A question about GPUs.

[dmulligan]

The CPU isn't very important for processing images and graphics (for gaming at least). The GPU is generally the bottleneck.

To be sure, you could see how busy your CPU is when using VR. If it's rather relaxed, it is not the bottleneck and you can get more juice from it.

Wrong in the case of E and VR. Definitely wrong. CPU load scales up with GPU speed, submitting 180 frames per second to the GPU takes a fair bit of horse power. Also E handles networking differently, making you share the load with everyone in your instance. This also takes more CPU than you'd think.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Wrong in the case of E and VR. Definitely wrong. CPU load scales up with GPU speed, submitting 180 frames per second to the GPU takes a fair bit of horse power. Also E handles networking differently, making you share the load with everyone in your instance. This also takes more CPU than you'd think.

It depends, I'm not familiar with the CPU of the OP but generally the CPU isn't causing the bottleneck in graphically intense games which is mostly the case with ED and that's what I observe in my computer though I do have a decent HQ I7 for my laptop.

 

[Gortron]

It depends, I'm not familiar with the CPU of the OP but generally the CPU isn't causing the bottleneck in graphically intense games which is mostly the case with ED and that's what I observe in my computer though I do have a decent HQ I7 for my laptop.

The relationship between CPU and GPU in the case of Elite and VR is more complicated than normal. Unless you switch off ASW you are going to get either 45 FPS or 90 FPS. If you have absolutely no hope of maintaining 90 FPS all the time because of your GPU then the CPU is not really all that relevant because instead of having to tell your GPU to make 90 draw calls twice every second it only needs to make 45 draw calls twice every second (so half the work give or take some other tasks). I think it is more complicated than this but in effect it is either 180 FPS or 90 FPS being pushed to the GPU and when experts benchmark CPU's in games it is the ability to generate frames that they test for.

In the case of the OP he will be so bottlenecked by the GPU that the CPU is almost irrelevant so you aren't wrong in what you say. However, as you move up in GPU power eventually it crosses over and the CPU can hold back the GPU.


If ASW is switched off it is easier to tell which part of the system is holding things back because the load goes to the weakest component. I can say that with complete confidence because not only did I know my CPU was the problem, I'd maximised my settings to maintain 90FPS (where possible) so well that now that I have an i7 8700K my GPU is running flat out or near flat out and I have 90FPS all the time.

If I'd pushed it too far then my GPU wouldn't cope and I'd get 45 FPS.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

The relationship between CPU and GPU in the case of Elite and VR is more complicated than normal. Unless you switch off ASW you are going to get either 45 FPS or 90 FPS. If you have absolutely no hope of maintaining 90 FPS all the time because of your GPU then the CPU is not really all that relevant because instead of having to tell your GPU to make 90 draw calls twice every second it only needs to make 45 draw calls twice every second (so half the work give or take some other tasks). I think it is more complicated than this but in effect it is either 180 FPS or 90 FPS being pushed to the GPU and when experts benchmark CPU's in games it is the ability to generate frames that they test for.

In the case of the OP he will be so bottlenecked by the GPU that the CPU is almost irrelevant so you aren't wrong in what you say. However, as you move up in GPU power eventually it crosses over and the CPU can hold back the GPU.


If ASW is switched off it is easier to tell which part of the system is holding things back because the load goes to the weakest component. I can say that with complete confidence because not only did I know my CPU was the problem, I'd maximised my settings to maintain 90FPS (where possible) so well that now that I have an i7 8700K my GPU is running flat out or near flat out and I have 90FPS all the time.

If I'd pushed it too far then my GPU wouldn't cope and I'd get 45 FPS.

CPUs can indeed bottleneck the GPU(s) and pretty badly if you bought a spare pentium from a couple of generations ago but it's not particularly common. I do think it becomes more relevant when you wish to edit videos and record the screen with a software application like OBS or when you play strategy games like Stellaris, it becomes really important when you do professional rendering or if you livestream but I'm sure the OP isn't in any of those two.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

They really dont need to be, us nerds here mainly just have a hard on for over engineering certain parts.

Anandtech for instance has watt tests for most GPU's that include the whole system, and their 1080ti based rig was barely touching on 400 watt.
That's the whole kit and kaboodle, so an i7 4960x, that's a workstation CPU with 6 cores, 12 threads at 130 watt (from q3 2013).
The i7 8700k, only draws 95 watt in comparison.

The 1080ti was at least 50-70 watt less than a 980ti.
So by just rough guesstimation I suspect the 1180 would bare need more power than a 1070.
Granted this changes slightly with what level of factory overclocking there is on the card.

But advising against a beefier PSU is little odd, except it was to stay on a budget and increase the 80+ rating for it.
I would take a gold 600 watt over a bronze 800 watt, but I would also take a gold 800watt over the 600w.

Just because I have a 1000 watt PSU, doesn't mean it draws 1k watt from the mains, in fact since the power draw is on a ramped curve means it will draw less power, than a smaller one at the same rating, and generate less heat, meaning my computer runs colder.

The pc will certainly work, and work well for a good long while, but it there are only benefits to having a powerfull, high rated PSU.

Quite likely, unless you do hardcore over clocking no one needs ta 1kw PSU anymore, and even with a 600w PSU you quite possibly will be at or just over the golden 60% power utilization, and that's under load, idling on desktop most machines only run 60-80 watt now.

Also, a pet PSA peeve on my end.
Do not mix modular power cables, if you replace a PSU, replace all wires internally as well with those supplied.
there has been cases in the past where the pin out on the PSU side was so different components would get fried, even though the plugs where identical and it was a matter of swapping a brand x 500 watt gold, with a brand x 750 watt gold.

Many thanks, lots of interesting info in your post.

I have an FSP 600W Hyper, which I assume is bronze rated.
As for overclocking, so far what I've done is the max stable clock speed at a slight voltage increase only, as I recon going overboard and max out closes in to diminishing returns.
For instance, the 7700k running at 4.8GHz is supplied at 1.23V (as set in in bios).