Hey everyone! I'm looking to upgrade my fiancée's PC as a surprise for her birthday. Right now, she's running an Intel Core i5 12600K with DDR4 memory and an RTX 4080. With the RTX 5080 coming soon, I'm wondering if it makes sense to upgrade the CPU as well. She uses her PC for gaming at 1440p and does some video rendering too. Do you think I should stick with the current setup, consider a faster CPU, maybe switch to AMD? Or should I just save for next-gen CPUs instead? Appreciate any advice you can give!
6 Answers
I just switched from a 12600K to a 9800X3D and noticed a big difference in gaming performance, especially in frame rates and overall smoothness – it's totally worth considering! If you're planning to keep the 4080, this could be a great budget-friendly upgrade. Just be ready to switch up the motherboard too, though!
Upgrading from the 4080 to the 5080 seems a bit pointless since the performance boost is pretty small—only about 10-15%. I’d suggest sticking with the 12600K, it's still a great CPU for gaming. If you're looking for improvements, maybe focus on upgrading to DDR5 memory.
Good call on the RAM! I hadn't thought about that.
You might want to scrap the 5080 upgrade and just get a 9800X3D and an AM5 motherboard instead. It’ll save you some cash while still giving a significant performance boost without needing to change the GPU!
Yeah, the DDR4 memory does slow things down a bit with the 12th Gen CPUs, so considering DDR5 in your upgrade could help quite a bit in gaming performance. Just something to think about while you're planning!
Honestly, the 12600K combined with the 4080 is a solid setup for 1440p gaming. If you overclock that CPU to around 5GHz, it performs like a champ! If you’re worried about future-proofing, consider going for a DDR5 motherboard and a Ryzen 9 x3d CPU for a more long-lasting build. That combo will keep the system strong for years!
If you're okay with spending a bit more, going with the AM5 platform and the 9800X3D will let you pair up nicely with the new graphics cards later on. It's not a huge bottleneck with the 12600K, but you’ll definitely see better performance with the AMD setup!
Totally agree! The x3d processors are beasts for gaming.