I was a dedicated PC gamer until about six years ago, when I moved to a PS5 so I could play in the living room instead of my home office. Since I work from home, that change of environment has been really nice. I currently have a PS5 Pro and enjoy it, but I'm also a physical-game collector and don't love becoming increasingly tied to Sony's digital store and platform. I'm not planning to sell my existing collection, but I'm considering buying future games on PC instead. My current PC only has a GTX 1080. I play competitive games as well as plenty of story-driven titles. My budget is roughly €3,000 for the tower and possibly the rest of the setup, and I was initially considering an RTX 5080. I'm in Spain and would likely buy the parts online. I've traditionally used Intel processors and Nvidia GPUs, but I'm open to newer options. What parts or complete build would you recommend, and would it make sense to upgrade my current PC instead?
5 Answers
You may not need a completely new system. If your current processor, motherboard, power supply, and case are still suitable, upgrading from the GTX 1080 to a modern 16GB graphics card could provide a huge improvement for much less money. A Radeon 9060 XT 16GB is one option, although current Spanish pricing may be closer to €500–550 than the original launch price.
You can still keep the living-room experience without buying a console-exclusive setup. With a good network connection, Sunshine on the gaming PC and Moonlight on an Android TV or smart TV can stream games from the office to the living room. That lets you use PC storefronts while keeping the same change of environment you enjoy.
Before choosing parts, clarify whether the €3,000 includes a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and whether you’re building it yourself or buying a prebuilt. That makes a big difference to the budget.
I wouldn’t automatically choose the RTX 5080. It can carry a substantial price premium, while a Radeon 9070 XT may offer comparable value for considerably less. For a new gaming-focused build, AMD’s AM5 platform is worth considering, with a Ryzen 7800X3D or 9800X3D paired with fast DDR5 memory. A €3,000 budget should comfortably cover a strong system unless it also needs an expensive monitor and peripherals.
Use a Spanish parts-listing site to compare current prices and check compatibility. Don’t spend the entire budget on the GPU: make sure the build includes a quality power supply, adequate cooling, enough DDR5 memory, and at least a 2TB NVMe SSD. Current component prices vary enough that a live parts list is more useful than copying a fixed build.
That’s a good point—I’ll check the current system specifications and power supply before deciding whether a GPU-only upgrade is enough.