How much time can I delay the upgrade?
How much time can I delay the upgrade?
I understand my system might be a bit old, so I’m okay with reducing the resolution from 1440p and playing at lower settings sometimes medium-high.
My setup includes an i9-9900k, RTX 2080TI Strix Z390 Aorus Master, G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 32GB with an RM850X (2019).
I can run all my games smoothly, just a few tweaks to hit 60-70fps.
It’s hard to say exactly how much time remains for this rig—maybe I can wait another four years and still play the latest releases.
I prefer keeping this machine long-term; I’ve owned it since around 2021.
I don’t need to chase the newest hardware, especially if my power supply isn’t up to the new GPU requirements.
It seems your setup remains solid, holding up well for another two to three years if you keep it simple. The RTX 2080 TI delivers performance comparable to an RX 9060 XT or RTX 5060. Your I9 9900K is still a solid choice despite not being the top-tier model, thanks to its eight cores and sixteen threads. With 32GB of RAM, you're in a decent position for now, and your power supply is adequate. You should be able to run smoothly on AM6 and any available Intel socket at the time.
It depends on the games you’re after running. There will be a point with how DLSS is basically required for some titles now that your card just won’t keep up, borderlands 4 for example even at medium is pushing it for your card
UE5 isn’t the ideal choice for less powerful systems yet it will see more use. Another case is Oblivion Remastered, you’ll need DLSS to achieve 60 at 1080p ultra. It also depends on how the game performs at lower settings; BL4 in particular looks very poor there, so it wouldn’t be something I’d enjoy playing.
I own an o'clocked 9700k (5.2GHz.), 32GiB @ 3961Mhz. on a z390 'board that I upgraded from a 1080ti (also o'clocked to 2164Mhz.) to a 4090. The smallest variation in 1% lows was 50%. It was definitely the best upgrade I've ever done (and the most costly).
There is something to be said about waiting until that game comes out that your system can't handle. However it is also true that you just may not know what you are missing with your current rig. Games are still fun, but increasing the monitor size/resolution or doubling frame rate can make things so much more enjoyable in the games you enjoy. It might be fun to find something minimal you can do to freshen it up a bit.