Question Should I upgrade my i5-8400 for the upcoming RTX 3080 Ti?

[ExDe707]

I've got an i5-8400 at the moment paired with a GTX 1080. I mainly play VR with the Valve Index and would like to consistently hit 144fps on Half-Life: Alyx.

I can either invest in a CPU upgrade now or wait and save up until the (hypothetical) RTX 3080 Ti releases. The problem is I'm concerned about the i5-8400 potentially bottlenecking that card. So should I upgrade my CPU now to something like the i7-9700K or hold off on that and keep saving up for the RTX 3080 Ti?

Current specs:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 2.8GHz
• CPU Cooler: Cryorig H7
• Motherboard: MSI Z370 PC PRO
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB DDR4-2400 CL16
• SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
• m.2SSD: WD Blue 500GB
• HDD: WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200RPM
• GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 ARMOR 8G OC
• Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400 Tempered Glass
• PSU: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650W
• Fans: 2x Corsair HD140 front intake, 1x Corsair HD120 rear exhaust

 

[mdd1963]

Only you can decide if your frame rates are low or inconsistent enough currently to warrant a CPU upgrade...

(You'd first need to determine if 144 fps is achievable with the game in question with your chosen hardware; not saying it is or is not, as I've not done that research, but, many games are of sufficient complexity that FPS that high are not possible yet, even at only 1080P...)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPWEdbfJ0oE&t=909s

 

[ExDe707]

Only you can decide if your frame rates are low or inconsistent enough currently to warrant a CPU upgrade...

(You'd first need to determine if 144 fps is achievable with the game in question with your chosen hardware; not saying it is or is not, as I've not done that research, but, many games are of sufficient complexity that FPS that high are not possible yet, even at only 1080P...)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPWEdbfJ0oE&t=909s

I believe it helps more if I post benchmarks that I did with fpsVR. Here's two results from sessions on Half-Life: Alyx and Boneworks. It's clear both CPU and GPU don't achieve less than 6.9ms frametime a lot of the time.

fpsVR Report:

App:	Half-Life: Alyx
HMD:	Index (144.000 Hz, IPD 69.8)
GPU:	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (26.21.14.4575)
CPU:	Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8400 CPU @ 2.80GHz
Delivered fps:	70.75
Duration:	56.8min.
GPU Frametimes:	Median: 10 ms 99th percentile: 14.7 ms 99.9th percentile: 20.3 ms
GPU frametime <6.9ms(vsync):	8.4%
CPU frametime:	Median: 3.5 ms 99th percentile: 16.9 ms 99.9th percentile: 21.3 ms
CPU frametime <6.9ms(vsync):	75.1%
Max. SteamVR SS:	130%
Render resolution per eye:	2296x2552 (by SteamVR settings, Max.) (HMD driver recommended: 2014x2238)

fpsVR Report:

App:	BONEWORKS
HMD:	Index (144.000 Hz, IPD 70.0)
GPU:	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (26.21.14.4108)
CPU:	Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8400 CPU @ 2.80GHz
Delivered fps:	132.17
Duration:	142.2min.
GPU Frametimes:	Median: 5.3 ms 99th percentile: 7.5 ms 99.9th percentile: 8.6 ms
GPU frametime <6.9ms(vsync):	95.4%
CPU frametime:	Median: 4.1 ms 99th percentile: 9.4 ms 99.9th percentile: 11.6 ms
CPU frametime <6.9ms(vsync):	93.6%
Max. SteamVR SS:	130%
Render resolution per eye:	2296x2552 (by SteamVR settings, Max.) (HMD driver recommended: 2014x2238)