Should I upgrade i5-6600K + R9 390 to GTX 1080 or RTX 2080?

[deranzo]

Hello community.

I have a i5 6600K 3.5Ghz (but not overclocked),
16 GB DDR4 RAM,
Asus Z170 Pro Gaming mainboard,
Radeon R9 390 Asus DirectCU III OC Strix Gaming 8GB Edition,
Asus 2K 144 Hz Freesync monitor,
750W PSU.

In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, I saw my system was getting insufficient for newest games. Most of settings are at high or medium but I get 20-30 FPS in wide city view screens at 2K.
So it seems my system is getting old and won't be enough after sometime for newest AAA games like Metro Exodus, Just Cause 4 etc.

My question is: Must I upgrade my CPU too if I buy 2080? Will it bottleneck my i5 6600K?
Or normal GTX 1080 is enough for 1-2 years more? Or must I also upgrade my CPU even if I buy 1080?
I'm not planning to play games at 4K (maybe few years later, but definetly not now). I will play at 2K at most.
Problem is if I buy 2080, there won't be enough money to buy sufficient CPU for 2080.
If I buy 1080, I may also buy a i7-8700 (or equivalent. But if there won't be a bottleneck, I prefer to avoid buying a CPU).

 

[xxxlun4icexxx]

Hello community.

I have a i5 6600K 3.5Ghz (but not overclocked),
16 GB DDR4 RAM,
Asus Z170 Pro Gaming mainboard,
Radeon R9 390 Asus DirectCU III OC Strix Gaming 8GB Edition,
Asus 2K Freesync monitor,
750W PSU.

In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, I saw my system was getting insufficient for newest games. Most of settings are at high or medium but I get 20-30 FPS in wide city view screens at 2K.
So it seems my system is getting old and won't be enough after sometime for newest AAA games like Metro Exodus, Just Cause 4 etc.

My question is: Must I upgrade my CPU too if I buy 2080? Will it bottleneck my i5 6600K?
Or normal GTX 1080 is enough for 1-2 years more? Or must I also upgrade my CPU even if I buy 1080?
I'm not planning to play games at 4K (maybe few years later, but definetly not now). I will play at 2K at most.
Problem is if I buy 2080, there won't be enough money to buy sufficient CPU for 2080.
If I buy 1080, I may also buy a i7-8700 (or equivalent. But if there won't be a bottleneck, I prefer to avoid buying a CPU).

Maybe a 1080 if your display is a 60hz, 2080 if it's 120/144hz? I don't think your cpu will bottleneck you too bad if at all on a 60hz display. Does it "match up" with a 2080? Not really, it's a little on the older side.

 

[Lutfij]

Make and model of that PSU? How old is it? You should be fine regardless of GTX1080 or RTX 2080, provided you don't have a bad quality PSU.

 

[WildCard999]

Since the monitor is Freesync I'd actually consider the Vega 56 or 64 if you can find one for a good price as they should be able to handle that game and stay within the Freesync range (48-whatever the max your monitor supports). Also depends on PSU as well.

You should overclock your CPU as well, getting it into the 4.5-4.7ghz range should be fairly easy with the appropriate cooling and may provide a considerable increase in FPS.

 

[deranzo]

Thank you all for answers.
I don't know how to overclock but it shouldn't be hard I suppose.
My monitor is 144Hz at most but I'm not obsessed as "I musn't play games anything lower than 60 FPS!" If it runs smooth at highest / very high settings, I don't mind FPS.
So if I have a good PSU then 2080 will be fine even with 6600K?

 

[WildCard999]

This guide is excellent for overclocking Intel CPU's.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

 

[deranzo]

This guide is excellent for overclocking Intel CPU's.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

Thanks. I will use this guide if I decide to overclock my CPU

 

[deranzo]

In the end, should I buy 1080 and i7-8700 or just 2080 without new CPU?

 

[xxxlun4icexxx]

In the end, should I buy 1080 and i7-8700 or just 2080 without new CPU?

I mean will you eventually be able to upgrade your cpu? Between those 2 options you'd get better performance by a good margin if you went with a 2080 and no new cpu, but it's a less balanced system (as in, older cpu, really good gpu, whereas 8700 and 1080 is a good cpu and a good gpu). You'd get closer to your monitors refresh rates at higher settings with a 2080. You can OC your cpu in the mean-time to help with the mild bottleneck your cpu may create.

 

[deranzo]

In the end, should I buy 1080 and i7-8700 or just 2080 without new CPU?

Well between those 2 options you'd get better performance by a good margin if you went with a 2080 and no new cpu. You'd get closer to your monitors refresh rates at higher settings. You can OC your cpu in the mean-time to help with the mild bottleneck your cpu may create.

Alright, thank you very much for ideas