I recently bought a 4K OLED TV and picked up a PC with a Ryzen 8700F, RTX 5070, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage for about $2,400 CAD after tax. With DLSS and Multi Frame Generation, games such as Dawnwalker have been running around 90 FPS.
I also have another system with a Ryzen 5600X and 32GB of DDR4 memory. I'm wondering whether buying an RTX 5080 for roughly $2,300 CAD before tax and putting it in that older system would have been a better choice for 4K gaming. Since 4K gaming is usually more GPU-limited, would the 5080 provide a substantial performance increase over the RTX 5070, or would the older 5600X hold it back too much? I'm also open to considering a 5070 Ti or other options. I generally prefer Nvidia because of its current upscaling and frame-generation features.
4 Answers
The 5600X is still usable, and you could eventually replace it with a used 5800X3D if you need more CPU performance. However, with a 5080 and aggressive upscaling, CPU limits can become more noticeable because the GPU is rendering fewer native pixels. For a balanced new build, an AM5 system with a Ryzen 7000 or 9000 processor would be a stronger foundation than pairing the 5080 with older AM4 hardware.
The real answer depends on the games and settings you use. At 4K with high ray tracing settings, the 5080 will usually make the bigger difference. At lower settings, high refresh rates, or with heavy upscaling, the 5600X may limit minimums and frame rates. I’d keep the 8700F system unless you specifically need the extra GPU performance now, then consider upgrading its graphics card later.
For native 4K, the RTX 5080 system should be faster because the GPU is doing most of the work. The 5600X will give up some frames compared with the 8700F, especially in CPU-heavy games or when using upscaling, but it shouldn’t completely undermine the 5080. The newer 8700F system also gives you a better upgrade path, so keeping it and upgrading the graphics card later may be the more sensible long-term plan.
I’d compare the 5070 Ti before jumping to the 5080. Depending on local pricing, the 5080 may not offer enough extra performance to justify the large premium, while the 5070 Ti can provide a better balance for 4K gaming. Since you already prefer Nvidia’s DLSS and frame-generation features, that seems like a reasonable middle ground.
The 5070 Ti is roughly $400–$500 more than the 5070 here, but that still makes it worth considering instead of spending around $2,300 on a 5080.