Upgrade from 3080ti
Posted by Business_Display5802@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 37 comments
Hi everyone,
I bought a used RTX 3080 Ti about a year ago, and overall I’ve been pretty happy with it. That said, newer games are starting to feel harder to run smoothly at 1440p high settings, and I’m getting a bit jealous of newer features like frame generation. I mostly play single-player titles, so I care more about visual quality and smoothness than competitive FPS.
I’m considering moving up to an RTX 5080, which would cost me around $1.3k after tax/discounts. I’m also a bit concerned that GPU prices may keep rising, so part of me wonders if it makes sense to upgrade now rather than wait.
For those of you with a 3080 Ti or similar card, would you upgrade in this situation, or would you hold onto it for another generation? Curious what you guys would do.
thingsinmyjeep@reddit
I paid about as much for my 12gb 3080 back in 2022. At the time I was stoked because it was a good price, but not to long after the 40 series came out. Which is to say that $1300 might be $500 more than it was at launch, it's not altogether unfair for the performance class.... I'm still trying to napkin math away the sting after all this time. Anyways
If you want to stick with Nvidia and save a few bucks then look into the 5070ti. If want virtually the same performance but access to all the new features then the 5070 might be fit the bill. But you really ought to look at the 5070ti or jump ship to AMD and consider the 9070.
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
Yes the 5070tis are nice, but its pretty pricey in my area. My microcenter location is doing a sale for 5080 and the differences are about 200 bucks which I might go with that route? What do you think?
thingsinmyjeep@reddit
Yeah, you might want to jump on that sale.
JoshLineberry@reddit
I would keep the 3080 ti and lower the graphics just a tad if need be and wait. The 3080 ti is still a beast at $400! I have a 3080 ti and 2 3080 12gb cards in my rigs right now and I won't be upgrading unless I find a super steal!
Sufficient-Loan8729@reddit
I just got a 4070 Super for 300 bucks lol
JoshLineberry@reddit
That's a good deal man! I got a 3090 for 400 a few months ago but I sold it and bought the 3080 ti because it was just worth too much profit for me to keep!
Sufficient-Loan8729@reddit
Dayyyymn
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
oh that is a nice deal
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
Yeah they were pretty fine until I started playing this years video games... well it really started from Mafia Old Country but the games these days are really demanding which made me start thinking about upgrading it. I have a EVGA 3080ti and I really like that it is an EVGA card too lol
Georgio281@reddit
If I had a 3080 Ti and could comfortably and truly afford a 5080, I would make the jump without hesitation
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
5080 is a little stretch, but I won't go into debt. My gaming savings are around 800 bucks, so I have to take out 300 bucks from savings, which should be fine.
Particular_Put_2005@reddit
Dont do that please. Just wait a few weeks to save up 300 more
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
yes haha - I will eat ramen noodles and sell things here and there to get the money if needed!
Particular_Put_2005@reddit
Im saying you can wait a few weeks instead of dipping into your savings
ArgentNoble@reddit
Why are you upgrading in the first place? You said newer games are getting harder to run, but are you still able to get the FPS you want and the graphical settings you want? Can you tell the difference between Ultra and High settings at whatever FPS you are needing?
Also, what are your other components? It might not be a GPU issue tying up some frames. You might be able to hit your FPS goal by spending that $1300 on upgrading other components that might do better to fix some game running issues. A lot of newer games are no longer optimized very well and are actually kind of CPU/RAM hogs rather than GPU dependant.
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
Thank you for the reply. I’m currently gaming on a 4K TV and ideally want to run games at 4K on high or ultra settings. Recently, that has become difficult even with DLSS Quality enabled.
To hit my preferred FPS range of around 90 to 110, I’ve started lowering games to 1440p. The issue is that while I usually cannot tell much difference between high and ultra settings, I can definitely notice the difference between 4K and 1440p on my TV.
That is what has made me consider upgrading, especially with the current RAM/VRAM pricing situation. I’m trying to figure out whether it makes sense to upgrade now or just keep lowering settings for the time being, which is not ideal but its not the end of the world.
IrrelevantAfIm@reddit
Playing on a TV, you’ll notice 0 difference at frame rates above 60 - that’s as fast as your screen refreshes anyway and 90 might well make it choppier because it can’t sync. Try limiting your FPS to 60 and turn on Vsync.
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
I believe my LG refreshes up to 120hz - and I can see the difference between 60 vs 100, not so with 100 and 120.
bigs0815@reddit
This would be something to verify for sure. I think it's a select few of their OLEDs with a higher refresh rate.
I play 3840x1440 on high/ultra 165hz and never have any issues with my 3080ti. That being said I'm not playing new stuff like 007 any time soon.
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
Yes - I have a b5 oled and it goes up to 120hz with the right cable! Also have an 4k OLED screen that goes up to 240hz so there is that
ArgentNoble@reddit
It depends on what your current components are right now. The 3080 ti should be able to still run even 4k at those higher FPS. You just might need to turn down setting more. But you might also get similar uplift to your FPS goal depending on what your CPU and RAM are.
Also, do not use DLSS 4.5 if you want more FPS, as DLSS 4.5 on 30xx and older cards tank performance in exchange for quality. Like 20% loss in performance for higher quality.
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
So if I want to avoid DLSS 4.5, do I go into the nvidea app and change it?
ArgentNoble@reddit
Yeah, I think preset K is DLSS 4.
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
Preset K got it - do you think I can still use preset K for the latest games like 007? Also the thread got messy but my other components are 7700x and 32gb of DDR5 I think its 4800mhz
ArgentNoble@reddit
You can use preset K for any game that supports DLSS.
As for overall performance, I couldn't really tell you that. Just go look at some benchmarks and see how those are looking.
aragorn18@reddit
Have you tried DLSS Performance mode? At the distance that most people sit from a TV it's generally indistinguishable.
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
Yeah I notched it down to balance and sometimes performance... I can tell for some games and not for others... which is also frustrating because it does run well for somewhat older games like GoW.
Dependent-Maize4430@reddit
For games that DLSS is not as good, try forcing the K or M preset in Nvidia App to see if the newer DLSS models will improve the visual quality.
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
I forgot to tell you my other components - 7700x and 32gb of DDR5 I think its 6000mhz
ArgentNoble@reddit
Ok, you should be set with those components. I think if you want a meaningful uplift, you would want to get a new GPU.
What I would recommend is seeing if you can find benchmarks for the 4070 ti super, 5070 ti, 4080 super, and 5080 to see what card gets the FPS you are looking for and then comparing price and whatnot.
Unless the $1300 is really just chump change for you. Like, if there's nothing else in your life you can spend even part of that money on. Then just get a 5080 and be chill.
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
Thank you for your advice! Yes, I've been watching the benchmarks, but 4080s and 5070s are super expensive in my area too (around 200 bucks diff compared to the 5080)
ArgentNoble@reddit
Keep in mind the 5080 is around 10%-15% better overall than the 5070 ti. There are similar performance differences between the 4080 super and 5080. You just lose some features going for the older 40xx cards compared to the 50xx cards, mainly the multi-frame generation (if you think that is worth considering).
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
I am not sure why, but 5070tis are really expensive, and 5080s are on sale, so the gap is around 200 - 4080. Supers are about the same as 5070tis on eBay vs Best Buy, so I think 5070ti is a better buy since it's brand new vs used?
ArgentNoble@reddit
The only real difference between a 4080 super and 5070 ti is really just the 50xx series feature set that is not available on the 40xx series. This would be things like multi-frame generation, and then the hardware differences like new gen tensor cores and GDDR7 VRAM vs the GDDR6x ones the 4080 super has.
If the 5070 ti and 4080 super are the same price, I would go with the 5070 ti just because it'll be supported longer than the 4080 super and it would have a higher chance of not being totally phased out of many features like the 30xx series was.
As for the 5080 vs 5070 ti, it's up to you to decide if the 10% increase in performance is worth the $200 difference.
Dependent-Maize4430@reddit
Try not to be jealous of newer features, FOMO isn’t a good reason to upgrade, as we are already at least halfway through the 50 series gen and there will inevitably be new features that will be exclusive to 60 series. It’s a vicious cycle.
The 3080 ti sits between the 5060 ti and 5070 in terms of performance, so you’re still up there with $500 new GPUs. If you don’t feel like it quite meets your needs though, I would consider the 5070 ti, it’s about 15% worse than the 5080 but you could potentially save quite a few hundred dollars.
Business_Display5802@reddit (OP)
This is very true, but I am also a bit scared of a crazy price increase! Just saw Steam Deck getting super expensive and was wondering if that will affect VRAM pricing...
Dependent-Maize4430@reddit
It’s hard to predict how things will go, but at this rate it’s not looking good for pricing of anything with RAM. Even the PS5 pro is $900 now.
I went from a 3080 last year, to a 5070, wasn’t a huge leap in performance but I wanted to be ready for the RTX neural rendering tools that were teased alongside 50 series announcements.
Neural texture compression is going to be game changing for VRAM usage, once it becomes standardized. I’d imagine we should start seeing that, neural materials and shaders and stuff debut in something by the end of the year.(no announcements just an educated guess)
That of course was a gamble.