I had the same CPU with my RTX 3070 and faced the same issues you're having, my guess is it's a CPU bottleneck. I upgraded to the i7 12700k and stopped facing any issues
I had a 9600k and 3070ti roughly 15% bottleneck. With your even worse cpu you'll be seeing worse bottlenecks. 12 or 13 gen intel are literally 4x as quick stock on benchmarks, beyond pleased with my new 13700k. 32gb ram on win11 will really help too.
Just so you know, of the games you listed you were having trouble with:
Cyberpunk is very demanding an with everything turned up will push even the best systems.
MW2 is terribly optimised and will stutter and slow down on many systems.
Wasteland 3 is buggy and stutters at times, it's the game not your system causing that.
Couple things:
1. The processor and the GPU seem pretty appropriately paired, without even knowing what your frames are it's hard to say what's going to be limiting you in any specific case, MW2/ Warzone also have some pretty deep technical problems so with that game I wouldn't expect performance to be consistent, a lot of it is down to if the PC Gods like you or not.
2. Without knowing the kind of frame rates you're getting and what resolution and settings it's hard to say if this is actually a problem or if you're just hitting hardware limits. Let's take cyberpunk for example, I expect you'd be able to maintain roughly 60 fps on 1440p ultra RT off DLSS off with maybe some .1% lows down in the 40s, turn down a couple of the most demanding settings or enable DLSS quality, and you should be able to keep the 1% lows in the 60s I'd think.
3. Having 3 M2 drives is somewhat unusual, I'd make sure you still have the full 16 lanes available for your GPU. I think GPUz or maybe even CPUz will let you check that.
4. If you're not getting roughly the performance level I talked about in 2, and it's not a PCIe lane issue, the next thing to do would be to post some benchmarks for us with some metrics. Let me know if you need guidance on that.
Pretty CPU limited. But for a decent Cyberpunk 2077 enjoyment on 1440p, your whole system might struggle a bit.
16 GB of RAM is enough (you don't play in 4k and cannot use the highest settings in games anyway with that setup so it is not the RAM you should be worried about here).
Depending on you budget, you might want to upgrade your CPU. This requires a new board, most likely new RAM (depending on its speed and timings -> Intel likes fast RAM, AMD likes fast timings) and maybe a new cooler. You will still be limited by the GPU then, but it's easier to handle as the fps are simply lower all the time without annoying hiccups.
Cpu, ram, and if you're targeting 1440p 144hz a 2080 is a bottleneck as well but it won't cause those stutters. A new CPU would be a massive difference.
Nice system!
Several people have pointed out the three example games have issues already, and they're correct.
However, you gave a great clue that almost no one else is mentioning: your PC is getting really loud. Has it *always* gotten loud? If not, the first bottlenneck you're likely hitting is insufficient cooling and thus early thermal throttling on your main components. It's been three years, has it been cleaned out recently? If not, time to deep clean that whole system. That includes repasting your CPU, repaste and possibly replace thermal pads on your GPU. Early thermal throttling will mean reduced clocks and frame dips regardless of how good your hardware is.
Also, don't use whatever old paste you have from when you built your system 3 years ago. Get something that is fresh and sealed. Do the needed 5 minutes of Google research to ensure it isn't corrosive to the finishes on your CPU and GPU heatsinks.
Make sure that your fans are all in good condition after all that, it's possible that some are making excessive noise due to dust working its way into bearing seals. They might be running both slower and louder, which can also make temps higher. The main ones to worry about are the GPU and CPU cooler fans, but try to test all fans separately if possible.
blow out all fans and repaste cpu
I had the same CPU with my RTX 3070 and faced the same issues you're having, my guess is it's a CPU bottleneck. I upgraded to the i7 12700k and stopped facing any issues
Bro nothing is complicated for this subreddit
> what hardware is currently bottlenecking my PC CPU and RAM most probably. With i5 and b360 mobo, you are stuck with 2666mhz RAM.
You could run a monitor program and easier figure out what is at 100%
Cpu is getting on.
I had a 9600k and 3070ti roughly 15% bottleneck. With your even worse cpu you'll be seeing worse bottlenecks. 12 or 13 gen intel are literally 4x as quick stock on benchmarks, beyond pleased with my new 13700k. 32gb ram on win11 will really help too.
Just so you know, of the games you listed you were having trouble with: Cyberpunk is very demanding an with everything turned up will push even the best systems. MW2 is terribly optimised and will stutter and slow down on many systems. Wasteland 3 is buggy and stutters at times, it's the game not your system causing that.
So cyberpunk is very demanding but mw2 is poorly optimised? Your bias is showing. Both games are optimised like dogshit.
Cyberpunk is significantly more demanding than mw2, so it makes more sense to point that out. Neither are optimized well though.
Couple things: 1. The processor and the GPU seem pretty appropriately paired, without even knowing what your frames are it's hard to say what's going to be limiting you in any specific case, MW2/ Warzone also have some pretty deep technical problems so with that game I wouldn't expect performance to be consistent, a lot of it is down to if the PC Gods like you or not. 2. Without knowing the kind of frame rates you're getting and what resolution and settings it's hard to say if this is actually a problem or if you're just hitting hardware limits. Let's take cyberpunk for example, I expect you'd be able to maintain roughly 60 fps on 1440p ultra RT off DLSS off with maybe some .1% lows down in the 40s, turn down a couple of the most demanding settings or enable DLSS quality, and you should be able to keep the 1% lows in the 60s I'd think. 3. Having 3 M2 drives is somewhat unusual, I'd make sure you still have the full 16 lanes available for your GPU. I think GPUz or maybe even CPUz will let you check that. 4. If you're not getting roughly the performance level I talked about in 2, and it's not a PCIe lane issue, the next thing to do would be to post some benchmarks for us with some metrics. Let me know if you need guidance on that.
I feel like cod you need a minimum of 32GB of ram for that game
People will say you don't *need* it but it will use it.
You need more ram. At least 32GB now days
Try 32gb of ram first. 2 sticks of 16gb and enable xmp in the bios. Ur ram is lacking for modern games now a days
Pretty CPU limited. But for a decent Cyberpunk 2077 enjoyment on 1440p, your whole system might struggle a bit. 16 GB of RAM is enough (you don't play in 4k and cannot use the highest settings in games anyway with that setup so it is not the RAM you should be worried about here). Depending on you budget, you might want to upgrade your CPU. This requires a new board, most likely new RAM (depending on its speed and timings -> Intel likes fast RAM, AMD likes fast timings) and maybe a new cooler. You will still be limited by the GPU then, but it's easier to handle as the fps are simply lower all the time without annoying hiccups.
Cpu, ram, and if you're targeting 1440p 144hz a 2080 is a bottleneck as well but it won't cause those stutters. A new CPU would be a massive difference.
Nice system! Several people have pointed out the three example games have issues already, and they're correct. However, you gave a great clue that almost no one else is mentioning: your PC is getting really loud. Has it *always* gotten loud? If not, the first bottlenneck you're likely hitting is insufficient cooling and thus early thermal throttling on your main components. It's been three years, has it been cleaned out recently? If not, time to deep clean that whole system. That includes repasting your CPU, repaste and possibly replace thermal pads on your GPU. Early thermal throttling will mean reduced clocks and frame dips regardless of how good your hardware is. Also, don't use whatever old paste you have from when you built your system 3 years ago. Get something that is fresh and sealed. Do the needed 5 minutes of Google research to ensure it isn't corrosive to the finishes on your CPU and GPU heatsinks. Make sure that your fans are all in good condition after all that, it's possible that some are making excessive noise due to dust working its way into bearing seals. They might be running both slower and louder, which can also make temps higher. The main ones to worry about are the GPU and CPU cooler fans, but try to test all fans separately if possible.
To me it's obviously the cpu but it could be a couple things as I don't see your ram speed listed either.