Am I a dummy or a genius?

[Tanaz]

Okay guys I have a riddle for you. What do you do when you want to upgrade your GPU, your SSD, your CPU cooler and get a third monitor but you only have money for a GPU?

 

So let me explain. I have a 3700X with a GTX 1080Ti and I'm running a 1440p 165hz panel as my main gaming monitor and a 1440p ultrawide as my secondary (do stuff and watch movies on) monitor. As many of you I got drawn into the RTX 3080 hype as well and I set aside the 700$ (or in my case cuz third world country 900EUR) and preordered one. Well best indications showed that the earliest it would arrive would be mid-november so that got me thinking and I did some research. Yes the 3080 is substancially faster than the 1080Ti (duh) but it's not AS fast as I expected it to be at 1440p. The difference as far as I understand is between 50 and 75% which while a lot still ain't the 2X we were promised.

 

I also started thinking about how I need a third monitor because 2 ain't enough for my workflow and on top of that I only have 1TB of storage which after installing a few games fills up pretty quick as you might imagine. I was thinking about going all out and spending a ridiculous amount of money on a third 1440p monitor + a 3080 + an SSD + a Noctua NH-D15 but then common sense struck me. Wait a minute I can get everything I want (sorta) and not spend my entire lifesavings on it. So.. you ready for the solution to the riddle:

 

Instead of getting a 3080 I ordered a 25` 1080p 240hz Alienware monitor which obviously will give me a sizeable performance boost, I'll move my previous main 1440p monitor and use it as a third monitor while still being able to play games on it if I ever feel like it AND I have money leftover for both 1TB NVME SSD and a Noctua NH-D15 to replace my noisy Wraith cooler. Stuff is coming in tomorrow and I've already kinda made my mind up but I'm still super curious to hear from you fellow nerds:

Was this a big brain move or a dumbass move?

[svmlegacy]

3 minutes ago, Tanaz said:

<snip>

You're getting the result you want, while spending less money. That's all there is to it.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

At anything other than 4k you suffer from a largs CPU bottleneck with a 3080.

[Tanaz]

Just now, HelpfulTechWizard said:

At anything other than 4k you suffer from a largs CPU bottleneck.  

While that is true I'll still be getting at least 15-20% more FPS at 1080p relative to 1440p

[Fatih19]

1080Ti is still a very good GPU and would handle 1080p just fine.

[XGoodGuyFitz]

I have always been a console gamer, so i have never experienced 100fps and stuff. And i still beat people with 3k pcs

[Dedayog]

Just now, Fatih19 said:

1080Ti is still a very good GPU and would handle 1080p just fine.

It fucking better, it's a 1440p card.

 

So you downgraded quality to get more FPS?  Could have just reduced settings on the 1440p monitor. 

 

Not a genius move by any stretch.

[Dedayog]

3 minutes ago, xXFitzXx said:

I have always been a console gamer, so i have never experienced 100fps and stuff. And i still beat people with 3k pcs

What's your epeen issue have to do with this? 

 

[Tanaz]

1 minute ago, xXFitzXx said:

I have always been a console gamer, so i have never experienced 100fps and stuff. And i still beat people with 3k pcs

For me it's just about the smoothness of the gameplay rather than the "competitive edge". I wish I could go back to 60hz gaming but I perceive it as laggy after having used high refreshrate monitors for years. Otherwise there is no doubt in my mind that your statement is true. A shit ton of professional players went pro with subpar hardware and low framerates.

[XGoodGuyFitz]

Ok @Dedayog got a point there.

[XGoodGuyFitz]

honestly, if i switched to higher fps i dont think i would like it.

[Tanaz]

1 minute ago, Dedayog said:

It fucking better, it's a 1440p card.

 

So you downgraded quality to get more FPS?  Could have just reduced settings on the 1440p monitor. 

 

Not a genius move by any stretch.

I needed a third monitor anyways. If I'm not pleased with the quality I'll just use my 1440p monitor as main again and use the 1080p one for third. It's not a major loss IMO and while I agree that you can call the 1080Ti a 1440p card it's getting closer to a 1440p 60hz card rather than  a 1440p 144hz these days.

[Chiyawa]

Hmm... Well, hard to say because it actually depends on your priority and your needs/usages.

 

Personally, I would upgrade something that really matters to me first.

 

As for your case... Well, I mean, you can begin to start saving little by little and upgrade once you have the money. Adding storage like HDD is fairly cheap and can be done easily. As for the cooler and the monitor, it will take time to save that amount of money.

 

Personally, unless I really need that good FPS, I won't bother changing my GPU to the latest yet. I'll usually wait for a month or 2, until all the reviews are out before I make my move.

[Tanaz]

2 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Hmm... Well, hard to say because it actually depends on your priority and your needs/usages.

 

Personally, I would upgrade something that really matters to me first.

 

As for your case... Well, I mean, you can begin to start saving little by little and upgrade once you have the money. Adding storage like HDD is fairly cheap and can be done easily. As for the cooler and the monitor, it will take time to save that amount of money.

 

Personally, unless I really need that good FPS, I won't bother changing my GPU to the latest yet. I'll usually wait for a month or 2, until all the reviews are out before I make my move.

I play competitive games at high framerates. Dota,CS:GO and Fortnite being the main three. That's what deterred me from the 3080 in the first place as it's overkill for those types of titles but of course I'll feel the performance deficit on occasion when I start up something AAA. Only thing I'm mainly worried about is that devs do not optimize most games well especially when it comes to older architectures. DOOM:Ethernal being the latest case. While it's not a perfect example because it is an amazingly optimized game in comparison to most it still runs way worse on Pascal than it should IMO. And yeah in a year or so when I save up I can still get a 3080 or a Big Navi GPU.

[whm1974]

I will have to call this a rather dumb ass move. A 1080Ti is perfect for a mere 1440p display. Speaking of 1440p, Why didn't you get an extra 144op monitor and NVMe SSD instead? Unless you are having cooling issues, you didn't need the new HSF.

[XGoodGuyFitz]

he said he needed hsf for noise issues.

[Tanaz]

1 minute ago, whm1974 said:

I will have to call this a rather dumb ass move. A 1080Ti is perfect for a mere 1440p display. Speaking of 1440p, Why didn't you get an extra 144op monitor and NVMe SSD instead? Unless you are having cooling issues, you didn't need the new HSF.

Because I hate the noise the Wraith cooler makes.It is doing its job rather well but everything else in my system is barely audible. I was contemplating to buy a Samsung G7 or one of the LG 144hz panels but I wanted the FPS and hz bump from the 1080p resolution when I need it in competitive games. You do make a good point tho 

[whm1974]

2 minutes ago, Tanaz said:

Because I hate the noise the Wraith cooler makes.It is doing its job rather well but everything else in my system is barely audible. I was contemplating to buy a Samsung G7 or one of the LG 144hz panels but I wanted the FPS and hz bump from the 1080p resolution when I need it in competitive games. You do make a good point tho 

Well I'm more into RPG and strategy games instead of FPS, which if you ask me are over done on PC Gaming... But still is 144mhz even worth it?

[Tanaz]

Just now, whm1974 said:

Well I'm more into RPG and strategy games instead of FPS, which if you ask me are over done on PC Gaming... But still is 144mhz even worth it?

I've been using the Acer XB271HU for the past 3 years and I can't go low refresh rate anymore. Even for MOBAs and daily use it makes a world of difference to me. I'm starting to sound like an entitled douche so I'll stop myself here

 

[Chiyawa]

10 minutes ago, Tanaz said:

Only thing I'm mainly worried about is that devs do not optimize most games well especially when it comes to older architectures. DOOM:Ethernal being the latest case. While it's not a perfect example because it is an amazingly optimized game in comparison to most it still runs way worse on Pascal than it should IMO.

Well, when comes to PC gaming, Devs are pretty much divided. Some will focus optimisation on AMD graphics while many focus on nVidia. Pretty much many old games from 2005 to present optimised for nVidia (yeah, I use AMD Vega 64, so even if my GPU are consider top of the line, you can see quite many are not optimised for it). Some titles like BattleField V and Doom Eternal are optimised for AMD (also this is make possible as Direct X12.2 are actually build in favour of AMD GPU), as well as games using Vulkan technology. For more triple A titles, they still optimised for nVidia GPU because of Physx engine. So yeah, it's difficult to choose a GPU because of this.

[whm1974]

5 minutes ago, Tanaz said:

I've been using the Acer XB271HU for the past 3 years and I can't go low refresh rate anymore. Even for MOBAs and daily use it makes a world of difference to me. I'm starting to sound like an entitled douche so I'll stop myself here

 

OK but wouldn't you need a powerful dGPU or CPU to keep up, requiring even more money to be spent? The new HSF I can agree with. I was I brought a good aftermarket one when I built my Rig in 2013.

[JoeCoke]

Two monitors sucksssssss, you made the right move. Three monitors is the minimum I can really feel comfortable on. And yeah, SSDs are so cheap that adding 1TB of SSD storage was a no brainer. I'm totally with you. Some people think too much about their rig, and not enough about the whole setup. When I see a really nice PC hooked up to one monitor I die a little inside loool. I've only got a i7 2600k and GTX 970 yet I sit in front of four monitors and a Model M.

 

Also yeahhhhh, let's go air coolers WOOOOOO

[Tanaz]

2 minutes ago, whm1974 said:

OK but wouldn't you need a powerful dGPU or CPU to keep up, requiring even more money to be spent? The new HSF I can agree with. I was I brought a good aftermarket one when I built my Rig in 2013.

Yes it is hence the 1080Ti. I bought it shortly after I got the monitor a few years back. 

[JoeCoke]

9 minutes ago, Tanaz said:

I've been using the Acer XB271HU for the past 3 years and I can't go low refresh rate anymore. Even for MOBAs and daily use it makes a world of difference to me. I'm starting to sound like an entitled douche so I'll stop myself here

 

I really need to try higher refresh rates. When I went from 60 to 75hz I already saw a massive difference, so I'm curious what 120 or 144hz would feel like.

[Tanaz]

2 minutes ago, 2Buck said:

Two monitors sucksssssss, you made the right move. Three monitors is the minimum I can really feel comfortable on. And yeah, SSDs are so cheap that adding 1TB of SSD storage was a no brainer. I'm totally with you. Some people think too much about their rig, and not enough about the whole setup. When I see a really nice PC hooked up to one monitor I die a little inside loool. I've only got a i7 2600k and GTX 970 yet I sit in front of four monitors and a Model M.

 

Also yeahhhhh, let's go air coolers WOOOOOO

As I've gotten older I've realized exactly this and I've allocated a much larger portion of my budget to the things I interface with. Monitors, peripherals,desk,chair. Having the fastest PC is great but what's the point if you can't use it comfortably and optimally.