Worth upgrading to 1080 if using PCI-E 2.0 x16?

[Shifty_1]

I figured it'd be cheaper to just swap out the graphics card rather than buy a whole new PC. Problem is my mobo has a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot. As far as I understand, it a 1080 will still be compatible but the data rate will be less. Is that correct? Will this severely limit the 1080's performance?

Also, is it also worth swapping out my i5-3570K and MOBO for something like a Ryzen 5 1600 for gaming?

Thanks.

 

[Dunlop0078]

PCIE 2.0 is certainly not your biggest problem, that card will run fine in a pcie 2.0 x16 slot it has plenty of bandwidth for a 1080. The 3570k may limit your 1080s performance, for a 60hz monitor im sure it will be fine but it may struggle depending on the game if you are looking to achieve say 100fps+.

 

[grimfox]

I don't think a 1080 stresses the PCIe bus. PCIe has kept well ahead of the curve at least as far as gaming is concerned. You can look up PCIe bus GPU testing to see what the exact results were. AMD doesn't use a crossfire connector anymore they use the spare bandwidth on the PCIe bus to transfer that data.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

I figured it'd be cheaper to just swap out the graphics card rather than buy a whole new PC. Problem is my mobo has a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot. As far as I understand, it a 1080 will still be compatible but the data rate will be less. Is that correct? Will this severely limit the 1080's performance?

Also, is it also worth swapping out my i5-3570K and MOBO for something like a Ryzen 5 1600 for gaming?

Thanks.

For the time being your i5-3570K will still perform decently in games. I don't think the GTX-1080 is using more than PEI-e 2.0 x16 provides, so the difference in the PCIe lanes will not be much of an issue as much as graphics load and CPU load itself.

The 1600 will require more than a new MoBo, it will require new RAM as well (DDR4-3000-3200 is the sweet spot.) Upgrading to it might get you a little more CPU umph, but the real gain will be with muti-core usage which is growing.

 

[coozie7]

It won't make any significant difference.

Not in my opinion, unless you want the more up-to-date features and/or regularly use multithreaded software that the Ryzen can get its teeth into. You WILL see a performance gain by moving to either the R5 1600 or similarly priced Intel CPU but the cost will be significant, and you may also need a new Windows license, potentially adding <>90 to the bill.


Bear in mind, that big '1080 will need at least a 144Hz display to show its potential, if you're using a 60Hz display the monitor refresh rate will effectively restrict the entire system to 60FPS.