Best Build Options - advice needed for a out of date noob

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Hi all and thanks for reading any any replies you can give.

Complete hardware failure on my Alienware m15 laptop means I am not in the market for a new rig a good bit earlier than I had hoped. Going to go desktop this time and have been reading about all the new tech that is out there and admit to being completely baffled.

I normally go for cutting edge GPU and CPU, so I get a nice performance boost. The current rig is an i9 8950 and the 2080MaxQ. It was good enough given the portability. I used it for gaming (simming and fps), and photo editing (big files, so workhorse power needed).

I am leaning to the AMD 5950X and a RTX3080. the price of the 3090 is off teh chart for me. I know there is supply issues so may have to go low end GPU until the supplies improve.

And this is where I hope you can help - is this a good combo to give me a decent performance uplift, and would you recommend any GPU that is available and not gonna drop me below my existing performance as an interim?

And of course, any other advice you can give me would be great. Budget is about £3k if needed.

Thank you so much :)

p.s darn typo in title....sigh
 
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Thanks for the info.

I have an Asus Predator x34 (3440x1440). Lovely monitor and no plans to change that :)

I do a lot of big file photo editing - would the 5900x be strong enough for that?

If not Nvidia, I assume amd....are there any good card recommendations from them?
 
Laptop is about 2 and a half years old. The big issue is that I have been ripping it for 8hrs a day during lockdown. A lot more than it got in its first year or so. Can't complain at it failing at this point, certainly not been a bad run. It is being repaired and repasted so it is not dead just yet :)

But it does seem like a good time to hit the ole upgrade magpie road. Haha

Thanksa for the advice on the photo editing. The 5900x will more than suffice my use, although the 5950x would make it better at photos, I am sure. It might come down to what is available, I fear.

Think I am settled on the GPU given your advice too. 3080 it is. The 6900 seems to be in as much a supply dilemma so no advantage gained by going amd

Really appreciate the advice so far, it is helping me no end. More if you got it :)
 
Apologies, I think I gave you wrong advice there, the 3060 Ti is similar to a desktop 2080, not to a mobile 2080. According to TPU, the 2080 MaxQ performs like a 1660 Super. From what I can see, it's because the clock speed is significantly lower than the desktop version, but if Alienware have increased that clock closer to the desktop model, then obviously it would be far faster than this.

Oh thank you for coming back and giving more info. The good news for me is any card I buy will be better than I have - I hadn't apprciate how throttled the 2080 max q was.

I ordered just now, kinda interim system based in available stock. Amd 5800x paired with a 3070. The 3080 will have to wait a bit I think :D and thanks to the advice on the CPU, I didn't over spec for my usage. The 5950 was gonna be too much for my profile. The 5800x was both available and benchmarks seems to show decent performance when compared to the 59xx in the games I play.

Truly grateful for the guidance. Now I wait for an ETA and hope oc stock system was showing accurately.
 
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