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[Ocean Dweller]

I can only choose one of the routes, not both


The resolution I’ll be gaming at is 1440p. I don’t want to go AMD so please don’t suggest that for processor or GPU

Current setup

I7 9700k
3070Ti
Gigabyte aorus pro z330
32GB DDR 4
32” monitor 1440p
970 PRO SSD SATAS

 

[Xellos]

What's your current setup?

 

[diffusionx]

with gaming, GPU is still the first upgrade. That said a 4080 is overkill for 1440p.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

I can only choose one of the routes, not both


The resolution I’ll be gaming at is 1440p. I don’t want to go AMD so please don’t suggest that for processor or GPU

So the 4080 is a terrible option, if you're deadset on not getting AMD (why?) just get one of the 3000 series gpus for a much cheaper amount and still get a proper CPU (recommended a 7800x3d). But again, not going AMD at least in one of the components is kneecapping yourself on purpose, but you do you.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

GPU. Always GPU. Look at consoles CPU as a baseline. There won't be any mainstream games pushing PC CPUs anytime soon.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

GPU. Always GPU. Look at consoles CPU as a baseline. There won't be any mainstream games pushing PC CPUs anytime soon.

Bad take, your bottleneck should always be your most expensive component and GPUS are normally the most expensive component.
Pair a 4090 with some ancient CPU and see what framerates you get, especially at 1440p

 

[acm2000]

throw your pc in the bin and get a series s

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Bad take

It's not, really. I have 4090 paired with aging i7 8700K and I'm more than fine. I'm fine enough that I'm too lazy to actually upgrade. All games just fly without a problem.

 

[Fbh]

But the GPU is cool too

 

[diffusionx]

It's not, really. I have 4090 paired with aging i7 8700K and I'm more than fine. I'm fine enough that I'm too lazy to actually upgrade. All games just fly without a problem.

pairing an old CPU with a high-end GPU will usually mean bad frame times and more inconsistency than you would expect, but hey if you're ok with it

 

[MidGenRefresh]

pairing an old CPU with a high-end GPU will usually mean bad frame times and more inconsistency than you would expect, but hey if you're ok with it

I'm not saying otherwise. My CPU is just good enough. And I'd had to pick between upgrading CPU or GPU for gaming, well, it's not even a discussion. GPU all the way.

 

[NeverYouMind]

What is your current CPU, GPU, RAM, and SSD combo?

 

[Ocean Dweller]

I7 9700k
Gigabyte aorus pro z330
32GB DDR 4
32” monitor 1440p
970 PRO SSD SATAS

 

[diffusionx]

I7 9700k
Gigabyte aorus pro z330
32GB DDR 4
32” monitor 1440p
970 PRO SSD SATAS

are you using an integrated GPU?

 

[Mister Wolf]

Get the 4080. Frame Generation is game changing.

 

[MikeM]

Bad take, your bottleneck should always be your most expensive component and GPUS are normally the most expensive component.
Pair a 4090 with some ancient CPU and see what framerates you get, especially at 1440p

Everything is relative and scenario based.

I have a 5600 with a 7900xt and have no issues. Yes, the odd game is bottlenecked but at 4k and with my LG C1 being limited to 120hz, a bottleneck might bring me down to 90fps depending on the game. I have no desire to spend an extra $400CAD to fill the occasional gap.

 

[Soodanim]

Impossible to answer without the current GPU

 

[Ocean Dweller]

are you using an integrated GPU?

No. Sorry I forgot to list what I have. I have a 3070Ti

 

[Buggy Loop]

Aren’t you satisfied with that setup?

I would wait this gen out. DDR5 platforms are in their infancy, Intel is preparing for a home run and Ada doesn’t make sense outside of the 4090.

Buy an ultrawide OLED Gsync if you want to spend on something meaningful

 

[64bitmodels]

Ada doesn’t make sense outside of the 4090.

ehh the 4080 isnt bad either if you can snag it for under 1000. One of my friends got it for essentially 699

everything else is E waste though

 

[Reallink]

Nothing's going to be worth the upgrade price, your system's more than fine for 1440p. Save your money for next-gen parts. You'll be best served upgrading both the CPU and GPU at that point, not a one off right now.

 

[Mercador]

From a 3070TI, I don't think it worth it, keep your money for 50X0 series at that point.

 

[sn0man]

Aren’t you satisfied with that setup?

I would wait this gen out. DDR5 platforms are in their infancy, Intel is preparing for a home run and Ada doesn’t make sense outside of the 4090.

Buy an ultrawide OLED Gsync if you want to spend on something meaningful

I kind of second this. None of these move the mark terribly.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

At 1440p, you need good CPU performance (assuming your target is 60+ fps). 3070 Ti is still good enough for that res. Your CPU is ancient. Get the 13700K.

 

[ozz ex machina]

Why are you so against AMD cpus? Odd.

 

[Buggy Loop]

ehh the 4080 isnt bad either if you can snag it for under 1000. One of my friends got it for essentially 699

everything else is E waste though

At 699 it’s a deal for sure, used?

 

[Ocean Dweller]

Aren’t you satisfied with that setup?

I would wait this gen out. DDR5 platforms are in their infancy, Intel is preparing for a home run and Ada doesn’t make sense outside of the 4090.

Buy an ultrawide OLED Gsync if you want to spend on something meaningful

I was actually thinking of getting either the LG C2 or LG C3 and playing pc games on that as well

 

[diffusionx]

No. Sorry I forgot to list what I have. I have a 3070Ti

if I were you I would hold on to your system for another year or two and plan a new build when the 5xxx series comes out. Including a new monitor to take advantage of it all.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

I'm not saying otherwise. My CPU is just good enough. And I'd had to pick between upgrading CPU or GPU for gaming, well, it's not even a discussion. GPU all the way.

Man, the guy wants to play 1440p, obviously you should be as balanced as possible, but on PC you're not normally aiming for 60fps and at lower resolutions the CPU becomes a pretty substantial bottleneck. The OP didn't state what current hardware he has, but since he's funds limited, definitely better get a last gen GPU (which is more than good enough for 1440p) and pair it with a decent CPU that will assure he's 120+ fps in pretty much anything.

Edit: Just noticed the OP added the current specs, definitely better to upgrade CPU than GPU at that point, just unclear what the beef is with AMD, definitely the best gaming cpu is the 7800x3d, so I'd strong recommend that. As other said, hold on upgrading GPU next year, no need yet at 1440p

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

It's not, really. I have 4090 paired with aging i7 8700K and I'm more than fine. I'm fine enough that I'm too lazy to actually upgrade. All games just fly without a problem.

lol you're deffinitely not more than fine, check any benchmark with that GPU on a modern CPU. Spending nearly 2k on that GPU but rocking a near 10 year old CPU is absurd.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

Everything is relative and scenario based.

I have a 5600 with a 7900xt and have no issues. Yes, the odd game is bottlenecked but at 4k and with my LG C1 being limited to 120hz, a bottleneck might bring me down to 90fps depending on the game. I have no desire to spend an extra $400CAD to fill the occasional gap.

Your setup makes a lot more sense for 4k, but the OP wants 1440p, chances are he will be much more CPU bottlenecked than GPU. Definitely no need to get a 40 series for that (especially at the stupid prices Nvidia asks)

 

[Solidus_T]

Upgrade to a 7800X 3D. It's the best CPU for gaming out there right now and it runs cooler and draws much less power than comparable Intel parts.

EDIT: To add more, I strongly disagree with the GPU recommendations from folks encouraging you to get anything 40 series. Value wise, it's a rip off especially if you have a 30 series card. Keep the GPU and wait for next gen GPUs.

 

[01011001]

the GPU would give you the biggest boost.

you memory is more than enough, your CPU should be good too, especially when using DLSS3, and at 1440p that 4080 should give you basically max settings for a while.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

I can only choose one of the routes, not both


The resolution I’ll be gaming at is 1440p. I don’t want to go AMD so please don’t suggest that for processor or GPU

Current setup

I7 9700k
3070Ti
Gigabyte aorus pro z330
32GB DDR 4
32” monitor 1440p
970 PRO SSD SATAS

You will be CPU bottlenecked at 1440p with a 4080 but also would likely give you your biggest boost if that makes sense.

If you will be able to upgrade the CPU down the road even in 2-3 years time I would get the 4080

 

[MidGenRefresh]

lol you're deffinitely not more than fine, check any benchmark with that GPU on a modern CPU. Spending nearly 2k on that GPU but rocking a near 10 year old CPU is absurd.

I'm super fine, thank you. CPU is 6 years old, so you're only 4 years off.

Max settings, including path tracing with DLSS quality and frame generation. Butter smooth. OMG, so absurd.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

I'm super fine, thank you. CPU is 6 years old, so you're only 4 years off.

Max settings, including path tracing with DLSS quality and frame generation. Butter smooth. OMG, so absurd.

that's mega ancient in CPU terms regardless, and you're still missing the point, the OP wants to play in 1440p. You deliberately created the most GPU bound scenario possible with that screenshot to prove... not sure what. You're playing at average 60, but with drops in the 40's. And that's on the benchmark tool, nevermind in real gaming scenario after 1h of play with windows updates in the background and fuck knows what else (on and also with frame generation to further cheat the FPS number as well)

Try ACC for example with that CPU and the 4090, no need for raytracing. Just make it 18 cars at night in Spa. Let me know if you cross the 30 fps . Try VR too on the same settings and let me know.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

that's mega ancient in CPU terms regardless, and you're still missing the point, the OP wants to play in 1440p. You deliberately created the most GPU bound scenario possible with that screenshot to prove... not sure what. You're playing at average 60, but with drops in the 40's. And that's on the benchmark tool, nevermind in real gaming scenario after 1h of play with windows updates in the background and fuck knows what else (on and also with frame generation to further cheat the FPS number as well)

Try ACC for example with that CPU and the 4090, no need for raytracing. Just make it 18 cars at night in Spa. Let me know if you cross the 30 fps . Try VR too on the same settings and let me know.

OMG, you're so clueless. The drop to 40 something is at the beginning when the tool starts, that's it.

Game plays fine, I have 300+ clocked in it.

If path tracing is not one of the most CPU stressful scenarios then I don't know what is.

And that's on the benchmark tool, nevermind in real gaming scenario after 1h of play with windows updates in the background and fuck knows what else

What? Are you're trolling?

and also with frame generation to further cheat the FPS number as well

Yeah, that's like half of the reason to go with 4000 series. It's amazing.

 

[Rentahamster]

I can only choose one of the routes, not both


The resolution I’ll be gaming at is 1440p. I don’t want to go AMD so please don’t suggest that for processor or GPU

Current setup

I7 9700k
3070Ti
Gigabyte aorus pro z330
32GB DDR 4
32” monitor 1440p
970 PRO SSD SATAS

You don't need to upgrade if you're playing at 1440p unless you really want high refresh rates or higher detail settings. I'd wait.

 

[Mr Moose]

Is a 3070Ti not a good 1440p card?

 

[Sleepwalker]

Everything is relative and scenario based.

I have a 5600 with a 7900xt and have no issues. Yes, the odd game is bottlenecked but at 4k and with my LG C1 being limited to 120hz, a bottleneck might bring me down to 90fps depending on the game. I have no desire to spend an extra $400CAD to fill the occasional gap.

Same here, I just upgraded to a 4080 and have a 5900x with DDR4 ram, sure I could upgrade to AM5 and DDR5 but I don't see a reason to yet, meanwhile the GPU upgrade was great for me going from a 2080s to a 4080.

 

[NeverYouMind]

I7 9700k
Gigabyte aorus pro z330
32GB DDR 4
32” monitor 1440p
970 PRO SSD SATAS

No. Sorry I forgot to list what I have. I have a 3070Ti

With those specs, your CPU is the biggest bottleneck. Go for the i7 13700K and LGA 1700 motherboard. From what I understand it is compatible with the RAM you have. No real point in jumping to expensive DDR5 RAM. It will especially be great for emulation and CPU demanding new titles. There is little point in holding off on CPU upgrades waiting for the next batch because the generational gap is not that great and features are practically identical.

You have a good enough GPU to attain a solid 60fps at 1440p with high settings on any decently optimized game. You will likely need to upgrade your GPU when more games demand 12GB of video memory. The few titles that came out demanding 12GB thus far were patched to work better with 8GB cards. Most games do not even support DLSS 3.0 which is exclusive to 4000 series. Outside of that, the in-game performance will be nearly identical to 3000 series unless you are running top of the line monitors with 120+ fps and VRR .

 

[HL3.exe]

I'm still rocking a 5930k with a gtx1080, both overclocked. Still able to run everything at 60 at 1440p.

Until games demand me to upgrade, or raytracing is mandatory, I'll make the jump for a completely new system. But games in general have stagnated for the last 10 years (my PC proves this point, with my CPU being 9 years old). On a technical demand level (besides being poorly optimized) they just don't necessarily need such demanding hardware. The day of upgrading just to play Crysis (2007) is long gone.

 

[Xellos]

Hard to recommend either option. Current PC should be fine for 1440p/60fps at high/medium settings.

4080 would allow for higher settings, but the price is steep. CPU upgrade is more reasonably priced but you're unlikely to notice a difference vs 9700k with 3070 ti, at least not with current games. I'd wait until next year and see if Nvidia offers a better value GPU, then upgrade CPU and GPU together.

 

[hinch7]

I'd honestly stick to what you have and wait for next generation which is due next year (Arrowlake supposedly 2024 though). Unless you have the money to burn. You'd probably want to go 4080 at a minimum with a 13700K. Also any reason why to avoid AMD? Their CPU's are arguably better for gaming, particularly the 3D vcache ones.

Otherwise its a rather mediocre jump in GPU performance outside the top SKU's and terrible value for money.

 

[Gaiff]

If you had a 4K monitor, the 4080 wouldn't be such a terrible choice. At 1440p however, you'll be heavily CPU-bound and that 9700K will hold it back massively to the point that you'd effectively be wasting your money on the 4080.

If you go the route of upgrading everything besides the CPU, you won't get much better gaming performance because that 3070 Ti is just about tapped out at 1440p.

Ocean Dweller I had a very similar dilemma to you 8 months ago.

My old system was:

i9-9900K
RTX 2080 Ti
16GB DDR4 3200MHz
ASUS ROG Maximum Hero XI
Acer Predator x34p 3440x1440 120Hz
Samsung Evo 970 Pro 1TB

Overall, extremely similar in performance to your system and I was debating whether upgrading to a 13900K+DDR5 or getting a 4090 because I only had saved up enough for one of them. I ended up getting the 4090 and regretted it. My frame times were horrendous in modern games at ultra settings and I was suffering from extreme CPU bottlenecks that caused my 4090K to at times perform only 10-30% better than my 2080 Ti. I quickly decided to upgrade the entire system and was much happier for it. My performance more than doubled except for scenarios in which I hit the max refresh rate of my monitor, and the smoothness was incomparably superior.

tl;dr, don't cheap out. Upgrade the entire system. You'll regret it and be wasting your money if you go one route or the other.

Edit: OP, I know you're salivating at those 4080 benchmarks but you must remain strong. You need a new system to allow it to stretch its legs. It'll be sleeping with a 9700K stifling its true power.

 

[proandrad]

GPU. Always GPU. Look at consoles CPU as a baseline. There won't be any mainstream games pushing PC CPUs anytime soon.

This is like a 2013 take, most of the highend AAA games released this year have been heavily CPU bottlenecked. If you want to get the most out of a 4080 you need a better CPU or get ready for inconsistent frame-times and stutters.

 

[Ocean Dweller]

If you had a 4K monitor, the 4080 wouldn't be such a terrible choice. At 1440p however, you'll be heavily CPU-bound and that 9700K will hold it back massively to the point that you'd effectively be wasting your money on the 4080.

If you go the route of upgrading everything besides the CPU, you won't get much better gaming performance because that 3070 Ti is just about tapped out at 1440p.

Ocean Dweller I had a very similar dilemma to you 8 months ago.

My old system was:

i9-9900K
RTX 2080 Ti
16GB DDR4 3200MHz
ASUS ROG Maximum Hero XI
Acer Predator x34p 3440x1440 120Hz
Samsung Evo 970 Pro 1TB

Overall, extremely similar in performance to your system and I was debating whether upgrading to a 13900K+DDR5 or getting a 4090 because I only had saved up enough for one of them. I ended up getting the 4090 and regretted it. My frame times were horrendous in modern games at ultra settings and I was suffering from extreme CPU bottlenecks that caused my 4090K to at times perform only 10-30% better than my 2080 Ti. I quickly decided to upgrade the entire system and was much happier for it. My performance more than doubled except for scenarios in which I hit the max refresh rate of my monitor and the smoothness was incomparably superior.

tl;dr, don't cheap out. Upgrade the entire system. You'll regret it and be wasting your money if you go one route or the other.

Edit: OP, I know you're salivating at those 4080 benchmarks but you must remain strong. You need a new system to allow it to stretch its legs. It'll be sleeping with a 9700K stifling its true power.

Thanks for the notes I think if I went with a new MB, DDR 5 and i7 13700k for NOW (stick with 3070ti for moment) that would still be a decent upgrade

 

[Gaiff]

Thanks for the notes I think if I went with a new MB, DDR 5 and i7 13700k for NOW (stick with 3070ti for moment) that would still be a decent upgrade

When would you be able to upgrade the GPU as well? A month from now? 3 months?

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

OMG, you're so clueless. The drop to 40 something is at the beginning when the tool starts, that's it.

Game plays fine, I have 300+ clocked in it.

If path tracing is not one of the most CPU stressful scenarios then I don't know what is.



What? Are you're trolling?



Yeah, that's like half of the reason to go with 4000 series. It's amazing.

Literally anyone that knows anything about PC gaming in this thread is saying the exact same thing I said. The CPU is the bottleneck for him. Your recommendation only (kinda) works in your own specific scenario where you're at least running a 4k screen. But even there you spent nearly 2k to barely get any visible improvement in FPS as if you would have spent half the money.

Going with the best GPU in the world and dropping it into an ancient CPU/MB/Ram combo is a complete noob move

I have the same GPU, used it on my older system with the 5800X and still got a massive increase when going from that to the 7800x3d. Especially at VR where I need constant 90fps without a single drop.

 

[Rentahamster]

Ocean Dweller You probably need to clarify about what exaxtly your endgame goal is here, because the advice varies depending on that too. Also what's the maximum refresh rate of your monitor.