[SOLVED] Is my overclocked 8700k powerful enough for 3080 Ti @ 1440p 144hz

JX432

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Currently I have a 1080 Ti, but I want to upgrade to a 3080 Ti because the 1080 Ti is not really good enough for high refresh rate gaming at 1440p. Can my i7 8700k processor overclocked to 4.9 GHz handle the 3080 Ti without losing a significant amount of FPS? I have a Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Gaming WiFi motherboard and 32 GB G.Skill TridentZ RAM 3600 Mhz. And if I would lose some FPS how much? Like just a few FPS or a bigger amount?
 
Solution
I recently upgraded my CPU from a i7 7700k to a i5 12600k. My GPU is a RX 5700XT. I did not notice a big increase in FPS or anything.

A 3080 ti is a lot faster than a RX 5700 XT but your 8700k has 6/12 cores/threads where my 7700k only had 4/8 cores/threads. Also the 12600k has 10/16 core/thread.

7700k 04/08 - 5700 XT
12600k 10/16 - 5700 XT
<-- Newest type of chip so core/thread count is weird.
8700k 06/12 - 3080 ti

The differences would be similar so chances are good you won't be held back by the CPU.

JX432

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At 1080p it will be CPU bound. At 1440p and higher, it shifts to the GPU, so less of an impact (game dependant)

Is there a chart that shows the impact for the different games? I am trying to find a side by side comparsion one system using a 3080 Ti with an 8700k and the other using the same card with a newer i7 or i9 processor. If I'll generally only lose a few FPS I suppose it would still be worth the upgrade but If I ended up losing 10-20 frames in some games it might not be.
 

USAFRet

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Is there a chart that shows the impact for the different games? I am trying to find a side by side comparsion one system using a 3080 Ti with an 8700k and the other using the same card with a newer i7 or i9 processor. If I'll generally only lose a few FPS I suppose it would still be worth the upgrade but If I ended up losing 10-20 frames in some games it might not be.
Keeping the game settings and other components the same, adding a better GPU will not reduce your FPS.
 
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Is there a chart that shows the impact for the different games? I am trying to find a side by side comparsion one system using a 3080 Ti with an 8700k and the other using the same card with a newer i7 or i9 processor. If I'll generally only lose a few FPS I suppose it would still be worth the upgrade but If I ended up losing 10-20 frames in some games it might not be.

That's gonna be hard to find. It's an older CPU and not necessarily compared to the latest and greatest. Video's like this will give you an idea: RTX 3090 + i7-6700K vs i7-7700K vs i7-8700K vs i9-9900K test in games - 1080p - 1440p - 4K - YouTube

It's a modern GPU close to the 3080ti (obviously faster though).

AS @USAFRet said, you won't suffer less FPS. Most games are more GPU dependant at 1440p+.

Losing out at 10-20fps, when you're gaming at 100-200fps won't be that bad. Possibly not even perceivable.
 

JX432

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That's gonna be hard to find. It's an older CPU and not necessarily compared to the latest and greatest. Video's like this will give you an idea: RTX 3090 + i7-6700K vs i7-7700K vs i7-8700K vs i9-9900K test in games - 1080p - 1440p - 4K - YouTube

It's a modern GPU close to the 3080ti (obviously faster though).

AS @USAFRet said, you won't suffer less FPS. Most games are more GPU dependant at 1440p+.

Losing out at 10-20fps, when you're gaming at 100-200fps won't be that bad. Possibly not even perceivable.

Keeping the game settings and other components the same, adding a better GPU will not reduce your FPS.

Ok, thanks for the help.
So it would still be a big upgrade for me? Would it be better to get a 6900 XT? There is a discounted price on newegg $950 for a 6900 XT vs $1200-1300 for the 3080 Ti.
 
Ok, thanks for the help.
So it would still be a big upgrade for me? Would it be better to get a 6900 XT? There is a discounted price on newegg $950 for a 6900 XT vs $1200-1300 for the 3080 Ti.

That really depend on what GPU niceties you want :)

With NVidia you get DSR/DLSS/RT. Whilst the 6900XT has some similar features (FSR), in particular the ray tracing is a gen behind Nvidia. For pure FPS though, I think the 6900XT wins out. At the moment AMD cards seem to be a little cheaper than comparable GPU's. It's a reflection of the GPU shortage, which is now changing. AMD card prices seem to be coming down more quickly than Nvidia's.

At that price though, and if RT is not that much of a deal to you, then the 6900XT is an awesome gamer.
 

Phaaze88

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Someone here be posting a simple solution to this pretty often...
@JX432
Play your games - as many of them as possible, because the more samples you get, the better. Make a chart and compare the in game settings you normally play at Vs everything turned down.
If fps increases, it means the cpu can handle a stronger graphics solution, or the game isn't yet limited by the cpu.
If fps doesn't increase, the limitation can be the cpu or something else, like the game's engine or your ISP.
 
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Geef

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I recently upgraded my CPU from a i7 7700k to a i5 12600k. My GPU is a RX 5700XT. I did not notice a big increase in FPS or anything.

A 3080 ti is a lot faster than a RX 5700 XT but your 8700k has 6/12 cores/threads where my 7700k only had 4/8 cores/threads. Also the 12600k has 10/16 core/thread.

7700k 04/08 - 5700 XT
12600k 10/16 - 5700 XT
<-- Newest type of chip so core/thread count is weird.
8700k 06/12 - 3080 ti

The differences would be similar so chances are good you won't be held back by the CPU.
 
Last edited:
Solution
Someone here be posting a simple solution to this pretty often...
@JX432
Play your games - as many of them as possible, because the more samples you get, the better. Make a chart and compare the in game settings you normally play at Vs everything turned down.
If fps increases, it means the cpu can handle a stronger graphics solution, or the game isn't yet limited by the cpu.
If fps doesn't increase, the limitation can be the cpu or something else, like the game's engine or your ISP.

@geofelt always explains this pretty well.

With that said, there will be some bottleneck which will vary from game to game. Unavoidable. with that level of GPU. Even if you just work backwards in terms of IPC from 10th/11th gen to 8th gen Intel, ballpark about 15% difference between the 8700k and a newer gen, (lets not include 12th gen as it's just so damn good :) ) So a bottleneck, but not that much.

Still, if your playing a game at 200fps, will you really notice the slight drop in FPS? Possibly not.
 
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I went from a 9900k to a 12900k , with an RTX 3080 and noticed no difference in frame rates at 1440p, now 4k.

The 8700k series motherboards are gen 3 PCIE I believe, not the latest Gen 4. This makes little difference in real performance so upgrading the GPU is still going to be a good upgrade with only the loss of a few % frames that probably wont justify the hundreds spent on the latest CPU/Mobo/RAM combo
 
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