Question I have GeForce RTX™ 3080 GamingPro 12GB, should I upgrade it to 3080ti or 3090?

[Mair0n]

Hello everyone,
First of all I apologize if my english is bad. Also, I apologize if I do not have enough knowledge to express my question correctly.

This is my setup:
MB: Asus Prime Z490-P
CPU: Core i5 10600
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A
GPU: GeForce RTX™ 3080 GamingPro 12GB
RAM: 32GB RAM Corsair Vengeance 3200 CL16
PSU: Masterwatt Lite 230V 700W

To be able to ask my question correctly, please watch this YouTube video

I have various questions, First one is the one that I mentioned earlier in title of the post, should I upgrade it to a 3080ti or 3090? keep in mind that I want to go with used ones.

Second questions is that is the current PSU enough for 3080ti or 3090?

Third question is that do we have huge difference between 10gb and 12gb version? and does it worth to go with 12gb one?

My Fourth question is that according to mentioned video, is there a significant difference between GPUs with a lower stock/max power limit and GPUs with a higher stock/max power limit? If so, is it possible that a RTX 3080 10gb graphics card with a higher stock/max power limit will have the same performance as a RTX 3080 12gb graphics card with a lower stock/max power limit? Basically, I want to know if this performance difference is significant and worth upgrading my current GPU to a better model based on ranking on this video?

Thank you for your time.

 

[DSzymborski]

First things first, replace that horrible PSU now. Your PC shouldn't even be turned on with a junk tier PSU like this. Every time you use this PC, you're risking reducing or eliminating your GPU's remaining lifespan. It's quite shocking to spend $600 to $1000 on a GPU and run it on cheap $20 garbage.

The 3080 Ti is a bit better and the 3090 significantly so, but without knowing what you're doing and your resolution, it's hard to say whether it's worthwhile. Boosted variants don't make up the differences between GPUs.

In any case, I wouldn't run a GTX 480 from more than a decade ago in this PC as it currently stands.

 

[kira-faye]

I wouldn't buy any 3 series card if I already had a 3080... Save up and grab a 4080 Super, or standard 4080 if they drop significantly after the Super release.

 

[InSovietRussiaComputerBuildsYOU]

I'd assume the mod is correct and you might want to get a good PSU. If you want to run high tier CPUs and GPUs you might be safest with 800-1000W - that way you dont' have to worry. CPUs can easily use up to 250W nowadays, and Nvidia GPUs can easily spike up to 400W....

By your questions I assume you're looking for top tier performance and money is not an issue. Looking at your system, your CPU is by far the weakest link. Intel's 10th gen was not only disappointing in perfromance, but also consumed a lot of power and produced a lot of heat while giving disappointing performance. If you wouldn't stray from the shining and expensive path of Intel + Nvidia, I would recommend finding a good deal for a 12th/13th gen CPU. 12th gen are quite power efficient for the performance they provide, 13th build on that by adding a few more efficiency cores, and the new 14th gen is the same as 13th, but slightly overclocked - I do not recommend spending money for a brand new 14th gen processor. Because of the effeciency cores Intel is very good for production workloads - rendering videos, running simulations, etc. If you're looking for purely gaming performance and to save some money, you could also look into AMD. They have only big cores that are really fast and also use significantly less power for the same work they do. There are new generations for both Intel and AMD so it's definitely a good time to buy a CPU as older models are being cleared out around black friday and christmas. Also I think that will bring the biggest performance upgrade for you.

I am saying this, because I aggree with the others that "sidegrading" from one 3000 series card to a more expensive 3000 series card is not worth it. There were quite big improvements with the 4070 and the 4080. If I was you and wanted maximum perfromance I would get a new CPU + mobo + possibly RAM (you'll need DDR5 for the new processors) that will be a good platform for you to upgrade your GPU is you wanted, lets say next year or whenever you want. The 3080 still has a lot of life.

 

[thestryker]

You list a 12GB 3080, but your post sounds like you have the 10GB model there is a pretty big difference between the two when it comes to performance scaling. No matter which one you have the 3080 Ti is a poor choice, and honestly the 3090 isn't much better, but it does have a lot more VRAM which can matter if you're playing at 4k.

The video you linked seems to put a lot of weight on the power limits which is okay, but doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. My card is 400W out of the box, but I run it at 300W the vast majority of the time simply because the extra power consumption simply isn't worth it in most cases.

You seem to have a relatively balanced setup currently and would probably be better served with a platform upgrade than moving up to another 30 series card. No matter what you should consider replacing that PSU with something decent and if you're thinking of getting a 400W+ card make sure the replacement is a good quality 850W+ model.

 

[Mair0n]

First things first, replace that horrible PSU now. Your PC shouldn't even be turned on with a junk tier PSU like this. Every time you use this PC, you're risking reducing or eliminating your GPU's remaining lifespan. It's quite shocking to spend $600 to $1000 on a GPU and run it on cheap $20 garbage.

The 3080 Ti is a bit better and the 3090 significantly so, but without knowing what you're doing and your resolution, it's hard to say whether it's worthwhile. Boosted variants don't make up the differences between GPUs.

In any case, I wouldn't run a GTX 480 from more than a decade ago in this PC as it currently stands.

That’s good to know that the PSU is garbage then, what would you recommend for current setup and future upgrades?
the PSU is old, it was before upgrading my GPU. my friends told me that it’s enough for the upgrade.

I’m a gamer, who streams sometimes. Also I’m a product designer and web developer which recently I went into game design and development.

 

[thestryker]

this is the go to quick reference (for the power consumption you're looking at only consider B tier or higher): https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

 

[DSzymborski]

And really, with the 80/90 cards, I'd go Tier A only, personally.

 

[Mair0n]

I'd assume the mod is correct and you might want to get a good PSU. If you want to run high tier CPUs and GPUs you might be safest with 800-1000W - that way you dont' have to worry. CPUs can easily use up to 250W nowadays, and Nvidia GPUs can easily spike up to 400W....

By your questions I assume you're looking for top tier performance and money is not an issue. Looking at your system, your CPU is by far the weakest link. Intel's 10th gen was not only disappointing in perfromance, but also consumed a lot of power and produced a lot of heat while giving disappointing performance. If you wouldn't stray from the shining and expensive path of Intel + Nvidia, I would recommend finding a good deal for a 12th/13th gen CPU. 12th gen are quite power efficient for the performance they provide, 13th build on that by adding a few more efficiency cores, and the new 14th gen is the same as 13th, but slightly overclocked - I do not recommend spending money for a brand new 14th gen processor. Because of the effeciency cores Intel is very good for production workloads - rendering videos, running simulations, etc. If you're looking for purely gaming performance and to save some money, you could also look into AMD. They have only big cores that are really fast and also use significantly less power for the same work they do. There are new generations for both Intel and AMD so it's definitely a good time to buy a CPU as older models are being cleared out around black friday and christmas. Also I think that will bring the biggest performance upgrade for you.

I am saying this, because I aggree with the others that "sidegrading" from one 3000 series card to a more expensive 3000 series card is not worth it. There were quite big improvements with the 4070 and the 4080. If I was you and wanted maximum perfromance I would get a new CPU + mobo + possibly RAM (you'll need DDR5 for the new processors) that will be a good platform for you to upgrade your GPU is you wanted, lets say next year or whenever you want. The 3080 still has a lot of life.

for now that i5-10600 works well for anything that I’m dealing with. since if I want to upgrade my CPU I need to upgrade my MB as well I was thinking to wait maybe for 15th generation for a huge upgrade. but is it a right approach?
or I just need to go with 12/13th generation?

 

[thestryker]

for now that i5-10600 works well for anything that I’m dealing with. since if I want to upgrade my CPU I need to upgrade my MB as well I was thinking to wait maybe for 15th generation for a huge upgrade. but is it a right approach?
or I just need to go with 12/13th generation?

Personally speaking your system is balanced enough that I'd be waiting unless something stopped working. I'd hoped this year would be my upgrade year, but I'm still underwhelmed by the available choices due to various reasons so maybe next (system in my signature is still my primary machine).

 

[InSovietRussiaComputerBuildsYOU]

for now that i5-10600 works well for anything that I’m dealing with. since if I want to upgrade my CPU I need to upgrade my MB as well I was thinking to wait maybe for 15th generation for a huge upgrade. but is it a right approach?
or I just need to go with 12/13th generation?

Yeah it works well. Guess what? Your 3080 will also "work well" for at least 3-5 years, or until you want to play in higher resolution (new monitor) or some really VRAM-intensive games are released (10GB will be ok for 1080p for a while, but if you move to 4K I think it might start struggling in some games). Even so, in that case you'd want to upgrade to a 16GB card.

I am just pointing our where the weakest point of the system is that I'd address first if I was you and I had money to spare. The build is fine and will run most games on 1080p on high settings for at least a couple of years, so you don't really need to upgrade anything, tbh. You asked for upgrades, and that's why I mentioned it.

There is no guarantee that 15th gen will bring "massive" improvements, same way 14th gen brought almost nothing to the table... If you're deadset on Intel, which it seems you are, the rumours are that their next "massive improvement" will be "Arrow lake refresh" in second half of 2025, which is rumoured to feature 8 performance cores, 32 efficiency cores and 2 low-powered efficiency cores. Even Arrow Lake itself (maybe next year) won't be that big of a boost considering it will have less efficiency cores and having some of it's benefitial features missing/disabled. Fundamentally, Intel will be stuck on having 8 "performance" (proper) cores for a good while, it is a limitation with their current core architecture. Of course if you're doing rendering and high-core workloads the efficiency cores pay off. If you're looking for a few fast cores for gaming, however, AMD chips with the 3D cache are good for that, are more effficient and sometimes cheaper, depending on models and deals. 6 Cores/12 Threads might be not enough for some modern games, hence why I suggested upgrading your CPU and would suggest at looking for at least an 8 core if you do decide to upgrade.

If you're looking at second hand or good deals on first hand - 12th and 13th are quite good and will last a few years. On the AMD side the 5800X3D versions are quite affordable, but lock you to a legacy AM4 motherboard, where you have very limited upgradability - similar situation to buying the 12th/13th gen, except it uses DDR4, which is even cheaper. If you get Ryzen, make sure you buy RAM that is confirmed to work with your CPU.

 

[Mair0n]

​

can you help me to choose right PSU? which one is a better choice?

-Toughpower Grand RGB 1200W Platinum Fully Modular Power Supply
-Corsair RM1000e Gold Fully Modular

 

[Mair0n]

Yeah it works well. Guess what? Your 3080 will also "work well" for at least 3-5 years, or until you want to play in higher resolution (new monitor) or some really VRAM-intensive games are released (10GB will be ok for 1080p for a while, but if you move to 4K I think it might start struggling in some games). Even so, in that case you'd want to upgrade to a 16GB card.

I am just pointing our where the weakest point of the system is that I'd address first if I was you and I had money to spare. The build is fine and will run most games on 1080p on high settings for at least a couple of years, so you don't really need to upgrade anything, tbh. You asked for upgrades, and that's why I mentioned it.

There is no guarantee that 15th gen will bring "massive" improvements, same way 14th gen brought almost nothing to the table... If you're deadset on Intel, which it seems you are, the rumours are that their next "massive improvement" will be "Arrow lake refresh" in second half of 2025, which is rumoured to feature 8 performance cores, 32 efficiency cores and 2 low-powered efficiency cores. Even Arrow Lake itself (maybe next year) won't be that big of a boost considering it will have less efficiency cores and having some of it's benefitial features missing/disabled. Fundamentally, Intel will be stuck on having 8 "performance" (proper) cores for a good while, it is a limitation with their current core architecture. Of course if you're doing rendering and high-core workloads the efficiency cores pay off. If you're looking for a few fast cores for gaming, however, AMD chips with the 3D cache are good for that, are more effficient and sometimes cheaper, depending on models and deals. 6 Cores/12 Threads might be not enough for some modern games, hence why I suggested upgrading your CPU and would suggest at looking for at least an 8 core if you do decide to upgrade.

If you're looking at second hand or good deals on first hand - 12th and 13th are quite good and will last a few years. On the AMD side the 5800X3D versions are quite affordable, but lock you to a legacy AM4 motherboard, where you have very limited upgradability - similar situation to buying the 12th/13th gen, except it uses DDR4, which is even cheaper. If you get Ryzen, make sure you buy RAM that is confirmed to work with your CPU.

I wanted to upgrade my GPU because of a good deal that my friend was offering. I can’t compare it with a CPU
I won’t go with higher that 2k monitors. currently I’m in 1080P.
I think 4080 and 4090 is overkill. I don’t need that much performance tbh.
I’m not counting on next generations, but I would be happy if the upgrade worth it.
for CPU I was thinking about Core i5 12/13th generation or AMD series.
But I don’t know it’s worth it compare to my current CPU since it’s still works well.

 

[DSzymborski]

I wanted to upgrade my GPU because of a good deal that my friend was offering. I can’t compare it with a CPU
I won’t go with higher that 2k monitors. currently I’m in 1080P.
I think 4080 and 4090 is overkill. I don’t need that much performance tbh.
I’m not counting on next generations, but I would be happy if the upgrade worth it.
for CPU I was thinking about Core i5 12/13th generation or AMD series.
But I don’t know it’s worth it compare to my current CPU since it’s still works well.

If you're not going to 4K, I'd be inclined to not take the deal unless it was absolutely an insane deal. But I don't know how good a deal that is and that's part of the calculus.

Either of those PSUs are fine. Thermaltake makes some troubling low-end parts, but they actually try on the good stuff.

 

[Eximo]

You can always try to track down a used i7-11700k, you have the motherboard for it. Even without overclocking you would be gaining quite a bit of clock speed plus the two cores.

 

[Mair0n]

If you're not going to 4K, I'd be inclined to not take the deal unless it was absolutely an insane deal. But I don't know how good a deal that is and that's part of the calculus.

Either of those PSUs are fine. Thermaltake makes some troubling low-end parts, but they actually try on the good stuff.

So it seems to me that you agree more with Corsair, Right?

 

[Mair0n]

You can always try to track down a used i7-11700k, you have the motherboard for it. Even without overclocking you would be gaining quite a bit of clock speed plus the two cores.

I wonder if my MB supports i7-11700k since it's a lowest deal on a z490 chipset

 

[Eximo]

Hmm, you may be right, they don't list 11th gen for that board. That is a bit disappointing.

You can still pick up an i9-10850k, roughly the same gaming performance as 11th gen CPUs, and it even has an additional two cores. (Because of that it has 20mb of cache vs 16mb, so it is slightly better for games)

I run the 10900F myself.

 

[Avro Arrow]

My answer would be no. The cost of those cards would not be able to justify the relatively small increase in performance that you would receive. The RTX 3080 Ti especially is only about 9% faster than an RTX 3080 12GB. You already have a powerful card so if you want to upgrade it, you'll have to go BIG to make the performance difference worth it.

I know this because I have an RX 6800 XT (the performance rival of the RTX 3080) and to get an upgrade that was worth it, I had to get an RX 7900 XTX (the performance rival od the RTX 4080) to make the upgrade worth doing.

I would recommend the same to you. Either get an RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XTX or don't bother upgrading at all. The RTX 4090 is totally not worth it so I would choose either the RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XTX if I were you.