Nivdia Upgrade for Cyberpunk 2077

[nakedian]

I am running an Acer Preditor X34 3440 x 1440 120 hz monitor. I have a Gigabyte Z390 Auros Pro motherboard with an Intel i5-9600K processor cooled by a Corsair Hydro series H110i GTX (280mm). My current GPU is an EVGA XC Geforce RTX 2070. I'd like to be able to run Cyberpunk 2077 at 100 fps or better with all the bells and whistles on this widescreen monitor. Assuming what we've heard about Nvidia's upcoming cards, will I be able to achive this with an RTX 3070 or will I need an RTX 3080? Maybe more importantly and more difficult to answer, will either of these cards bottleneck on this CPU? If so, I will probable be able to find plenty of upgrade options on ebay. To keep from bottlenecking, will I need to go up to an i9-9900k or would an i7-9700k suffice?

 

[Oussebon]

None of these questions can be answered for sure until the game is out and properly benchmarked.

Don't buy anything, or plan to buy anything, until the game is out. And indeed the new hardware has been benchmarked too.

it's possible you will get no meaningful benefit from a CPU upgrade. High resolution and high settings means you will likely be GPU-limited, even with a high end GPU, which is as it should be in gaming. Maybe the game will be a monster for the CPU and the GPU. Or maybe it won't. We don't - and can't - know until it's out and tested.

 

[Blacksad]

I'd wait for the new GPU's to drop. That will be the single biggest upgrade you can get, and by the time Cyberpunk comes out, we should either be able to buy them, or at least know all about them and when they're releasing.

Edit: I'd also fully expect a 2070 to be able to play the game fine, seeing that Cyberpunk is releasing for the current consoles which aren't exactly powerhouses.

 

[nakedian]

You make a very good point about not knowing what the game will require CPU vs. GPU wise, thank you. I guess I was just comparing it to The Witcher 3 which seems to push both pretty hard. Also you kind of answered another one of my questions and that's about bottlenecking. As I understand it, the higher the resolution and settings the more the GPU becomes the bottleneck. Thanks.. I'll get back to you again when the game comes out and still appreciate all input I can get on this matter both specifically and generally.

 

[Oussebon]

The Witcher 3 isn't CPU intensive. A little in Novigrad, but it's not a CPU benchmarking game - other than when you want to show CPU performance can sometimes be relatively unimportant. Sometimes games with lots of NPCs can be quite CPU intensive e.g. AC:OD, Hitman. So it makes me wonder whether Cyberpunk 2077 will be so with its living city thing going on. We shall see I guess

 

[nakedian]

Good point Oussebon, I've even been thinking about The Witcher 3. What if I asked the same question except using The Witcher 3. And that may be a good question, but from what we saw yesterday with Cyberpunk Wire this game is likely to be CPU intensive due to the NPC's. I think I'm going to wind up with a used i9 or i7 depending on game requirements and a 3070 or 3080 if I can afford it after a CPU upgrade. That should hold me for a few more years on the "what's now old" architecture.

 

[Oussebon]

this game is likely to be CPU intensive due to the NPC's.

We just can't make that conclusion yet - as much as I understand the urge to plan to buy things.

Used i9s and i7s for your platform are problematic too. One, no warranty. Two, they'll be very expensive for what they are - i.e. last gen CPUs with no warranty. Three, you're buying a CPU that was on sale at the time you bought your current CPU. So you should have just bought it then - or saved up until you could.

Should it be the case that Cyberpunk would benefit from a 'better' CPU than yours (more cores/threads? more frequency?) you may be better off buying a Ryzen 4000 series or one of the Intel 10- series. This would mean a new motherboard, but that also opens up other upgrade options or features currently unavailable on your platform.

My strongest advice would be to clear all of your expectations about what you could buy until the game is out. Then decide what, if anything, you need.