Will an i7-2600 bottleneck a RTX 2060?

[The republic]

Hi, I’m completely new to this kind of thing and probably already made a rookie mistake. Anyway I play Fortnite at 1080p as my main game, and I’m wondering if I should get a RTX 2060? I also play Minecraft and I want to play the ray traced version. To my understanding I can’t get anything lower than a 2060 to get ray tracing on Minecraft. The only drawback I have is I have an i5-2400 and I know that will severely bottleneck the 2060 so should I get an i7-2600? I can’t get a new Mobo and ram certainly so I have to stick with the Sandy Bridge CPUs. Any help is greatly appreciated.😃
my current build is this:
CPU i5-2400
GPU GTX 1050
Mobo Asus p8h61-lx2 rev 3.0
PSU EVGA 500w

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

You should have posted this in the hardware section

Anyway your motherboard should actually support up to Ivy Bridge CPU's so your best option would actually be an I7 3770K. The performance gap per clock (Instructions Per Cycle) between the Sandy bridge 2xxx series and Ivy 3xxx series is only about 5% on average but its there.

EDIT: You will need to check your BIOS revision though. CPUZ under mainboard tab. You'll need 0501 to use a 3xxx series chip, and you can download it from the link above and install according to your mobos instruction manual.

From personal experience I can say that the extra threads will make things a bit smoother all around, and the small IPC increase along with the extra 500 mhz turbo you'll get out of a 3770k vs an I5 2400 will help some too.
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
I'd have no problem pairing a 2060 with one in your situation. Sometimes it will be limited by the CPU and it would always be better to upgrade everything, but you'll see an improvement I'm sure.

 

[Oussebon]

Your CPU is extremely unlikely to present any kind of bottleneck. Don't upgrade it, unless someone literally gives you one for free.

See:

Minecraft RTX Performance: You're Going to Need a Beefy GPU

But can your PC run Minecraft RTX?

www.tomshardware.com

Even a dual core CPU is fine. Your i5, though older, should be fine.

The main issue is that raytracing is extremely demanding on the GPU. With an RTX 2060 you will dip to less than 60fps very often at 1080p even with DLSS enabled. Without DLSS fps will be more like 20-40fps.

Given that with many recent AAA titles, an RTX 2060 will get you high-ultra at 1440p (almost twice the resolution of 1080p) you need to be really sure you want to spend ~$280 or whatever the price is to play raytraced minecraft at 60fps or lower at 1080p.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I disagree about the CPU upgrade. Fortnight will see some benefit from the extra threads and higher clock speeds, and going from 4 to 4/8 was a noticeably smoother experience all round for me.

Its a matter of opinion whether its better to save the ~100 and totally update the system later on, I'd argue a 3770k might well be an O.K budget CPU for a couple of years yet, as long as the price was right.

Whether its worth getting an RTX2060 for raytracing is a good point though.

 

[Oussebon]

Sorry, should have been clearer, I was talking only about Minecraft RTX re the CPU upgrade

Edit: Obviously other games may benefit considerably.

 

[Shadowclash10]

Meh. I personally would not just buy the 2060 for Minecraft RTX, You would be pretty bottlenecked by your CPU. However, you could probably play it @1080p, 45-60 fps.

 

[Zoid]

The only drawback I have is I have an i5-2400 and I know that will severely bottleneck the 2060 so should I get an i7-2600?

Speculating on bottlenecks isn't that helpful here. Take the issue game by game.

You want to play Minecraft with ray tracing, and you know your current GPU can't do that, so the first step would be to decide on the best new GPU to get to give you your desired Minecraft performance. It sounds like the GPU hit for ray tracing in Minecraft is horrific, so you might decide even a 2060 isn't enough.

After you upgrade your GPU, then you can decide whether your CPU is holding it back. Only then would I recommend a CPU upgrade.

 

[The republic]

You should have posted this in the hardware section

Anyway your motherboard should actually support up to Ivy Bridge CPU's so your best option would actually be an I7 3770K. The performance gap per clock (Instructions Per Cycle) between the Sandy bridge 2xxx series and Ivy 3xxx series is only about 5% on average but its there.

EDIT: You will need to check your BIOS revision though. CPUZ under mainboard tab. You'll need 0501 to use a 3xxx series chip, and you can download it from the link above and install according to your mobos instruction manual.

From personal experience I can say that the extra threads will make things a bit smoother all around, and the small IPC increase along with the extra 500 mhz turbo you'll get out of a 3770k vs an I5 2400 will help some too.
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
I'd have no problem pairing a 2060 with one in your situation. Sometimes it will be limited by the CPU and it would always be better to upgrade everything, but you'll see an improvement I'm sure.

Thank you that clears up a lot. I saw something on the old Mobo box that said 22nm cpu and in assuming it’s the i7-370K. Makes sense now😁 so I could go for that too.

 

[The republic]

Your CPU is extremely unlikely to present any kind of bottleneck. Don't upgrade it, unless someone literally gives you one for free.

See:

Minecraft RTX Performance: You're Going to Need a Beefy GPU

But can your PC run Minecraft RTX?

www.tomshardware.com

Even a dual core CPU is fine. Your i5, though older, should be fine.

The main issue is that raytracing is extremely demanding on the GPU. With an RTX 2060 you will dip to less than 60fps very often at 1080p even with DLSS enabled. Without DLSS fps will be more like 20-40fps.

Given that with many recent AAA titles, an RTX 2060 will get you high-ultra at 1440p (almost twice the resolution of 1080p) you need to be really sure you want to spend ~$280 or whatever the price is to play raytraced minecraft at 60fps or lower at 1080p.

So my i5-2400 would work? Also I am seeing my 1050 start to struggle with things lately so I need to upgrade my gpu. I don’t think a 1660 is worth if it to me because it’s $200-250 and the 2060 is $300

 

[The republic]

I disagree about the CPU upgrade. Fortnight will see some benefit from the extra threads and higher clock speeds, and going from 4 to 4/8 was a noticeably smoother experience all round for me.

Its a matter of opinion whether its better to save the ~100 and totally update the system later on, I'd argue a 3770k might well be an O.K budget CPU for a couple of years yet, as long as the price was right.

Whether its worth getting an RTX2060 for raytracing is a good point though.

Oh so how much should I spend on a 2600 or 3770k I know the rtx isn’t the best choose just for Minecraft but in my mind it’s worth it.

 

[Oussebon]

So my i5-2400 would work?

According to that article, yes

If you are upgrading youir GPU anyway, as @Zoid says you should do that first and only then consider CPU upgrades.

You might find, for instance, that you buy an RTX 2060 and you suddenly get really into Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Where you are pretty likely to want a CPU upgrade. Or as @Kaamos_Llama says, a more powerful GPU may expose a CPU limit with Fortnite.

But no point speculating. Neither of those might happen to you. Or even if there is technically a bottleneck, you may not notice it in actual gameplay. Or you might notice it - but decide it's not worth buying another obsolete CPU for $100. You won't know until you have the new GPU.

A 1660 should cost around $220 looking at USA partpicker prices

Choose A Video Card

pcpartpicker.com

While the cheapest 2060 is $300 as you say. In case those $80 savings look more attractive than ray traced minecraft

 

[The republic]

Speculating on bottlenecks isn't that helpful here. Take the issue game by game.

You want to play Minecraft with ray tracing, and you know your current GPU can't do that, so the first step would be to decide on the best new GPU to get to give you your desired Minecraft performance. It sounds like the GPU hit for ray tracing in Minecraft is horrific, so you might decide even a 2060 isn't enough.

After you upgrade your GPU, then you can decide whether your CPU is holding it back. Only then would I recommend a CPU upgrade

According to that article, yes

If you are upgrading youir GPU anyway, as @Zoid says you should do that first and only then consider CPU upgrades.

You might find, for instance, that you buy an RTX 2060 and you suddenly get really into Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Where you are pretty likely to want a CPU upgrade. Or as @Kaamos_Llama says, a more powerful GPU may expose a CPU limit with Fortnite.

But no point speculating. Neither of those might happen to you. Or even if there is technically a bottleneck, you may not notice it in actual gameplay. Or you might notice it - but decide it's not worth buying another obsolete CPU for $100. You won't know until you have the new GPU.

A 1660 should cost around $220 looking at USA partpicker prices

Choose A Video Card

pcpartpicker.com

While the cheapest 2060 is $300 as you say. In case those $80 savings look more attractive than ray traced minecraft

yeah I guess Minecraft with ray tracing is nice but not worth it. I was going to get a 1070 (my friend has one and I like the performance) but herd the 1070 and 2060 are neck and neck for performance. So I was thinking the 2060 is better because of ray tracing. Also I probably won’t upgrade anything for a wile after I update my gpu so I want something a little future proof. That’s why I’m thinking the i7.

 

[Oussebon]

The RTX 2060 is considerably faster than the GTX 1070 (it's akin to the GTX 1080 in performance) and being newer will also see a little more support going forward, so the performance difference between them is likely to increase even further in the RTX 2060's favour - at least marginally - on top of the large existing difference. Even ignoring RTX and DLSS.

There was an article written on that recently:

GeForce GTX 980 Ti Revisited: How does it fare against the GTX 1070 and RTX 2060?

Today we're revisiting an old friend, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti and we're doing so with a 36 game benchmark covering the 1080p and 1440p resolutions. We're...

www.techspot.com

If someone was going to give you an RTX 2060 or a GTX 1070 for free, or if they cost the same price, you'd pick the 2060, 999 times out of 1000.

Also I probably won’t upgrade anything for a wile after I update my gpu so I want something a little future proof. That’s why I’m thinking the i7.

Let's say you buy an avocado to eat, having never eaten it before. You wouldn't also buy a blender to make avocado smoothies before trying the avocado

Same principle with the CPU. Don't buy it before you actually know you need it or not.

$100 (or whatever) to buy an out of date CPU you might not need or want is a lot of money for something you .. might not need or want. See what happens with your new GPU first.

I have an i7 3770k. and an RTX 2060. In the games I play, even the 3770k is often a bottleneck anyway. So I'd not recommend spending $100 on one. My next upgrade will be a new CPU, mobo, and RAM later this year.

 

[Zoid]

@Oussebon just made a lot of the points I was typing out, so I'll just second it.

Preemptive upgrading for the sake of future-proofing just isn't something I recommend. Us your i5 until it is no longer able to give you the performance you want, then think about what kind of upgrade you would need to do to achieve your desired results.

 

[The republic]

The RTX 2060 is considerably faster than the GTX 1070 (it's akin to the GTX 1080 in performance) and being newer will also see a little more support going forward, so the performance difference between them is likely to increase even further in the RTX 2060's favour - at least marginally - on top of the large existing difference. Even ignoring RTX and DLSS.

There was an article written on that recently:

GeForce GTX 980 Ti Revisited: How does it fare against the GTX 1070 and RTX 2060?

Today we're revisiting an old friend, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti and we're doing so with a 36 game benchmark covering the 1080p and 1440p resolutions. We're...

www.techspot.com

If someone was going to give you an RTX 2060 or a GTX 1070 for free, or if they cost the same price, you'd pick the 2060, 999 times out of 1000.



Let's say you buy an avocado to eat, having never eaten it before. You wouldn't also buy a blender to make avocado smoothies before trying the avocado

Same principle with the CPU. Don't buy it before you actually know you need it or not.

$100 (or whatever) to buy an out of date CPU you might not need or want is a lot of money for something you .. might not need or want. See what happens with your new GPU first.

I have an i7 3770k. and an RTX 2060. In the games I play, even the 3770k is often a bottleneck anyway. So I'd not recommend spending $100 on one. My next upgrade will be a new CPU, mobo, and RAM later this year.

I see. so I will get the 2060 and see what happens. Thanks for the advice

 

[The republic]

@Oussebon just made a lot of the points I was typing out, so I'll just second it.

Preemptive upgrading for the sake of future-proofing just isn't something I recommend. Us your i5 until it is no longer able to give you the performance you want, then think about what kind of upgrade you would need to do to achieve your desired results.

Okay. so I’ll probably have to upgrade the Mobo ram and cpu for that to happen.

 

[Zoid]

Okay. so I’ll probably have to upgrade the Mobo ram and cpu for that to happen.

I see. so I will get the 2060 and see what happens. Thanks for the advice

Good plan and feel free to check back in on this thread once you see how your i5-2400 is performing with the new GPU!

If you do decide you need a CPU upgrade then we can take a look at whether a cheap used i7-3770K would be worth it or whether you'd be better off going for a new platform.

 

[The republic]

Good plan and feel free to check back in on this thread once you see how your i5-2400 is performing with the new GPU!

If you do decide you need a CPU upgrade then we can take a look at whether a cheap used i7-3770K would be worth it or whether you'd be better off going for a new platform.

I’ll let you guys know. After I get the 2060 I’m not sure when I’ll get it though. Thanks for all the help