Hi all!
 
My current system, as related in my sig, has served me well since building it, and still continues to play recent titles with decent framerates and visuals. My EVGA 1080 still runs great and does everything I could ask of it. However...there are some newer games I am keen on playing that are set to release this year..and RTX seems to be becoming more mainstream in many of these newer titles..sooo
 
I wanted to ask if the GPU requirements/performance has increased on an order that would cause a CPU bottleneck if I stayed with my 8700K and upgraded to the upcoming Ampere based card when it is finally released? A fairly recent bios release from ASRock allows my MB to support the newer 9th Gen Intel processors for a few more cores, so I wanted to ask for some guidance on whether a new CPU would be warranted if I chose to upgrade to the newer Ampere GPU when they are released. 

Your CPU is most likely fine, the new Nvidia GPU's will be PCI-E Gen 4 which only AMD currently supports but that probably won't make a difference unless you get the top of the line card, even then it may not matter.... to early to tell. 

You didn't post at what resolution you play at, and that plays a huge role in whether or not your CPU is a bottleneck for a fast card. 1080P? Likely a bottleneck on all but the most graphically demanding games. 1440P? Probably fine for most games with graphics settings turned up. 4K? The GPU will definitely be the bottleneck in almost all games that take any graphics horsepower to render.

8700K is still a hell of a gaming CPU. I'd hold out until Navi-2 or RTX 3000 series is released and just pickup a new GPU. Personally I'm still gaming on a 2560x1440 monitor and rocking an old overclocked i7 4790K and I was running 2x 1080's for 3ish years, games with good SLI support, the 4790k was still able to push both cards without much of any bottle-necking; so far more could be said about your 8700K pushing current, and next generation card(s). 

joeymir
8700K is still a hell of a gaming CPU. I'd hold out until Navi-2 or RTX 3000 series is released and just pickup a new GPU. Personally I'm still gaming on a 2560x1440 monitor and rocking an old overclocked i7 4790K and I was running 2x 1080's for 3ish years, games with good SLI support, the 4790k was still able to push both cards without much of any bottle-necking; so far more could be said about your 8700K pushing current, and next generation card(s). 

The RTX 3000 series is what I was referencing when I said "Ampere" based cards. Guess I should have been more clear. I was just worried about CPU bottle-necking where my 8700K is concerned with the new RTX 3000 series cards.

Pretty sure the cpu will be fine , except maybe at 4K & high end ....running any Ampere based card
 
I would think about getting faster memory though -  3600 speed minimum w/ good, tight timings.
16Gb - 32 Gb max

mankxp

joeymir
8700K is still a hell of a gaming CPU. I'd hold out until Navi-2 or RTX 3000 series is released and just pickup a new GPU. Personally I'm still gaming on a 2560x1440 monitor and rocking an old overclocked i7 4790K and I was running 2x 1080's for 3ish years, games with good SLI support, the 4790k was still able to push both cards without much of any bottle-necking; so far more could be said about your 8700K pushing current, and next generation card(s). 

The RTX 3000 series is what I was referencing when I said "Ampere" based cards. Guess I should have been more clear. I was just worried about CPU bottle-necking where my 8700K is concerned with the new RTX 3000 series cards.

If your 5Ghz 8700k is a bottleneck for any single GPU in the next couple years, someone please slap me If you're gaming at 2k or higher, you really need not worry. Let's be honest, Nvidia is in the business of making money, and they certainty aren't going to release a card that's doubles or triples the performance of it's predecessor. They most certainty want you to be thinking about buying a new GPU every year or 2
 
EDIT: Most generational improvements are anywhere from 30% to 75%, It would absolutely shock me if Nvidia decided to break away from there history of normal. I'm willing to be slapped here too

The CPU is not going to be a bottleneck, and if you're gaming at 4K then it's still not going to be a bottleneck. No sense upgrading hardware too soon!

kougar
The CPU is not going to be a bottleneck, and if you're gaming at 4K then it's still not going to be a bottleneck. No sense upgrading hardware too soon!

Thanks! You were instrumental in me making the decision to wait for the 8700K a couple of years back when I decided to build this current rig. I feel safe taking your word on this. I game on a 65-inch LG 4K TV at native resolution, and games such as Doom and Doom Eternal still allow me to run at 60+ fps with no issues using the GTX-1080. I'm hoping the RTX-3000 series cards will be out by the end of the year because I'm really wanting to stay relevant for games such as CyberPunk 2077 and a couple of others that are supposedly making heavy use of RTX. I just wasn't sure if the RTX component would present any cpu bottleneck issues when and if I upgraded to the RTX 3000.

Glad to hear it worked out well for ya! Anandtech has a bench comparison tool you can look at to see my point, and various Youtubers have also done 4K testing, but suffice to say it's almost entirely on the GPU at 4K res with good settings. The 3080 Ti should be the first GPU that can properly handle 4K, so it will be interesting to see how well it does! But regardless of how good it is, you won't be CPU bottlenecked anytime soon with one when gaming at 4K with maxed image quality settings.