I currently have a Ryzen 5 5600G, 16GB of DDR4 memory, an RX 6600 XT, and a 1TB NVMe drive. My main gaming display is a 1440p 240Hz OLED monitor, while a second 1920×1200 60Hz monitor is used for schoolwork and playing music. I have around £600 (about $800) to spend and am considering an RX 9070 XT priced at £620 from a local retailer, mainly because it offers a five-year warranty. I want to play games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Metaphor, Cyberpunk 2077, and heavily modded Minecraft, as well as use some Ollama workloads. Would upgrading the graphics card provide the biggest improvement, or should I prioritize replacing the CPU or increasing my RAM to 32GB?
4 Answers
The 16GB of RAM is worth addressing eventually, particularly for modded Minecraft and multitasking, but I wouldn't sacrifice the GPU upgrade for it. Aim for a matched 2×16GB DDR4 kit rather than adding four random sticks; mixing kits can cause instability and blue screens. If the price difference is only around £20, compare the retailer's warranty and return process carefully, since the longer local warranty may be worth paying extra for.
For your actual use case, the graphics card is the most sensible first upgrade. At 1440p with high settings, games like RDR2 and Cyberpunk will usually be GPU-limited, and the 9070 XT would be a major jump over the 6600 XT. The 5600G could hold it back in very CPU-heavy situations, especially if you chase extremely high frame rates, but it shouldn't prevent a big improvement overall. You can always move the card into a newer CPU, motherboard, and RAM platform later.
I’d still upgrade the GPU first. The RX 6600 XT is much better suited to 1080p than 1440p, so the 9070 XT should make the largest difference on your 240Hz gaming monitor. The 5600G isn't ideal for such a powerful card, but at 1440p it’s not an especially bad pairing. A Ryzen 7 5700X or an AM4 X3D chip would be a good later upgrade if CPU limits become noticeable.
That CPU and GPU combination would be badly balanced for ordinary 1080p gaming, but your primary display is 1440p, not the secondary 1920×1200 screen. Since the second monitor is mainly for schoolwork and music, it doesn't change the gaming upgrade recommendation. The 9070 XT makes sense if you plan to stay at 1440p and use high settings; just don't expect the 5600G to deliver maximum 240Hz performance in CPU-heavy games.
Keep an eye on CPU and GPU utilization if you notice stutters. Uncapped games running at several hundred frames per second can expose the CPU limitation, while increasing resolution or graphics settings will generally put more work on the GPU.