Question Worth upgrading from an RTX 3080 10GB to a 16gb RTX 4080 or too early to tell?

[Franj0]

Hello,
These are my pc specs;

Fractal Meshify 2 mid size 3 x 140mm front Arctic P14s as intake
Rear 140mm Artic P14 exhaust
2 x 120mm Artic P12 top exhaust
MSI A -Pro ATX motherboard
2 x 16gb DDR4 3200mhz RAM
CPU Intel i5 10600 non -K
1000w Silverstone ST-1000G modular PSU
Gigabyte RTX 3080 turbo 10gb - I have a Noctua 80mm NF A8 PWM fan zip tied to the intake of the GPU to keep temps cooler.
Monitor is a BenQ 28inch 4K HDR 60HHZ

I have managed to save up over $2200.00 AUD in 2022 and I am considering getting an RTX 4080 once performance is known on or after Nov 16.
Rumours are that $2200.00 AUD will be the starting price of RTX4080s in Australia, being the so called Australia tax being at the ass-end of the world where it's not even worth shipping Founder's Edition cards in Nvidia's wisdom.
I am wondering whether going from an RTX 3080 to a RTX4080 will future proof my rig for the next 5 years or greater and whether my i5 10th gen' would bottleneck an RTX 4080 in theory, as it does handle a 30 series card comfortably.

This would be my one and only chance to make a purchase of this calibre without the wife knowing, before we move into our new home with 2 kids and I'll be broke forever more.

Lastly with my modular PSU I only have 2 x 8 pin power connectors hooked up to the PSU presently....I assume I would need a third to power the RTX 4080, would I just need to plug my third 8 pin cable to my modular power supply on the 12v rail, and if so can I do this when the unit is turned off and can plug it in if I can get to the PSU in my case?

 

[Math Geek]

"future proof" is a fool's errand. your 3080 can last 5 years as is. you'll just slowly lower settings as it ages and games demand more from the gpu.

a 4080, 4090, or any other card will be the same thing. high settings today and lowered ones as time goes by. what settings and by how much is anyone's guess. my crystal ball is in the shop getting cleaned so i can't offer any info there at this time.

i'm sure you got the 3080 thinking "i'm good for a few years" and here you are already looking to upgrade very soon. there's no way you'll be happy with a 4080 in a year when the 5080 comes out and so on. there is no need but rather a strong want. get it if you can't over-rule the want. or enjoy your 3080 and try to enjoy your system

but in either case, know that "future proof" does not exist when FOMO keeps knocking at your door.

 

[hotaru.hino]

With regards to "bottlenecking", go run all of the games you want to play at the lowest graphics quality settings, including the resolution. This is the frame rate you're able to achieve with the system. If your 3080 can get this on the quality settings you want, upgrading the video card won't be beneficial until you upgrade the CPU.

Then it becomes a question of whether or not the performance you're getting now is still satisfactory. Outside of ray tracing, graphics requirements haven't really changed much in the past 5 years to warrant major upgrades. I mean heck, the GTX 1080 is still a viable card for 1080p high quality gaming and that's 6 years old now.

 

[alceryes]

This would be my one and only chance to make a purchase of this calibre without the wife knowing, before we move into our new home with 2 kids and I'll be broke forever more.

First of all, hilarious! Thanks for the chuckle!

...I have managed to save up over $2200.00 AUD in 2022 and I am considering getting an RTX 4080 once performance is known on or after Nov 16.
Rumours are that $2200.00 AUD will be the starting price of RTX4080s in Australia, being the so called Australia tax being at the ass-end of the world where it's not even worth shipping Founder's Edition cards in Nvidia's wisdom.
I am wondering whether going from an RTX 3080 to a RTX4080 will future proof my rig for the next 5 years or greater and whether my i5 10th gen' would bottleneck an RTX 4080 in theory, as it does handle a 30 series card comfortably.

This would be my one and only chance to make a purchase of this calibre without the wife knowing, before we move into our new home with 2 kids and I'll be broke forever more.

Lastly with my modular PSU I only have 2 x 8 pin power connectors hooked up to the PSU presently....I assume I would need a third to power the RTX 4080, would I just need to plug my third 8 pin cable to my modular power supply on the 12v rail, and if so can I do this when the unit is turned off and can plug it in if I can get to the PSU in my case?

Second, if your monitor is only 60Hz, the 4080 purchase would probably be a waste over the short term (1-2 years) from a straight FPS standpoint. What the 4080 would give you over the 3080 10GB is longevity. The 3080 10GB's main weakness is the low-ish amount of VRAM, for a top-tier card. If you are someone who likes to play games at max eye-candy settings, you'll find that you will, most likely, have to turn down some of the more VRAM-hungry settings in just the next-gen AAA games - not even speaking of 2-4 years out. Some AAA titles are already using over 10GBs VRAM at max settings (used, not allocated).

However, if you don't mind turning down 2-4 of the most VRAM hungry settings, ones that usually give no perceptible loss to visuals while gaming, then you should ride your 3080 10GB into the sunset.

As far as the PSU goes, that one comes with 4x8-pin PCIe cables, you just need to add a third 8-pin to the PSU and GPU (if needed). Nothing EVER gets plugged in or unplugged while the PSU is powered on. It should be turned off (at the PSU) and unplugged before any work is done.