LOL @ people saying the i5 will make it a stuttery mess
The 1080TI has been out for years, the i5 was quite common back when the 1080TI was released and I can't remember any reviews saying it was a stuttery mess. Yes a better CPU will offer a small bump in performance but the exaggeration going on in this thread is ridiculous
Well Dave, it might surprise you to know that since the 1080TI was released, a whole bunch of games have been released. And even more surprisingly, a lot make use of more than 4 threads.
Wanna know what's even crazier? In 2017 when the 1080TI was released, the CPUs it was reviewed on were like the:
-4960x (6 cores 12 threads)
https://www.anandtech.com/show/11180/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1080-ti-review/4
-6950x (10 cores 20 threads)
https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1080-ti
-7700k (4 cores 8 threads)
https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/2830-nvidia-gtx-1080-ti-fe-review-and-game-benchmarks/page-2
-5960x (8 cores 16 threads)
https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_1080_ti_gaming_x_trio_review,11.html
etc etc.
Surprised me as well mate, but unbelievably they weren't testing a £700 graphics card with a mid-range CPU from 2014.
But the biggest surprise Dave, is the impact a CPU can have on your frames. Most important is frametimes, of course, but if you really care about maxing out FPS as well then...
https://youtu.be/D6RsDyMn2gY?t=479
You know, just that "small bump" and exaggeration of nearly doubling the FPS on a modern CPU (on a 2080TI). Granted, it won't double the frames on a 980TI, but it will clear up the stutter AND likely give him a nice bump on max frames.
Edit: Oh forgot to add the LOL