RTX 4080/5080: rig upgrades needed?

[Akeyiro]

Hello everyone. I need your tech expertise and knowledge to clear a doubt I've got.

I'm gonna get either an RTX 4080 or 5080 and I'd like to know if I'll need to upgrade my CPU and motherboard as well or not.

I've got a Z390 AORUS ULTRA (motherboard) and Intel Core i7 9700K (CPU): do I need to replace them with something more powerful ? Or can they sustain the above mentioned GPU?

I purchased my current GPU, an RTX 2080 Super, at the end of 2019 and since then I've been able to play games such as Battlefield V, Battlefield 2042 or the new Tomb Raider trilogy without any issues and hiccups. However, as the graphic of games is advancing, the system requirements are obviously becoming more demanding: I can easily notice frame drops and "slow graphics" when playing Battlefield 6 or FF7 Rebirth, and as I wanna play the latest Indiana Jones game and MGSV (as well as games coming out during the next decade) I wanna know if a general upgrade is needed or not.

Anyway, long story short, I'd just like to know if my current motherboard and CPU can sustain an RTX 4080/5080 or I gotta replace them.

Thanks a lot in advance for all your answers.

 

[Charagma]

I assume you are concerned about bottle-necking on the cpu side.

Just crank up the graphics settings on the GPU and let the GPU work harder.

Sounds counterintuitive so let me explain.

To make a long process short, I am just going to say data is going from the drive to the CPU to the GPU. Many other things happening but this is the simplified version of what is happening. In the case where your CPU bottlenecks, your GPU is waiting for your CPU to give it the next set of triangles to render. Let's create an example and say 13million triangles at a time. S0, when your CPU is sending the next 13m triangles, your GPU process it so fast that the cpu falls behind and trying to keep up starts hitting the 100% busy marks.

By changing the GPU to work harder, gives your CPU the "ability" to keep up with te DATA.

If the bottlenecking is not your concern then I am not sure if I understand your question correctly.........

 

[Why_Me]

Hello everyone. I need your tech expertise and knowledge to clear a doubt I've got.

I'm gonna get either an RTX 4080 or 5080 and I'd like to know if I'll need to upgrade my CPU and motherboard as well or not.

I've got a Z390 AORUS ULTRA (motherboard) and Intel Core i7 9700K (CPU): do I need to replace them with something more powerful ? Or can they sustain the above mentioned GPU?

I purchased my current GPU, an RTX 2080 Super, at the end of 2019 and since then I've been able to play games such as Battlefield V, Battlefield 2042 or the new Tomb Raider trilogy without any issues and hiccups. However, as the graphic of games is advancing, the system requirements are obviously becoming more demanding: I can easily notice frame drops and "slow graphics" when playing Battlefield 6 or FF7 Rebirth, and as I wanna play the latest Indiana Jones game and MGSV (as well as games coming out during the next decade) I wanna know if a general upgrade is needed or not.

Anyway, long story short, I'd just like to know if my current motherboard and CPU can sustain an RTX 4080/5080 or I gotta replace them.

Thanks a lot in advance for all your answers.

What is your budget (Czech Koruna), what resolution do you game at, your cpu cooler, your RAM, storage, what power supply do you currently have (including age) and will you be purchasing from Czech Republic or Germany?

 

[Akeyiro]

I assume you are concerned about bottle-necking on the cpu side.

Just crank up the graphics settings on the GPU and let the GPU work harder.

Sounds counterintuitive so let me explain.

To make a long process short, I am just going to say data is going from the drive to the CPU to the GPU. Many other things happening but this is the simplified version of what is happening. In the case where your CPU bottlenecks, your GPU is waiting for your CPU to give it the next set of triangles to render. Let's create an example and say 13million triangles at a time. S0, when your CPU is sending the next 13m triangles, your GPU process it so fast that the cpu falls behind and trying to keep up starts hitting the 100% busy marks.

By changing the GPU to work harder, gives your CPU the "ability" to keep up with te DATA.

If the bottlenecking is not your concern then I am not sure if I understand your question correctly.........

Good explanation, but all I wanna know is: can my Z390 AORUS ULTRA (motherboard) and Intel Core i7 9700K (CPU) deal with an RTX 5080? Or I gotta upgrade both?

What is your budget (Czech Koruna), what resolution do you game at, your cpu cooler, your RAM, storage, what power supply do you currently have (including age) and will you be purchasing from Czech Republic or Germany?

I only wanna know if my Z390 AORUS ULTRA (motherboard) and Intel Core i7 9700K (CPU) deal with an RTX 5080, or I gotta upgrade both. Nothing else really.

 

[Why_Me]

Good explanation, but all I wanna know is: can my Z390 AORUS ULTRA (motherboard) and Intel Core i7 9700K (CPU) deal with an RTX 5080? Or I gotta upgrade both?

I only wanna know if my Z390 AORUS ULTRA (motherboard) and Intel Core i7 9700K (CPU) deal with an RTX 5080, or I gotta upgrade both. Nothing else really.

I would upgrade to a board that supports PCIe 5.0 for the graphics card seeing how these new AMD and Nvidia cards support PCIe 5.0 and look at a AMD Ryzen 7 7800x3D or Ryzen 7 9800x3D plus 2x16GB DDR5-6000 CL30.

Example:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor (9790.00Kč @ Alza)
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B850 GAMING X WIFI6E ATX AM5 Motherboard (4779.00Kč @ Alza)
Memory: *Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (3219.00Kč @ Alza)
Total: 17788.00Kč
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-10-25 08:35 CEST+0200

 

[Charagma]

Good explanation, but all I wanna know is: can my Z390 AORUS ULTRA (motherboard) and Intel Core i7 9700K (CPU) deal with an RTX 5080? Or I gotta upgrade both?

Personally (Not Co-pilot) checked all the specs on the 3 parts mentioned.

Motherboard manufacturer suggests using the main pcie16 slot for the card.

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.

Only issue I have found with it is that it will bottleneck.

PixelProwler77 - May 13, 2025
Yes, the i7-9700k can hold you back in some of the newer games, especially the more demanding ones. If you’re looking for optimal performance at 4K, an upgrade might be a good idea.

So ultimately there is nothing that says they will not work together except for the bottlenecking on newer games.

The RTX 5080 is very thirsty on power usage. According to Specifications 360W. Keep that in mind when you do the upgrade and make sure your power supply can handle it.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 specifications are as follows:

• Architecture: Blackwell
• CUDA Cores: 10,752
• Memory: 16 GB GDDR7
• Memory Bus: 256-bit
• Clock Speeds: 2.3 - 2.62 GHz
• TDP: 360W
• Launch Date: January 30, 2025

LGA1151 is old (I am on one of them myself) and there is not much higher you can go with regards to CPU on it. There is maybe (If memory serves me right) one or two better CPU's that can still go in there but for the price, I do not think it is worth it for such a small difference.

If you do have the funds, upgrade the motherboard and CPU and Power Supply.