I'm upgrading my PC and trying to decide between the Ryzen 5 3600 and Ryzen 5 5600X. My current graphics card is a GTX 1660 Super, but I'm planning to upgrade to either an RTX 5050 or RTX 5060 next year. I want a CPU that will support mid-range 60 FPS gaming at 1080p for a few years. The performance difference is about 20%, but the price for the 5600X is double that of the 3600 in my country. Is it worth spending that much more for a relatively small performance boost?
5 Answers
The price difference really depends on how much you're willing to spend. If you're talking about $40 for the 3600 and $80 for the 5600X, then that's more justifiable. However, if it's like $90 versus $180, that's a tougher call. In my region, I've seen used 5600 (non-X) for around 70-90 euros, which is a decent deal if you can find it.
I'd say go for the 5600X if the prices are around $60 to $120 or $50 to $100. The third-gen Ryzen processors are becoming less viable with newer games, so that 20% increase is actually quite noticeable in practice.
At the end of the day, it's your budget and what you're aiming for that matters. If you're already unsure, maybe it's not worth it to you. Only you can determine if that investment feels right.
It sounds like the timing isn't great for an upgrade right now. What CPU and motherboard are you currently using?
Try looking for a used 5600 or 5600X. If you stick with the 3600, you might hit a bottleneck after upgrading your GPU.
I'm on an old i5 3570. I get that RAM prices are high because of AI, but other components seem fine to me. Is it actually a bad time to upgrade?