[SOLVED] Should I upgrade my Monitor, or my CPU first?

[Tennis987]

Currently playing at 1080p on a Ryzen 5 2600 and an RTX 3080, 16GB RAM. Have the urge to upgrade to a 1440p monitor, but currently, I don't always get the performance at 1080p that I want in my games. Ideally, I want no dips under 90fps in any game, and also never go below medium settings. Currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn and am getting anywhere from 90-120fps in the open world on a mix of high and ultra. My issue is that during combat my frames can drop and stutter a bit leading to a not smooth experience. Cyberpunk 2077 just runs at a constant 50ish-70 fps with RT on, DLSS on, and custom settings which is not fun, Tales of Arise ran pretty fine but in the open world it was dipping to below 100 occasionally and grassy zones gave me 60-75 which is not something I enjoyed. My current list of games I plan to play very soon will be Control, Detroit Becomes Human, Red Dead 2, God of War PC, Monster Hunter Rise, and Elden Ring. My question to you is, considering what I want, would it be smarter to buy a 1440p monitor first, or upgrade to a better CPU (5600X)? How much of a hit would my frames take if I switched to 1440p with a 2600 and a 3080?

 

[InvalidError]

Assuming the reason you are experiencing dips has nothing to do with the GPU, then performance scales almost exactly with pixels per second. 1440p is almost exactly twice as many total pixels per frame, so the GPU load will double. If your GPU utilization is mostly below 50%, then upgrading the monitor with all else remaining the same should have little to no effect on frame rates.

If you are often above 50% GPU utilization, then you can expect frame rates to be lower than they currently are in those spots from doubling pixel count.

 

[Nighthawk117]

You have an unbalanced machine, a 2600 is an inappropriate pairing with a 3080 so new monitors won't fix frame stutter and stuff like that. An please I beg of you don't upgrade to another 6 core chip to put with a 3080
A 5800X or even a 5900X is a much better match for that GPU.