Okay so I'm planning to upgrade my computer with a GTX 970. However, I am not educated in CPU lingo so am not sure whether my AMD X4 860K will bottleneck the 970?

If you do think it will be a bottleneck then what CPU would you recommend?

Now everyone behave with the AMD/Intel arguments and whether or not I should get an AMD video card. Back yourself up with facts not just "I can run ROTR at 8000fps at 4k on my R9 380"

Anyway, you're here for the train aren't you. Well here you go

TRAIN YA

8 years ago*

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Do I need to upgrade my X4 860K?

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Yes
No
I'm just here for the train

Just gonna reserve this...

8 years ago
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It is strongly game dependant. CPU heavy games (mostly open world and/or physics heavy games - like GTA V) might drop frames no matter what GPU you will use. GPU heavy games (limited number of active objects, simplified physics - like most FPS) should work fine.

8 years ago
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Just managed to get CAM working and tried it on Fallout 4 and you are definitely right, the CPU load was at 100% whilst the GPU was only going to 90% load tops.

8 years ago
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Yes, it will be a bottleneck.
No, it will not be to an extent that you will feel it now. In about 2-3 years, you will.
Although using an 70-something USD CPU with a GPU that costs almost five times as much is somewhat unusual. I'd use a 760 instead and just upgrade the entire pack around 2018.

8 years ago
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I do have the money to upgrade the CPU it's just I wasn't sure if it was even needed. I am playing games at 1080p and don't see myself going to 1440+ for at least another 5 years or whatever so just thought a 970 is probably enough to future proof me.

8 years ago
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It's been more than 10 years since I have used AMD (Athlon 64 was awesomesauce) so I have no idea unfortunately. The 970 is a pretty awesome card from what I have seen though.

8 years ago
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from what I can tell of what little I know about the topic, I think it should be alright. I found this article that gives a step by step on how to check for bottlenecking too. Up grading may not be a bad idea though since it is a pretty powerful graphics card.

8 years ago
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Wow this is a really good article. Never knew windows came with a performance monitor, I downloaded a program called CAM that monitors both gpu and cpu but I can't seem to get it to work so I'm gonna try this guide

8 years ago
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I bought my computer at Best Buy and it can't run Bad Rats.

8 years ago
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Go for it if you can upgrade your cpu soon

8 years ago
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