Looking to upgrade certain aspects of my pre built MSI Aegis RS 11

Jbourque

Looking for suggestions...

I have this MSI pre-built that has an i7 11th gen in it. 
Along with that, it is supposed to have an RTX 3080, but long story short, MSI customer service and quality was kind of a nightmare for me, and after a series of broken 3080s that they sent me I finally got randomly sent a RTX 3090 suprim x because they couldn't figure out how to send me a fourth RTX 3080, lol.

So now I have a case that is fairly tight for such a huge card with less than amazing air flow and a CPU that doesn't quite match the power of the GPU.

I'm wondering if it's worth it to upgrade the CPU to better match this graphics card and also to get a better case with better airflow for this card. 

This is a machine I use for a lot of graphics intensive gaming, 3d modeling , and video editing.

I was thinking of replacing the i7 with a 12th generation I-9. I guess as far as a new case I really don't know and was looking for help or suggestions for that as well. 

Basically I just want to make sure that I'm taking full advantage of the one good thing that came out of this pre-built which was 3090 free upgrade. Kind of want the rest of the PC to be as future proof as that card and also to avoid bottlenecking the nice GPU with lesser components elsewhere.


I'd also add that I had to increase the power supply to a thousand watt when they sent me this card. I was hoping that would be more than enough if it was in fact a good idea to upgrade the CPU. 


Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I'm out of my element.

Lambdaben

Hello @Jbourque,

Congrats on the free RTX 3090!!

As far as what your asking for, you unfortunately cannot upgrade to a 12th gen processor without upgrading your motherboard and possibly ram depending on what motherboard you choose. This maybe easier to do since you are planning to upgrade your case anyway, since you would be pretty much rebuilding your unit.

You can upgrade to an 11th gen i9 without having to switch out your other components.

Let me know if this helps!

Jbourque

Thanks for the reply!

Ok so 12th gen would require a different mobo. I wondered about that. 


I guess I'm trying to figure out if it's worth it. Like in my mind and 11th gen i7 is definitely holding back the performance of the RTX 3090. Buuuuuut I have no idea if that's actually a certainty or not. 


If it is true that it's likely not allowing me to get the most out of the GPU then I feel like a new case, CPU, and mobo might be worth investing in to get the max number of years out of the GPU.


Do you have any thoughts on my CPU/GPU pairing that I now find myself with?


Would you recommend upgrading around the 3090? Or just riding this PC out until it's time for a full build.

Thanks again for the reply! 

magarity

It always depends on what software is running, whether the CPU or GPU is used more or less than the other. There's really no such thing as a perfectly matched pair that run exactly the same. An 11th gen i7 should be quite reasonable with a 3090.

3090 release date: Sept 2020

i7 11700 release date: March 2021

So you see, they are both very close

What exactly is this MSI case in question? What did it come with in terms of fans and what is the CPU cooler? Have you been monitoring the temperatures of the CPU and GPU to see if they are getting to their thermal limits? Crappy cooling is your enemy not this CPU/GPU combo.

Jbourque

Ok yeah good point about the release dates etc. Thanks!

Ok exact model of the pre built was the Aegis RS 11TE 089

Originally it did not have a cooler that was effective for the CPU. It was a single fan liquid cooler with the fan/radiator mounted on the back. After ridiculously bad thermals from that set up and several returns , they replaced a couple things but to your question it now has a dual radiator or (240m I guess ) that is mounted to the top. The back spot is now just an exhaust fan. 

Three intake in the front but there is a cover on the front that probably hinders air flow somewhat. 

The MSI 3090 suprim card when slotted barely leaves a half inch between the front fans and the card. Lol. Maybe that's normal but it looks really cramped. I also was paranoid by the sheer weight of the thing on the mobo so I bought a little holster thing that just sorta sits underneath the front part of the GPU to prevent sag. 


Anyway the temps of the CPU are now awesome with the larger cooler. Rarely above 70-72 C. Never above 80.

The GPU can run hot after long sessions though. I often see it sitting at 79-80 C while gaming for a few hours and when I check max values after a long sessions there have always been some spikes to 82C- which seems not too scary, but also does seem like it shouldn't be hitting that high. Idk.


In terms of usage in the task manager I don't really see some kind of "CPU is at 100 % while GPU is low" obvious sign of throttling. 

But benchmark wise some of the games I've tested on this system run really well, but always a bit below the average for that CPU/GPU pairing. 

The biggest thing I noticed performance wise is when I run benchmarks in games and I go from max settings to really low settings/ res, I just do not see the same leaps in fps performance that the benchmarks online suggests I should be seeing. 


I'll run red dead 2 at ultra everything in 2k and get 115 fps which is awesome!

Then I'll drop everything to low and set it to 1080p and I get 165fps, but the online benchmarks suggest that that dramatic of a graphical settings change should be getting me like 220fps or higher. Just much bigger jumps in fps than what I see on my machine. 

I double checked my RAM to make sure 3600hz was actually what I set it to as well in case that was my mistake. Thought maybe I had left the speed at a low setting.


I'm sorta at a loss as to what else might cause that lack of performance leap.

Also just want to say thanks again for even talking these things through! Super helpful .

magarity

11700K throttle temp is 100C, below that may seem hot but it is not affecting performance.

3090 throttle temp is 93C.

Whatever is affecting your system performance, it is software or driver or something like that. Not because anything is overheating to the point of throttling. Also not because either the CPU or GPU can't keep up with the other.

Sorry, I have a Ryzen/Radeon system and can't help with the details of Intel / nVidia drivers and software.

PS - The correct term for the CPU cooler is to call it a "240 AIO"