (American McGee's Alice) I had to play at 120 Hz/120 fps just to get the latency to a playable level...but that is fortunately rare.

kyleqianlima
I have an OC-ed i7-4790K at 4.7ghz. Playing red dead redemption 2 at 4K on a 60 fps monitor. I turned up some settings so my gpu is not capped by the monitor. Picture shows gpu utilization 99% while all cpu cores are in the 50-60% range. For anyone still holding on to an old cpu and wonder if you need to upgrade, now you know an 6 or 7 year old i7 is still going strong.
 

I'm not worthy.
That's awesome, Now I just need to figure out how to OC my CPU.
Thanks

UltimateBMWfan
As always, bottlenecking isn't a fixed situation, but rather depends on what you're running.

^^

AmbroseAthan
Tom's did a good article on this, just testing the same 3080 with various CPUs.  https://www.tomshardware.com/features/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-ampere-cpu-scaling-benchmarks 

The quick summary is the 1080p is CPU bound, 1440p is semi-CPU bound, 4K is GPU bound.

Great article!  There should be asterisks on the "semi" bound. When you have a 4790 performing 100FPS lower than a current gen CPU is way more than "semi". But, the game is fully playable on the settings they used, just heavily not able to utilize what you bought. HOWEVER, if you don't have a lot of money and just want to play games, it is fine! Still better than console haha.

I_R0M_I
Hoping my 6700k oc to 4.5ghz will do OK for the time being. I'll build a new oc next year, which tbh, could be when my ftw Ultra finally arrives 😂😂.

I just want a steady 140 in 1440p 🤞

Will depend on the game. I think I saw a reviewer showing that in some games, 7700k was CPU bound in 1440p. Not all games, and the bottleneck wasn't that huge, but was still there. 7700k boost to 4.5Ghz and is slightly more recent than the 6700k (obviously :P ) so I would expect that you'll be bottlenecked a bit more. 
 
Also, bottleneck isn't to confuse with higher / lower FPS. More recent CPU testings will show higher FPS than older CPU, but bottleneck is when your CPU is at 99 / 100% utilization and is bringing the GPU utilization down, along with the FPS, and can result in stuttering. I'm saying that because I was searching for the video I saw about the 7700k, and what I could find was mostly FPS comparison between different CPU generations (10700k vs 9700k vs 8700k vs 7700k for example) and just because a 10700k has more FPS doesn't mean a 8700k will be bottlenecked, is what I meant.)

i got the same cpu overclocked to 4.5
 
thanks for the feedback. 

On the back of this thread, and other similar. I logged a round of Escape from Tarkov on HWINFO
 
6700k @ 4.5, 1080ti ftw running 1440p. Cpu max was 83%, sat around 50% most of the time (average is lower as logged from menu).
Gpu max 93%, sat around 70% most of the time. Max clock was 1961.
Shouldn't the gpu be almost max all the time? Especially if the cpu is only 50%.

I_R0M_I
Hoping my 6700k oc to 4.5ghz will do OK for the time being. I'll build a new oc next year, which tbh, could be when my ftw Ultra finally arrives 😂😂.

I just want a steady 140 in 1440p 🤞

I'm using a 6700K with my FTW3 Ultra 3090 and am very very happy with the results.  You'll be fine! 
 
https://www.3dmark.com/pr/365914

I have an i7 7700K @4.9Ghz paired with DDR4 3600Mhz and game at 4K exclusively now thanks to the 3080.  I have been comparing benchmarks between systems with 10700K and 10900K at 4K and the differences are pretty small to non existent so far.  I'm sure I'll come across a game sooner rather then later that requires more CPU grunt and then I'll just finish checking out the cart I've had filled with new parts for the last few weeks.  Spending 900 CAD for a CPU and board for so little gain just feels wrong right now.  I'd really like to wait until Intels Rocket Lake arrives but that could be March 2021.

Its great news for VR too.. Same issues as 4K...
 
Which is all I care about.  Still play in 1080... So ya lol.

Palmetto Fellow
I've got a Devil's Canyon Intel, and just got my hands on a RTX 3090.
 
I play The Division 2 at 3440X1440 on an LG Ultrawide.  When I had a GTX1080ti, the GPU was clearly the bottleneck.  Afterburner showed nearly 100% GPU utilization and the CPU would hover in the 70% ranges.  Perfectly balanced IMHO.
 
When I plugged in the RTX3090, my performance didn't actually change much.  I was able to go to HIGH graphics instead of medium, but ULTRA didn't allow me more than 70fps oftentimes.  Dropping it to HIGH quality, I am able to maintain over 115 fps...but I should really have more (or else, why drop $2000 on a GPU?)
 
I'm now getting 50-65% GPU and 85-100% CPU.  So I can't go to Ultra settings until I upgrade my CPU...which I am in the process of researching right now...and it's also how I landed in this thread :)

Yep, a new ryzen 5000 or intel 10th gen( if you can wait till march maybe a 11th gen) will give your setup a nice bump not only on average fps but on your 1% lows.

(3080 @1440p) My 8600K bottlenecked me in Assassin's Creed and other Ubisoft games, as well as Cyberpunk. 100% CPU usage and 10-20 frames per second lost on the 8600K vs the 8700K.

Trust me at 4k with a 4-core cpu there will be some games that demolish the 4790k. I have a 2600k overclocked to 5Ghz and while I was waiting for my other pc parts decided to stick my 2080ti in there for the time being. I played a few games @ 4k, didn't see too much bottlenecking, and was excited I was able to play. However, load up any open world semi-big game and watch the 4790k struggle to run the damn system lol. Honestly, don't even try Cyberpunk on that cpu.