If i may ask how does someone know their cpu can handle their gpu, how do you know that a i5 4670 will not bottleneck the 7970?
Grumpy cat = my favourite cat of all time. I want a snowshoe cat. so bad.
On Topic. Most processors will handle a single GPU at 1080. Something as lowly as an AMD A8 can handle a 7970 at 1440p, so thats your lowest basline. The article that graph was from details what processors are required for certain GPU loads. The link is:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6985/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-at-1440p-adding-in-haswell-
Metro 2033 has always been my baseline for testing a systems capabilities and drawbacks.
Basically most processors will handle top end GPU's at high end resolutions when it comes to single GPU's. Choosing a processor only really matters when it comes to Multiple GPU's (2 or more) or in CPU intensive games, mostly RTS's like Starcraft II, Civ 5, Supreme Commander etc, and obviously multithreaded workloads and CPU intensive workloads, such as WinRAR and Autocad, but these dont matter when it comes to GPU workload.