Would upgrading from a 1080ti to a 5050 be a good or bad idea?
Posted by GiantSnackWhale@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 46 comments
With the 1080ti losing driver support, and not being able to take advantage of dlss, would this be an alright sidegrade? The power draw difference is fairly large as well. I'm being offered 175 for my 1080ti so it wouldn't be too costly overall
ArgentNoble@reddit
What kind of games do you play and at what resolution do you want to play at?
8GB is not enough anymore for even 1080p gaming, if you are playing any new AAA games. At least, not without turning down graphics pretty significantly.
If you are okay turning down graphics, or you only really play older games, the 5050 can be okay. I would recommend the 5060 or the 9060, as they are worth the $50 or so increase in price.
If it were me, I would go for the 9060 xt 16GB or 5060 ti if you were set on a lower end card. The 5070 ti and 9070 xt are worth saving, if you need an upgrade this generation.
YawnY86@reddit
8gb is still plenty. I'm playing anything at 3440x1440 on a 2080 and it has 8gb of vram. The performance is almost identical to a 1080ti
ArgentNoble@reddit
And you are playing modern AAA games at high/ultra setting? Games like Cyberpunk, MH Wilds, Hogwarts Legacy, Battlefield 6?
YawnY86@reddit
Cyberpunk benchmark: presets only no custom changes. Raytracing low: 54 fps Raytracing medium: 39.3 fps. Medium (no rt) : 91.75 fps High (no rt): 72 fps Ultra (no rt) : 53.59
I than ran ultra setting with no rt but changed it to dlss instead of FSR default and I got 59.05
So ya cyberpunk is playable with 8gb of vram.
YawnY86@reddit
I've been playing cyber punk with 0 issues. I can run a benchmark when I get home from work and tell you what I'm getting for fps
ArgentNoble@reddit
I think I was erroneous including Cyberpunk, as it is a last gen game that has been pretty significantly optimized since it launched 5 years ago
The 5060, being a newer generation card than Cyberpunk was originally intended for, should be able to handle it.
IWillAssFuckYou@reddit
For 1440p, no. I used to play games at 1440p on a 3070 Ti and VRAM issues were the reason why I sold it for a 5070 Ti.
Wooshio@reddit
This really isn't correct. For example Doom Dark Ages is one of the most GPU demanding games out currently and 5060 8GB TI will still get you 70+ FPS on Ultra/1080p. And that's even with no upscaling: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/doom-the-dark-ages-performance-benchmark/5.html
ArgentNoble@reddit
Doom Dark Ages is definitely not one of the more GPU demanding games. I'm talking about games like MH Wilds, Indiana Jones, Cyberpunk, and the like. High VRAM usage games, either through quality of textures or abysmal optimization. Basically anything built with Unreal 5 (or in the case of MH Wilds, the RE Engine).
Wooshio@reddit
5060 TI 8GB will average 100+ FPS in Cyberpunk on 1080p/Ultra so I am not sure that's a good example of being more demanding then Doom, and Indiana Jones allows for some ridiculously high settings and will even bring 5090 to it's knees maxed out so it's not really a good idea of what to generally expect. You said an 8GB card will force you to "turn down graphics pretty significantly" on 1080p with current AAA games, which is what I am pointing out is wrong. Because 8GB version of 5060 Ti / RX 9060 will in fact let you play new AAA games at 1080p/Ultra-High at 60+ FPS in most cases.
ArgentNoble@reddit
Even Techpowerup's own review of the 8gb states that games like Spider-Man 2, MH Wilds, and The Last of Us lose frames due to limited VRAM.
Wooshio@reddit
Of course it does, I am not saying 8GB is great. But look at their test suite average at 1080p. Those are done on Ultra settings and the average is 107 FPS. Which tells you that recently released AAA games on average still run well with 8GB GPU's on 1080p/high-ultra settings.
Mels_101@reddit
How much vram do those games use?
ArgentNoble@reddit
Battlefield 6 recommends 16 GB VRAM. MH Wilds typically uses 10-12 GB VRAM on 1080p maxed out. Indiana Jones can pass 10 GB VRAM at times.
Frame-gen doesn't help, either. Without high enough real frames, frame-gen will be a bit broken. But there is also the DLSS/FSR upscaling that can reduce overall VRAM usage.
There's a lot of benchmarks that show performance in these games suffer due to lack of VRAM. Here is a good benchmark comparison between 8 GB VRAM, 16 GB VRAM
Every_Position_3542@reddit
The performance would be around the same in non DLSS games and in those it would be way better because of DLSS and frame gen. I personally would really try to upgrade to like a 9060 XT 16gb or like a 5070 or 5070 ti, because the Vram rant might actually be fully right in a bit
TheYoungLung@reddit
Leave it to Redditors to tell someone “just get a 5070 ti bro”. He’s looking at a 5050, do you think any of those cards are in the budget??
Every_Position_3542@reddit
Fair point, arc b580
Little-Equinox@reddit
You know that frame gen on anything lower than a 5070 actually loses frames instead of gaining frames? I seen multiple videos where frame gen on a 5060 has lower fps than without frame gen on.
Every_Position_3542@reddit
I can confirm that is bullshit as someone who's knows a 4060 owner a 5060 owner a 4050 owner a 4070 owner and a 4060 ti owner and every single one likes frame gen and gets good benfit
Little-Equinox@reddit
There's a difference between what you feel with frame gen and the reality. Higher FPS doesn't mean better performance. And someone has tested this. Take this video from Vex
wherewereat@reddit
Framegen is not useful if you're getting less than 70~80 fps, it reduces actual fps before multiplying, meaning you'll end up with the feel/input delay of 45~50 fps. might be ok for keyboard/controller gameplay, but with mouse it feels awful. This is why I think the 5050 is a bad framegen gpu. dlss is good tho.
IWillAssFuckYou@reddit
OP's budget is really tight. I don't think they're getting even a 9060 XT 16 GB.
At 1080p, 8 GB VRAM is fine on a tight budget. Just don't expect maximum settings and raytracing.
Cultural-Accident-71@reddit
I saw a arc b580 for 250usd a week ago! It would be a mich mich better gpu than a 5050
sHoRtBuSseR@reddit
The 5050 is borderline a scam. Unless your cpu is a potato I'd really stretch to get something at least 1 step up
ssateneth2@reddit
It's not an upgrade. Rasterization at 1080p is about the same, you get less memory, it consumes less energy/makes less heat, and has ray tracing + frame gen. It's a side grade.
If you're going to buy anything as an upgrade, make sure it has 12GB or more.
skyfishgoo@reddit
good for gpu performance
bad if your PSU/CPU/PCIebus/case are not up to the challenge.
Tsukino_Stareine@reddit
What? Is this a bot?
How would a 5050 be anything close to a 1080tis power draw or pcie lane requirement?
skyfishgoo@reddit
just saying a machine old enough to be still running a GPU that old, likely has other limitations.
perhaps the PCIe bus is only 3.0 or even 2.0.
perhaps the PSU is too under powered or under featured to protect an expensive new GPU.
perhaps the case has poor ventilation (almost a certainty).
perhaps the CPU will become a bottleneck
it doesn't take a bot to guess these things.
Tsukino_Stareine@reddit
The fact that you think a psu that can support a 1080ti would then be insufficient for a 5050 shows you have a cavernous gap in your pc building knowledge or a bot that's just posting plaigerised garbage.
And you keep digging talking about ventilation and cpu bottlenecks so it really just seem like you're a bot who picked up some buzzwords.
skyfishgoo@reddit
you are a wholly unpleasant person, but you are right the 5050 uses less power than the much older 1080ti... i didn't realize any of the new 50xx gpus where that low on the power usage.
i stand by the rest of what i said, but i'll let you have that insult
you seem to need it.
laffer1@reddit
You have clearly never used a 1080ti. They get incredibly hot under load. It wouldn’t be usable in a case with no airflow.
Mine used to hit 80c under sustained load at 25c ambient at 4K playing overwatch. (Setting were on medium) this was in a custom loop in a thermaltake p5 case with a fan also blowing at it.
It was fine at 1440p but 4k was like nuclear.
I upgraded to a 6900xt and then downgraded monitors to a 3440x1440@144hz to get more fps for overwatch.
The 1080ti is sitting in a drawer now.
I would suggest op try to get something a little better like an arc b580, Radeon 9060xt or nvidia 5060 if possible. I think a 550 is a bit too much of a hit.
My Linux box just got an upgrade from an arc a750 to a 9060xt 16gb. Both are good cards at 1440p. I only wanted the upgrade for llm use
Austntok@reddit
Yes, its mostly a side grade. DLSS would be a nice upgrade for single player games though.
The 6700XT is about 250 used on ebay. You'll be able to use FSR 3, you'll get 12gb of VRAM, and the 6700XT will match or beat the 5050.
GiantSnackWhale@reddit (OP)
I have a 6800xt in my main machine and I've been less than impressed with fsr3, haven't seen fsr4 but from all the talk that should be/is solid stuff.
Austntok@reddit
Oh yeah, its not Amazing, but it works good enough with frame gen.
GiantSnackWhale@reddit (OP)
I'll have to tinker around with it more, I guess I never really gave it a fair shake and tested it on maybe one or two games and wrote it off
Austntok@reddit
Yeah, I used it a lot when I had my Legion Go Handheld. With the right graphics settings, resolution, scaling, it can help a lot
firey_magican_283@reddit
I wouldn't it has less vram
When I moved from a 1080 ti to a 7800 xt in 2023 most of the new games where my 1080 ti was struggling where pulling well over 8gb of vram. If the 1080 ti is struggling or dying a second hand 3060 12gb would give you access to dlss and RT
laffer1@reddit
The 1080ti does support dlss 1. Most games don’t however. It was back ported after the 2080 came out.
I was able to use dlss on control when it came out before they upgraded it.
GiantSnackWhale@reddit (OP)
That's neat I didn't know it got any support. I've tried my luck with lossless scaling and it just never feels great.
GiantSnackWhale@reddit (OP)
I appreciate all the input, I think a 9060xt 16gb is the move. Might scale back to my old 970, take the money for the 1080ti and save up to get that as it sounds more worthwhile. For whatever it's worth it'll be paired with a 14600k and 32gb of ddr5 so I think my upgrade path is pretty open, and this is for a secondary build - my main tower is a 5800x3d and 6800xt. I'm not hurting too bad at the end of the day, just saw some stuff that was leading me to believe throwing 75 dollars on top of what I'd make off the 1080 would be worth it to upgrade. The kick in the ass is that none of this should be an issue but due to shenanigans i never got my federal returns this year. Tax agent said someone used my social according to the IRS and I haven't been able to contact them by phone and just haven't found good time to travel to the nearest office.
QuailNaive2912@reddit
If you can spare the money, then an arc b580, 5060, or 9060 would be a way better long-term investment. The b580 notably costs $250-$270 with 12 gbs of ram while the 5060 and 9060 have only 8gbs at $300. There's also the arc b570 at $220 with 10 gbs of ram. Any one of these four would give you way more performance for only a little more money. Of course, if you can afford it.
IWillAssFuckYou@reddit
What are you looking to spend exactly?
Naerven@reddit
I wouldn't do it for a side grade, but the money for your old GPU is tempting. If you could get into a rx9060xt 8gb or 16gb it would be worth doing. For a side grade I just wouldn't want to.
e0nflux@reddit
Personally dlss and frame gen might be ok for single player stuff, but as a competitive fps I noticevl theres weird lag when I have that stuff turned on so I disable rt and frame gen. Its pure raster for me. So I wouldn't put too much stock in those features. Spend a lil extra and get the 5060 or 9060
monroezabaleta@reddit
If you can just spend a little bit more for an actual upgrade.
Wooshio@reddit
Personally I would just spend the extra $50 here and go for the RTX 5060 8GB. Unless that would be a big financial hit for you, you'll will have much better gaming experience for next couple of years.