Best, New GPU for my older gaming PC? (least bottle necking)

logo897 · 21 Feb 2017

Hi all,

Down below, I have my pc specs on a computer that I have gotten recently. I have a gtx 960 at the moment, but would like to upgrade to a 10-series card if I can that would cause no bottleneck, or very little, with my i5-2400 CPU. I notice that on a game i often play call of duty: black ops 2 with max settings, my gpu is at 99% usage while my cpu is not. I'm certain I can get even more performance if I upgrade my 960, but I would love to hear your thoughts on what GPU fits the i5-2400. Thank you.

ThrashZone · 21 Feb 2017

Hi,
This might be a good read
GPU Hierarchy - Comparison of Graphics Cards for Gaming

logo897 · 22 Feb 2017

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
This might be a good read
GPU Hierarchy - Comparison of Graphics Cards for Gaming

Thank you. I see that the gtx 1060 is very nice, but I'm concerned about my i5 2400 bottle necking it.

Mellon Head · 22 Feb 2017

logo897 said:

Thank you. I see that the gtx 1060 is very nice, but I'm concerned about my i5 2400 bottle necking it.

You might bottleneck it as is isn't that much better than the 960 (and it only has a 192 bit memory bus). A 1070 would be a better choice for today's games, if it's within your budget.

Just my $0.02

logo897 · 22 Feb 2017

so you mean that a 1070 wouldn't bottleneck while a 1060 will?

Mellon Head · 22 Feb 2017

I'm not saying that either one will, although the 1060 probably isn't much different in performance from your 960. It's of the same class of card. The 1070 is more advanced and a better performer for gaming. It has more shaders and CUDA cores and a wider data bus. But yes, the 1070 is less likely to bottleneck your system. That doesn't mean it won't, but it's less likely to.

logo897 · 23 Feb 2017

I thought higher cards cause more bottleneck? Like the 1060 I expect would be less, but ok I will look into a 1070

Mellon Head · 23 Feb 2017

I'm not sure what you're using as the definition of bottlenecking, however, a quick look at some benchmarks shows that the 1070 outperforms the 1060 in every way but price:

UserBenchmark: Nvidia GTX 1060-6GB vs 1070

GeForce GTX 1070 vs 1060

IIRC, your 960 is running at 99% and your CPU around 25%, correct? In that respect, the 960 *might* be holding your system back a little. It's hard to tell. My definition of bottlenecking is that either the CPU or the GPU cannot get enough information from the other to do it's job properly. For example, the GPU might not run fast enough or be powerful enough to accept all of the information that the CPU gives it in a given time, in which case the CPU has to wait to deliver the information. This results in lost frames on the rendered display. The graphics will noticeably "stutter" at high resolutions, and GPU utilization will be high.

High GPU utilization does not necessarily mean that the card is bottlenecking, however. My card will frequently get to 90 to 95% with no loss of frames. The GPU is designed for more utilization than the CPU. Now if my GPU was running at 95% and the CPU at 100%, and with loss of frames or a very low framerate at high resolutions, then yes, I would consider that a bottleneck. Granted, my card isn't the best in the world, and it does have it's limits, but it depends on what you are trying to do.

The best way to see if your card is not as efficient is to run a benchmark like Unigine Heaven, or Unigine Valley, and see what kind of framerates you get, or if it drops frames. If the framerate is really low, which it might be, then maybe the GPU is bottlenecking the CPU. You can see the leader boards and get the downloads here:

Show us your Unigine Heaven benchmark scores!

Show us your Unigine Valley scores (Extreme Preset)

Post your 3D Mark Firestrike scores

Try those benchmarks and compare them to the GTX 970 and 1070 and see what you think.

logo897 · 24 Feb 2017

Mellon Head said:

I'm not sure what you're using as the definition of bottlenecking, however, a quick look at some benchmarks shows that the 1070 outperforms the 1060 in every way but price:

UserBenchmark: Nvidia GTX 1060-6GB vs 1070

GeForce GTX 1070 vs 1060

IIRC, your 960 is running at 99% and your CPU around 25%, correct? In that respect, the 960 *might* be holding your system back a little. It's hard to tell. My definition of bottlenecking is that either the CPU or the GPU cannot get enough information from the other to do it's job properly. For example, the GPU might not run fast enough or be powerful enough to accept all of the information that the CPU gives it in a given time, in which case the CPU has to wait to deliver the information. This results in lost frames on the rendered display. The graphics will noticeably "stutter" at high resolutions, and GPU utilization will be high.

High GPU utilization does not necessarily mean that the card is bottlenecking, however. My card will frequently get to 90 to 95% with no loss of frames. The GPU is designed for more utilization than the CPU. Now if my GPU was running at 95% and the CPU at 100%, and with loss of frames or a very low framerate at high resolutions, then yes, I would consider that a bottleneck. Granted, my card isn't the best in the world, and it does have it's limits, but it depends on what you are trying to do.

The best way to see if your card is not as efficient is to run a benchmark like Unigine Heaven, or Unigine Valley, and see what kind of framerates you get, or if it drops frames. If the framerate is really low, which it might be, then maybe the GPU is bottlenecking the CPU. You can see the leader boards and get the downloads here:

Show us your Unigine Heaven benchmark scores!

Show us your Unigine Valley scores (Extreme Preset)

Post your 3D Mark Firestrike scores

Try those benchmarks and compare them to the GTX 970 and 1070 and see what you think.

Thank you. I Will gladly do it as soon as I get the time to be home and sit down for a little bit.