News How Much CPU Does the GeForce RTX 3080 Need?

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cgigoux said:
Great review. Interesting to see that while there is a larger performance hit with the old CPU's at 1080p vs 1440p, even then the games are more than playable with almost none of them dropping below 60fps. I'm idly wondering if an old AMD 83xx series could keep up.

Also, when are you going to review the "Ultra POS" case you used to test the Z97 CPU. Hadn't heard of that brand before (though there are several cases I've seen that may qualify). ;-)
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I'm really glad someone noticed my Ultra POS case joke. I'm pretty sure the company went out of business years ago. I had an Ultra power supply as well (before the 80 Plus days!) that kicked the bucket at some point. I want to say the case is from around 2007 or 2006. It's so unfriendly ... sharp edges, a slide out motherboard tray that DOESN'T SLIDE (unless you use Hulk force on it), and a bunch of other design decisions that probably seemed okay back then. But compared to modern cases? It's an absolute joke.

That's my review. 😀
 
@JarredWaltonGPU Thank you for making this as detailed as possible. Also your 3080 benches are detailed and great.

Not realted to your benches: It would be great if you can pass the feedback to the web designer regarding how painful it is to read articles on TH. Look at all the wasted space on either side of a 1080P screen, and I have to click on the graph to enlarge them and read the values!

Wasted screen space!

If they can make the content a bit wider and make the graphs a bit wider (hence overall larger) it would be nice :)
 
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Utter destruction of AMD by Nvidia and Intel today. AMD has nothing interesting for PC gamers. Just stick to conslows. Thanks.
 
Please test scaling between same CPU and different GPUs, so if one has a Ryzen 3600 they can see the difference from going from an RTX 2070, 2080, 2080ti to a 3080. Hardware Unboxed seemed to find at 1440p even if an i9 perfromed better the scaling seemed to be the same.
 
Hey, I've got a i7-2600k O.C. Definitely looking to upgrade to the 3080 and Zen 3 (or rocket lake if out before end of year). Anything past my 1070 gtx will get bottle necked by my ancient and legendary CPU.

I really do appreciate these reviews. I'm running on a 1440p monitor (ACER Predator) up to 144hz. My system is long in the tooth, but it is nice to see that its time to upgrade. No point in just a GPU upgrade either, I really want some of the updated features and more cores for my system.
 
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Thank you for the great article. I'm running an i7-7700k, 32Gb 2400 RAM, and a Sapphire R9 290x 4Gb gpu on a new 32" 1440p 165Hz monitor. I'm looking to run 1440p ultra at the highest framerate I can. I was planning to get the 3080 but you have me wondering. If I'm not going to upgrade my cpu/motherboard/RAM for a couple of years, is it worth getting the 3080?
 
newbuilder333 said:
Thank you for the great article. I'm running an i7-7700k, 32Gb 2400 RAM, and a Sapphire R9 290x 4Gb gpu on a new 32" 1440p 165Hz monitor. I'm looking to run 1440p ultra at the highest framerate I can. I was planning to get the 3080 but you have me wondering. If I'm not going to upgrade my cpu/motherboard/RAM for a couple of years, is it worth getting the 3080?
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Maybe? The way I think about it would be this.

You can keep your case, RAM, monitor, and PSU. You're looking at a $700 GPU. You might lose a bit of performance, and you're not going to hit anything close to 165Hz (fps) in most games. Worst cast, you add a new Z490 mobo and i7-10900K CPU for $450 (or a Zen 3 equivalent) in the coming months.

Alternatively, get an RTX 3070 for $500, or whatever AMD's equivalent is.

So if you want to save money, go the 3070 route. If you want higher performance, plan on a CPU and mobo upgrade potentially sooner than later. Maybe even just part out the current PC and build a new one.
 
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JarredWaltonGPU said:
Maybe? The way I think about it would be this.

You can keep your case, RAM, monitor, and PSU. You're looking at a $700 GPU. You might lose a bit of performance, and you're not going to hit anything close to 165Hz (fps) in most games. Worst cast, you add a new Z490 mobo and i7-10900K CPU for $450 (or a Zen 3 equivalent) in the coming months.

Alternatively, get an RTX 3070 for $500, or whatever AMD's equivalent is.

So if you want to save money, go the 3070 route. If you want higher performance, plan on a CPU and mobo upgrade potentially sooner than later. Maybe even just part out the current PC and build a new one.
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Thank you for the quick reply! Are you saying the 1440p performance would be about the same between the 3070 or the 3080 with my current cpu? I also have a 4k tv that I could game on from time to time. Seems like it may be better to get the 3080 and upgrade the cpu/mobo when I can. Is 4k gaming going to be doable at all with the 7700k?
 
newbuilder333 said:
Thank you for the quick reply! Are you saying the 1440p performance would be about the same between the 3070 or the 3080 with my current cpu? I also have a 4k tv that I could game on from time to time. Seems like it may be better to get the 3080 and upgrade the cpu/mobo when I can. Is 4k gaming going to be doable at all with the 7700k?
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The 7700K should be a bit faster than the i3-10100 I tested in this article, so at 4K you'll mostly be GPU limited. Overall, a 10900K was only 2% faster at 4K ultra, but it was a more noticeable 9% faster at 1440p ultra. If the 7700K is 3-4% faster than a 10100 at 1440p, though, then the gap is down to 4-5%. Of course there are the games where the CPU will matter more -- Far Cry 5, Forza Horizon 4, Shadow of the Tomb Raider are all close to 20% gap at 1440p. Other games will be like that as well. But you can always take the GPU with you to a new PC down the road.
 
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Can you comment on 7900x being a bottleneck or not for the 3080? I currently have a 1080ti. From what I am seeing the 7900x is not a bottleneck for the 2080ti. Thoughts?

If it makes a difference, I have it OCd to 4.5
 
GetSmart said:
Can it be concluded that 8 cores is the minimum to get most out of this new GPU (with least bottlenecks)? 🤔
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Hi

I would conclude that.

But I would also say what a processor the i7-4790k is. I will be pained to upgrade mine but I will probably get the best CPU I can now. I certainly had my moneys worth
 
One of the few reasons a person might actually need a card like this is for VR, especially VR flight simulation. (DCS World, X-Plane 11, IL2). Why do you continue to ignore us?
 
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