[PLUS] The optimal CPU for Geforce RTX 3080 (Ti) and 3090 Ti

Heavy burden imposed

It doesn’t matter whether it’s the processor, graphics card, hard drive, main memory or the software: Your computer only performs as well as the slowest link in the chain. Of course, this cannot be mapped across the board, since everyone uses their PC differently. Today we are dealing with the question of how fast the built-in processor should be if you install high-end graphics cards like an RTX 3080, 3080 Ti or 3090 Ti, with a view to performance in games. You will see that this is not an easy subject. So we give you a few simple tools to check if your processor or graphics card is too slow, so you can upgrade in the right place. Ultimately, the goal of an upgrade is to get more performance and nobody wants to just throw hundreds or even thousands of euros out of the window.

[PLUS] The best CPU for RTX 3080 (Ti) + 3090 Ti (3)

Source: PC Games Hardware

We break down the analysis to processor and graphics card and assume that you are using at least one SATA SSD for gaming (HDDs are noticeably slower) and sufficient RAM (at least 16 GiByte). Let’s start with the graphics card: If you have the impression that the image is not being output smoothly while playing, especially with graphic effects such as numerous particles (smoke, explosions) or light (Godrays, shadows), then your graphics card is probably too slow. You can easily check this by using software like MSI Afterburner, Capframex or Hwinfo and enabling the overlay (through the Riva Tuner Statistics Server) in-game. Show all GPU-relevant parameters, including clock frequency, temperature and, above all, GPU utilization. Now play the game again, which did not run smoothly before and now pay attention to the GPU load, which is displayed as a percentage. If this value is 99 or 100 percent, then your graphics card is running at its limit. The processor could probably produce a higher frame rate, but since the graphics card is not fast enough, it limits the maximum performance. This is the classic GPU limit most gamers hit (without knowing it). You now have two options for circumventing this limit: install a more powerful graphics card, or reduce the graphics details. You can also use upscaling technologies such as AMD FSR or Nvidia DLSS, which reduce the pixel load and provide more graphics card performance.

PC Games Hardware Plus

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The following topics can be found in the article:

• CPU or GPU limit?
• Upscaling and ray tracing
• Benchmark analysis and purchase advice
• team opinions

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