I'm looking to buy a new PC and I'm trying to decide between two setups. Should I go for the 5070Ti paired with the 9800X3D, or would it be better to get the 5080 with the Ryzen 7 9700X? I'm particularly concerned about whether the 9700X will run well with the 5080 without bottlenecking in games.
4 Answers
Honestly, both combos should work fine if your overall system is balanced. The supposed bottlenecks that people worry about are often overstated, especially with high-end cards. I run a 9070XT with a 5600 and it's more than enough for me. My take is that unless you really need those extra frames on max settings, you don't need to throw extra cash just to upgrade your CPU right now.
Just keep in mind that while the 5070Ti and 5090 might need upgrades faster, the 9800X3D might give you an extra generation of usage compared to the 9700X. Since upgrading CPUs can be a hassle, locking in on the 9800X3D seems smarter in the long run.
If you're worried about performance, I'd say the 5070Ti with the 9800X3D is a more stable option across various games. The 9800X3D helps deal with the increasing CPU demands of many new titles. While the 5080 outperforms the 5070Ti by only 5-10% generally, the price difference can be significant, so it might not be the best value. I'm actually building a system with the 5070Ti and 7800X3D because the performance for the cost just makes more sense to me.
If you're mainly playing titles like Battlefield or Borderlands 4, you might want to consider the 5080 setup. These games struggle more on NVIDIA due to its overhead issues. In tests, a 9800X3D with a 5080 can fall behind a 9070XT using the same CPU because of this overhead, which is something to keep in mind.
I don't primarily play those games, but I'm curious if the 9700X might struggle in larger multiplayer formats?
I initially considered the 5070Ti and 7800X3D too, but I chose the 9800X3D for better longevity.