I recently rebuilt my PC to address CPU-heavy games that were struggling on my old Ryzen 9 3900X. The new system has an MSI X870E Tomahawk motherboard, a Ryzen 7 9850X3D, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, a Noctua NH-D15 G2 cooler, and several Arctic P12 Pro fans. I carried over my RTX 3090 from the previous build.
The upgrade has worked well: temperatures stay below 70°C, and games such as Arma 3 and Arma Reforger now run smoothly. I play at 1440p and am happy as long as performance stays above 100 FPS; Reforger currently runs around 120–140 FPS.
I'm considering replacing the RTX 3090 with an RTX 5080. Money is not a major concern, but in Europe the least expensive 5080s are around $1,400, while my 3090 would probably sell for roughly $900–$1,000. That makes the upgrade cost around $400–$500. Is the performance improvement worth paying for now, or should I keep the 3090 for another couple of years and wait for a newer generation?
3 Answers
The 5080 is definitely faster, especially with ray tracing, newer upscaling, and frame-generation features, but the upgrade is most noticeable at high-refresh 4K or with demanding ray-traced games. At 1440p and 120–140 FPS in Reforger, your current card is clearly doing its job. I’d wait until a future generation provides a larger jump or prices improve.
The decision mainly comes down to whether you want the newest features rather than whether you need more performance. A 5080 would be more efficient and substantially faster in some workloads, but without relying on upscaling or frame generation, the difference may feel smaller than the specifications suggest. Since the 3090 is not currently a bottleneck, I’d hold onto it until it starts limiting your games.
The 24GB of VRAM is another reason to keep it. Newer cards may be faster, but matching that amount of memory at a reasonable price could take a while.
I’d keep the 3090. If your games already run the way you want, spending $400–$500 for a relatively modest real-world improvement doesn’t offer much value. The 3090 is still a strong 1440p card, and its 24GB of VRAM gives it plenty of longevity.
That’s pretty much how I’m looking at it. My monitors are 1440p, and I’m satisfied with the current performance, so paying several hundred dollars now may not make much sense.