Aurora R9, RTX 4080?

Sorry for the typos. Meant RTX, not RTC!

The RTX 4080 is not out yet. Minimum recommended PSU for RTX 4090 is 850 watt. It requires three 8-pin PCIe power cables. Your problem will be finding one the will physically fit in the R9 case. What CPU do you have currently?

Yes, the size/fit issue has been a problem even for many of the RTX 30 Series as well. I was hoping the new series might be a bit slimmer. Here's my CPU, memory and OS info:

Memory: 64 GB

Processor: Intel Core i9-9900KS CPU @ 4.00GHz [Cores 8] [Logical processors 16]

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Home

I would also wait until they have the melting power plug issue resolved. I am thinking there's some kind of fire hazard based on the reporting.

It's not a widespread issue but there does seem to be a hazard under certain conditions possible.

nvidia-16-pin-gpu-power-connector-all-we-know 

New series are larger. I would at least wait until the new AMD cards are out before making a purchase. Considering the age of your system you might be better served with a complete new system. 

A 9900KS is already posing a serious bottleneck when paired with a 3080. It's only going to get worse with a newer video card.

It would not be a good idea to just upgrade the video card on that system.

They are maxed out with the 9900KS processor . . . so time to build a new rig!

I am hanging on to my old beater and instead put some money towards one of those fancy Alienware OLED monitors.

If it's as good as my tv it will provide a very nice gaming and work experience.

I hear ya . . . I'm still rocking an XPS 8930 and an Area-51 R5. No gaming, just work from home.

Is bottlenecking a genuine issue? Absolutely. But is it as significant as some people claim? Definitely not! When gaming at 4K or 1440p, the performance difference across ten games is often no more than 15%. I’ve got an old R8 that I bought as my first PC back when Alienware was considered top-notch. Currently, I’m running two Dell OEM 3090s paired with 3200MHz DDR4 RAM and an i9-900K. This was my primary setup for both gaming and a bit of editing.

I've recently upgraded to a system featuring a 13th-gen Core i9-13900K, paired with a 4080 Super and 32GB of 6000MHz DDR5 RAM. Here's an interesting tidbit: I can actually connect the same graphics card to my R8 using a GPU extension cable. When it comes to performance, there's only a noticeable difference in frame rates for three specific games. For the other seven, I observed a variance of just 2 or 3 FPS frames between the i9-900K and the i9-13900K. Only three games showed discrepancies greater than 15 FPS, mainly due to their heavier reliance on multiple cores.

I conducted a similar test using a 4090 with that same extension cable, benchmarking it against the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The findings were remarkably alike: the games that utilized more cores gained an improvement of 15 to 20 FPS frames, while the majority only saw a 2 to 3 FPS increase.

Bottlenecking is indeed a discussion point, but it often serves as a way for some to rationalize splurging on the latest chip that’s claimed to be 10% faster than its predecessor. Don’t get me wrong—if you’re into streaming or content creation, newer CPUs will significantly speed up your workflow. That’s pretty much a given. However, for gaming at 1440p or 4K, integrating a 4070 Ti or 4080 alongside the i9-900K will still provide a substantial boost in FPS, and that's a fact you can't overlook.

Also, I’m not here to defend Dell. I’m just calling it as I see it in the current market. Dell tends to pin users down with proprietary parts, limited upgrades, and subpar design, which makes them less user-friendly. But the truth is, technology moves so quickly that the improvements from one generation to another often feel akin to upgrading a smartphone—typically just better cameras and slightly faster chips. Unless you can afford to upgrade on a whim or genuinely need to for work, it's not worth tossing aside a solid 3- or even 5-year-old premium flagship.

@shawn2022​ The problem is the value proposition when pairing let's say a 4080 with an R8. The video card by itself would have more value than the rest of the desktop tower.

In general it's not a good idea. Bottleneck video