I'm building a new PC and just picked up an Asus RTX 5080. My setup includes a 1440p OLED monitor with a 280Hz refresh rate, along with a regular 1440p Dell monitor. I plan to use this computer for gaming, music production, work, and general productivity—though I don't do much rendering or video editing at the moment, I might try it as a hobby later. My main priorities are low thermal output and near-silence during operation.
Initially, I was leaning toward the Ryzen 7 9700X, but now that I have the 5080, I'm unsure. From my research, the 9700X seems to balance my intended uses well and runs cooler. I'm concerned about whether an X3D chip would require an AIO cooler due to the potential noise. Also, will the 9700X lead to any noticeable bottlenecking when gaming with the 5080? Price isn't a big issue, so I'm more focused on raw performance. Should I stick with the 9700X, or would an X3D CPU be a better match for my setup? Also, if there's anything new coming out this year that I should wait for, let me know!
1 Answer
You'll likely be fine with the 9700X; it shouldn't bottleneck the 5080 at 1440p or even 4K in most cases. That said, if I were you, I'd consider going with one of the X3D chips like the 7800X3D or 9800X3D. They offer great performance and could serve you well for higher frame rates, especially if you're looking for the best gaming experience. If you're not in a rush, you might want to see if any new models are announced soon that could drop the prices of the current X3D options.
But keep in mind that just saying one CPU won't bottleneck another isn't enough. It really depends on what frame rates you're aiming for. I've noticed that with my 9800X3D and 5080 combo, it's possible to hit 280 fps or so in some games like BO7, but in others like BF6, you'll struggle if the settings are too high.