Looking for PC build recommendations to go with RTX 1080

scrappymouse

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Messages
244
Hello All,

Recently I was given a GTX 1080 card, and this will require me to update my system as I'm currently using a phenom x6 CPU, Essentially I'm trying to get the cheapest build I can that doesn't limit this GPU. I've been out of the hardware game for 10 years so not really sure where to start with this one, any help is appreciated.
 
You'll be fine with the Phenom 6. Don't sweat it. You'll still run games great
I disagree, I believe it will hold it back substantially. Plus, there's little chance the current power supply has an 8 pin cable (or more if needed) for GPU power if it's 10 years old. I supposed you could use an adapter if you had to.

OP, if you have a power supply that can handle the 1080 and you want to throw it in, you should get an upgrade from whatever GPU you have in there now. But if you currently have a 10 year old system then buying/building a new system would be smart in order to maximize the 1080. Is it worth it to you or something you want to do? Or are you happy with what you have now? Figure out these questions and go from there.
 
I disagree, I believe it will hold it back substantially. Plus, there's little chance the current power supply has an 8 pin cable (or more if needed) for GPU power if it's 10 years old. I supposed you could use an adapter if you had to.

OP, if you have a power supply that can handle the 1080 and you want to throw it in, you should get an upgrade from whatever GPU you have in there now. But if you currently have a 10 year old system then buying/building a new system would be smart in order to maximize the 1080. Is it worth it to you or something you want to do? Or are you happy with what you have now? Figure out these questions and go from there.
It's worth it to me to upgrade, it is a 10yr old system, I know the 1080 is a bit dated as well, I just don't want to go overkill on the extra hardware for it if I don't need to, not looking to go top-of-line but just a more suitable rig that wouldn't hold that card back. The 10yr old system is the last one i've built, probably to hand it down to my 13yr old cousin who is just starting to do PC builds, figured it'd be a good practice rig for him.

Here is my current system specs,

Sabertooth 990fx
Phenom x6 1100t cpu
4x8(32gb)Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz ram 10-10-10-27
Xfx Radeon 6950 2gb version
Zalman 9700 cpu cooler.
1tb WD black adition HDD
256gb samsung 830 SSD
 
Of course you can look for deals on this forum, and I'll sure you'll find them, but I am in the process of building a rig for my friend who had a firm budget for it.
This is just an example, I'm not saying these are by any means the best items to get, it just was what he wanted for his build. Price/performance was the goal.
These are the guts of what I got...

ASRock B550M Phantom Gaming 4 -$90.00

Ryzen 3600 - $200.00
EVGA 600w PS - $73.00

GeIL SUPER LUCE RGB SYNC AMD Edition 16GB (2 x 8GB) - $70.00


Total for those = $433.00

Of course you'd have to buy storage and a case if you wanted new. Btw, the 1080 is still a very capable card.
 
The cheapest route would be dropping a FX8350 into your current motherboard and overclocking as far as you can. That will still hold a 1080 back in some cases but not nearly as badly. Now is a good time to build a new one with used parts though as well because of the recent Ryzen 5000 series launch. Lots of used parts to be had at decent prices. 6 cores or more is what you want for gaming these days. Do you have a budget in mind? Do you mind used parts or would you prefer new?
 
There's also the path where you build a rather competent modern system with the new 5600XT chip from AMD, get a full 16 GB of good memory, and basically build a PC that will be just as good with a future 4080, if Nvidia is still in business in the future.

Basically, plan for the future. Don't build for the 1080, instead, think of the 1080 as a placeholder card for a more powerful modern or future card. You've got ten years of catching up to do, so don't necessarily go for something weaker than would be fun.
 
I said he'll be fine, didn't say it would be optimum.........
Games will run good and WHEN he can afford upgrading it will just get better. Not everyone can go best of the best but that seems to be all everyone here cares about. It will be a lot better than what he has now...........
 
I said he'll be fine, didn't say it would be optimum.........
Games will run good and WHEN he can afford upgrading it will just get better. Not everyone can go best of the best but that seems to be all everyone here cares about. It will be a lot better than what he has now...........

Hi looking for a cheap build to drop in a hand me down 1080

Oh sure he's a full new system without the 1080

Lmao
 
He said the cheapest option and I gave him the cheapest option. Not sure what's funny. Guess I'll go back to my business now.
🙄

I was agreeing with your suggestion Geezer and laughing at suggestions for a full rebuild just to push a 1080
 
The cheapest route would be dropping a FX8350 into your current motherboard and overclocking as far as you can. That will still hold a 1080 back in some cases but not nearly as badly. Now is a good time to build a new one with used parts though as well because of the recent Ryzen 5000 series launch. Lots of used parts to be had at decent prices. 6 cores or more is what you want for gaming these days. Do you have a budget in mind? Do you mind used parts or would you prefer new?
This I may do, Seems to be better than what I have now, I understand it won't take full advantage of the 1080 but it will be better suited than my phenom X6, I have the original Sabertooth 990fx, I just need to confirm that is is AM3+ and not just AM3, it appears there may have been two different versions of this board. But if is will support that CPU that looks like the best alternative for the time being. I do plan on doing a full future update for another gaming system in the future, but as I know my job is leaving in Mar and not sure what my employment situation will be like in the future spending the money to make a system that going to last 5-10yrs(yes unrealistic I know, but that's how old my current rig is) doesn't make financial sense. But I don't want to waste this new(to me) 1080 having it sit on a table somewhere

Thank you!
 
Another option would be finding a used Intel board and proc that will work with that DDR3 and the rest of your parts. Really just cost v. speed though. FX8350 is probably less than a board + proc. Ivy Bridge i7-3770k is the obvious option. You've got 4 sticks... maybe a socket 2011 Ivy Bridge with 6 cores? 4930k? The 4960X is probably the fastest DDR3 desktop proc for current games now that they'll actually use more than 4 cores. Hmm... wonder what those go for these days. If you can find a DDR3 board you can also run Haswells on DDR3, like an i7-4770k.

Not sure that's worth it though. I'd have to spend some time on eBay, etc. checking out prices on boards and procs that will take that DDR3. 32GB of DDR4 is a bit over $100. You could do a board/proc/ram swap with a lower end AMD AM4 or Intel LGA1200 chip that'll be a lot faster than what you have for around $350-400 (a bit less if you go with 16GB). That'll put you on a current platform and you can just upgrade the proc and the rest of the system once your employment situation stabilizes.

Also, what power supply do you have?
 
This I may do, Seems to be better than what I have now, I understand it won't take full advantage of the 1080 but it will be better suited than my phenom X6, I have the original Sabertooth 990fx, I just need to confirm that is is AM3+ and not just AM3, it appears there may have been two different versions of this board. But if is will support that CPU that looks like the best alternative for the time being. I do plan on doing a full future update for another gaming system in the future, but as I know my job is leaving in Mar and not sure what my employment situation will be like in the future spending the money to make a system that going to last 5-10yrs(yes unrealistic I know, but that's how old my current rig is) doesn't make financial sense. But I don't want to waste this new(to me) 1080 having it sit on a table somewhere

Thank you!

I have the same board rev 1.0, it's close to 10 years old and runs 24/7 nowadays serving Plex. I run an 8320 in it bone stock though
 
I agree that dropping in a used FX8350 is probably the best cost-effective option for them. Im currently running an overclocked FX8320 with the same class of GPU as OP (Vega 64 in my case) and while the CPU does hold the GPU back at higher framerates, it's not too bad. I deal with it by just cranking the graphics until I'm well GPU-limited and I don't notice the crappy CPU.
 
If you are running that GTX1080 to try to play Control at 4k, no cpu is going to help.

If you are trying to run CS:Go @ 1080p, your CPU is going to be a significant limitation.
 
You'll be fine with the Phenom 6. Don't sweat it. You'll still run games great


The x6 doesn't have a current enough instruction set to run some games. And many games will be a slide show.



I agree with finding a fx for dirt cheap and dropping it in. My nephew plays fortnite, apex, bunch of indie games etc with a rx580 and overclocked fx6300. Games run pretty smoothly.

Otherwise, get something like a ryzen 1600 or 2600, used b350 for cheap and some ddr4. Something like the 9400f would be nice too. Everyone talking shit about the 1080 as if it's a slow card...it's still comparable to today's mid range cards (2060 and 5600xt)
 
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I said he'll be fine, didn't say it would be optimum.........
Games will run good and WHEN he can afford upgrading it will just get better. Not everyone can go best of the best but that seems to be all everyone here cares about. It will be a lot better than what he has now...........

You said he’ll run games “great” he won’t. Many will run like absolute crap.
 
Hello All,

Recently I was given a GTX 1080 card, and this will require me to update my system as I'm currently using a phenom x6 CPU, Essentially I'm trying to get the cheapest build I can that doesn't limit this GPU. I've been out of the hardware game for 10 years so not really sure where to start with this one, any help is appreciated.
Do you have a particular budget? Given you go 10 years between builds, it might be smart to wait a couple of months for availability of the new Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, which are faster than anything currently available. You’d want an X570 motherboard of whatever flavor pleases you, and some fast DDR4 memory.

Something like a Ryzen 3600 and B550 would cheaper, and good enough, though. Or, you could use what you have and see if it’s good enough for whatever games you intend to play.
 
Cheap upgrade I recommend would be to create a budget Ryzen system. You can probably get a Ryzen 2600 for close to $100. Heck, you might be able to get a 3600 for that price, once the holiday sales kick in.

I hate to break it to you but-----my Phenom X6 was even limiting my Radeon HD7870...
 
Yep to not bottleneck a 1080 you will need at least a Ryzen 2600
 
Hello All,

Recently I was given a GTX 1080 card, and this will require me to update my system as I'm currently using a phenom x6 CPU, Essentially I'm trying to get the cheapest build I can that doesn't limit this GPU. I've been out of the hardware game for 10 years so not really sure where to start with this one, any help is appreciated.


I’m going to keep my advice very simple and generic. I choose Ryzen to give you opportunity to upgrade in the future.

1. I suggest a Ryzen 2000 series or newer of at least 4 cores and 8 threads. Any Ryzen will be a substantial step up.

2. Match the CPU with a Ryzen B550 mainboard to allow for future upgrades of your CPU, GPU, and SSD.

3. Use at least a 512GB SSD as your main drive. Try to get an NVME M.2 model if you can. Look for SSDs with a DRAM cache if possible. It’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t have it. An Intel 665P is often on sale and a decent drive.

4. Get at least 16GB of DDR4-3200 or faster memory. Ram speed is important to Ryzen. Ddr4-3600 at CAS 16 is a sweet spot. You can probably survive on 8GB for a year or so, but it’s not recommended.

5. Choose a power supply from a well known brand like Seasonic, Corsair, and Enermax. 600 watts will work ok for now, but may have to be upgraded in the future.

6. The case is up to you.Try to pick something that offers food airflow. Gamers Nexus has some good case reviews. NZXT cases are a good safe bet.

7. The box cooler will work ok on a stock Ryzen. The cooler master 212 series is a good inexpensive heat sink.

8. Most sound on the mainboard is good enough these days. I suggest you start with the built sound, and go from there.

9. Many mainboard include WiFi. However I have never found them to be better than a good USB antenna. That said, I would rather have than not have it.

10. Be wary of who your actually purchasing from. Just because you’re on New Egg or Amazon, doesn’t mean you’re really buying from them. They have partner stores, and some are awful.
 
I’m going to keep my advice very simple and generic. I choose Ryzen to give you opportunity to upgrade in the future.

1. I suggest a Ryzen 2000 series or newer of at least 4 cores and 8 threads. Any Ryzen will be a substantial step up.

2. Match the CPU with a Ryzen B550 mainboard to allow for future upgrades of your CPU, GPU, and SSD.

3. Use at least a 512GB SSD as your main drive. Try to get an NVME M.2 model if you can. Look for SSDs with a DRAM cache if possible. It’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t have it. An Intel 665P is often on sale and a decent drive.

4. Get at least 16GB of DDR4-3200 or faster memory. Ram speed is important to Ryzen. Ddr4-3600 at CAS 16 is a sweet spot. You can probably survive on 8GB for a year or so, but it’s not recommended.

5. Choose a power supply from a well known brand like Seasonic, Corsair, and Enermax. 600 watts will work ok for now, but may have to be upgraded in the future.

6. The case is up to you.Try to pick something that offers food airflow. Gamers Nexus has some good case reviews. NZXT cases are a good safe bet.

7. The box cooler will work ok on a stock Ryzen. The cooler master 212 series is a good inexpensive heat sink.

8. Most sound on the mainboard is good enough these days. I suggest you start with the built sound, and go from there.

9. Many mainboard include WiFi. However I have never found them to be better than a good USB antenna. That said, I would rather have than not have it.

10. Be wary of who your actually purchasing from. Just because you’re on New Egg or Amazon, doesn’t mean you’re really buying from them. They have partner stores, and some are awful.
If you buy a motherboard with wifi and it doesn't have Intel wifi------you can buy Intel's best wifi chip for like $15 and it will be a drop-in replacement.
 
Just put the 1080 in and game at low res. You'll see a definite increase in frames versus that super slow 6950 2gb GPU you are currently using.

After that save some money and buy a modern rig sometime in the future.
 
I had a Sabertooth 990fx rev 1, with FX 9590 for years, worked perfect, recognized the CPU etc. OC and so on. Since I am no longer using the system I removed the processor and threw away the board. If interested PM me and we can work out something that will work for both of us. I also have a FX 8120 that OC to 5.3ghz in the same board (120mm AIO in A/C cooled case at the time).
 
I said he'll be fine, didn't say it would be optimum.........
Games will run good and WHEN he can afford upgrading it will just get better. Not everyone can go best of the best but that seems to be all everyone here cares about. It will be a lot better than what he has now...........
You did say great.. anyway more and more games are dropping support for older CPUs like that dude to missing features.
 
I had a Sabertooth 990fx rev 1, with FX 9590 for years, worked perfect, recognized the CPU etc. OC and so on. Since I am no longer using the system I removed the processor and threw away the board. If interested PM me and we can work out something that will work for both of us. I also have a FX 8120 that OC to 5.3ghz in the same board (120mm AIO in A/C cooled case at the time).
Depending on what he wants for it that CPU could be great for you. If you look it up your motherboard technically doesn’t support it but there is ample evidence back in the day showing plenty of people running them just fine.
 
I can tell you first hand that a 1080 paired with a ryzen 3600 and 16GB of 3200mhz ram makes a very capable 1080p/1440p gaming PC. The one I built for a friend used a b450 MB but I'd probably go with a b550 right now.

There's no reason you can't just recycle your HDD/SSD but if you want more than 256GB for your primary drive I'd consider an NVME drive. As someone else mentioned it might be a good idea to consider a new power supply, not only have they gotten better but they do degrade some over time and if it's as old as the rest of the system it might not have the best 12v rail setup even if it has sufficient wattage.

Another thing worth looking into is what 990fx boards are going for right now because about a year ago when I looked for a replacement one all I could find were used ones at high prices since they're the only boards capable of properly running some of those 8xxx/9xxx CPUs. I wouldn't be surprised if cheap Ryzen systems have pushed the value on those down though.
 
I agree that dropping in a used FX8350 is probably the best cost-effective option for them.

Going from a Phenom II x6 to an FX 8350 is a waste of money. At stock speeds, both chips perform almost equally, which is a testament to how bad the Bulldozer architecture was. If the FX 8350 is overclocked, it leads the Phenom by 10-15%, which is not worth what the market price wants for the CPU.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Phenom-II-X6-1100T-vs-AMD-FX-8350/2004vs1489

I can't find an 8350 for less than $80, which is way too much to spend for an almost decade old CPU. OP would be far better off getting a new Ryzen system, and he'd not have to spend that much if most of the existing system is reused. At minimum, he'd need a CPU, motherboard, RAM and maybe a power supply.

1. I suggest a Ryzen 2000 series or newer of at least 4 cores and 8 threads. Any Ryzen will be a substantial step up.

2. Match the CPU with a Ryzen B550 mainboard to allow for future upgrades of your CPU, GPU, and SSD.

B550 doesn't support 1xxx or 2xxx Ryzen parts.

https://www.amd.com/en/chipsets/b550

For anything less than a 3000 series part, you'll need a B450 chipset or older motherboard, which limits any forward compatibility. Blame idiotic motherboard vendors for making flashy UEFI setups and eating all of the ROM space with graphics and animations.
 
Going from a Phenom II x6 to an FX 8350 is a waste of money. At stock speeds, both chips perform almost equally, which is a testament to how bad the Bulldozer architecture was. If the FX 8350 is overclocked, it leads the Phenom by 10-15%, which is not worth what the market price wants for the CPU.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Phenom-II-X6-1100T-vs-AMD-FX-8350/2004vs1489

I can't find an 8350 for less than $80, which is way too much to spend for an almost decade old CPU. OP would be far better off getting a new Ryzen system, and he'd not have to spend that much if most of the existing system is reused. At minimum, he'd need a CPU, motherboard, RAM and maybe a power supply.



B550 doesn't support 1xxx or 2xxx Ryzen parts.

https://www.amd.com/en/chipsets/b550

For anything less than a 3000 series part, you'll need a B450 chipset or older motherboard, which limits any forward compatibility. Blame idiotic motherboard vendors for making flashy UEFI setups and eating all of the ROM space with graphics and animations.


Good catch. I didn’t realize this.
 
Assuming 1080 in good working order, sell for like $280 ish on forums. Then buy a $600 ish black friday gaming machine. Pull out hdd of old machine and donate your old rig. Honestly a 1660 or better is way similar and you could get a full platform bump.
 
I’m going to keep my advice very simple and generic. I choose Ryzen to give you opportunity to upgrade in the future.

1. I suggest a Ryzen 2000 series or newer of at least 4 cores and 8 threads. Any Ryzen will be a substantial step up.

2. Match the CPU with a Ryzen B550 mainboard to allow for future upgrades of your CPU, GPU, and SSD.

3. Use at least a 512GB SSD as your main drive. Try to get an NVME M.2 model if you can. Look for SSDs with a DRAM cache if possible. It’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t have it. An Intel 665P is often on sale and a decent drive.

4. Get at least 16GB of DDR4-3200 or faster memory. Ram speed is important to Ryzen. Ddr4-3600 at CAS 16 is a sweet spot. You can probably survive on 8GB for a year or so, but it’s not recommended.

5. Choose a power supply from a well known brand like Seasonic, Corsair, and Enermax. 600 watts will work ok for now, but may have to be upgraded in the future.

6. The case is up to you.Try to pick something that offers food airflow. Gamers Nexus has some good case reviews. NZXT cases are a good safe bet.

7. The box cooler will work ok on a stock Ryzen. The cooler master 212 series is a good inexpensive heat sink.

8. Most sound on the mainboard is good enough these days. I suggest you start with the built sound, and go from there.

9. Many mainboard include WiFi. However I have never found them to be better than a good USB antenna. That said, I would rather have than not have it.

10. Be wary of who your actually purchasing from. Just because you’re on New Egg or Amazon, doesn’t mean you’re really buying from them. They have partner stores, and some are awful.
Number 10 is soooo important for folks that don't usually buy components. There are a lot of 3rd party resellers on these sites that jacks up the pricing and don't actually have the same return policies. Check who you're buying from even if it's from legit sites.
 
Assuming 1080 in good working order, sell for like $280 ish on forums. Then buy a $600 ish black friday gaming machine. Pull out hdd of old machine and donate your old rig. Honestly a 1660 or better is way similar and you could get a full platform bump.

No, the GTX 1660 is a significant downgrade.

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1660-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1080/4038vs3603

The 1660 is 50-70% slower than a GTX 1080. Newer doesn't automatically mean better, or even the same.
 
In your shoes I'd be looking at a used 4770k or 4690k and motherboard. $130-$190 on Ebay. My wife's computer is still a Phenom II X4 945 and it's a real dog. Even for basic internet usage cores are maxed often and the machine is sluggish. She's getting my 7700k very soon.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core...604949?hash=item3b5173a955:g:aiAAAOSw~apfpB10
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-H81I-...sh=item595932de36:g:X34AAOSw8vtfd27k&LH_BIN=1


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I meant to say 1660 supper / ti... but based on the rez or game they are surprisingly similar https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2527?vs=2542 . And let me preface this by saying 60 fps is playable in my book at least on my 4k tv which can fall back to 1080p and still be enjoyable. So like Forza 4 at 1080p Max Quality w/4x MSAA it is only a 2fps delta between the 2....

Also I would not suggest the haswell i7's unless you get a killer deal, mainly because I just sold one here (cpu mobo and ram) for basically the same cost a gen 3 ryzen setup. Also there is very lacking patching in mobos from that period for the numerous exploits that exist if you care about that sort of thing.
 
Going from a Phenom II x6 to an FX 8350 is a waste of money. At stock speeds, both chips perform almost equally, which is a testament to how bad the Bulldozer architecture was. If the FX 8350 is overclocked, it leads the Phenom by 10-15%, which is not worth what the market price wants for the CPU.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Phenom-II-X6-1100T-vs-AMD-FX-8350/2004vs1489

I can't find an 8350 for less than $80, which is way too much to spend for an almost decade old CPU. OP would be far better off getting a new Ryzen system, and he'd not have to spend that much if most of the existing system is reused. At minimum, he'd need a CPU, motherboard, RAM and maybe a power supply.

Took me about 3 seconds to find 50$ CAD 8350s on eBay
 
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