I'm considering upgrading my gaming PC because League of Legends can drop to around 60–80 FPS during large teamfights, and I also occasionally play CS2. My current system has a Ryzen 5 3600, RTX 3070, MSI B550-A PRO motherboard, 16GB DDR4-3600 with XMP enabled, and a 1080p 144Hz monitor with a second 75Hz display. The power supply is an Antec EAG Pro 650W.
Since I mainly play League and CS2, I suspect the Ryzen 5 3600 is limiting performance. Moving to AM5 seems too expensive because DDR5 memory is extremely costly locally, with a 32GB kit selling for roughly €400. AM4 X3D processors have also become more expensive, and I can currently buy a Ryzen 7 5800X3D for €330.
Is that price reasonable given the current AM5 and DDR5 costs? Would the 5800X3D noticeably improve the FPS drops in League and CS2, especially during teamfights? My motherboard is still running BIOS version A.70 from 2021, so I also need to know which BIOS version supports the 5800X3D and whether I should update it before installing the new processor.
4 Answers
This is likely the best single upgrade for your existing system. If the current frame drops are caused by CPU limitations, the 5800X3D should substantially improve the lows during busy scenes. If the price feels too high, there is no harm in waiting for a better deal, but moving to AM5 does not seem financially attractive when the memory alone costs so much.
The 5800X3D is probably the strongest drop-in gaming upgrade you can make on AM4, and it should help a lot with CPU-limited games such as League and CS2. At 1080p with an RTX 3070, the extra cache and stronger CPU performance should improve frame rates and reduce the bigger dips. €330 is expensive compared with its old pricing, but it can still make sense if switching to AM5 would require spending hundreds more on memory and a new platform. Make sure your cooler is adequate, since the chip can run fairly warm under heavy loads.
A cheaper option may be a Ryzen 5 5500X3D if you can find one at a sensible price. It is slower than the 5800X3D, but it should still deliver very high FPS in these games, potentially above 300 FPS in suitable settings. Using the savings to move from 16GB to 32GB of DDR4 could be a better overall upgrade, especially if you multitask or keep a lot of background applications open. The 5800X3D is faster, but its current premium may not be worthwhile for this particular use case.
For the MSI B550-A PRO, support for the 5800X3D starts with BIOS version 7C56vA9. Since your A.70 BIOS is from 2021, update the motherboard before replacing the CPU. The safest approach is to download the newest stable, non-beta BIOS available for the exact B550-A PRO model, flash it while the Ryzen 5 3600 is still installed, and then swap processors. Afterward, check that the memory profile is still running at DDR4-3600.
The cheaper X3D models seem difficult to find locally, though. Some listings from overseas are around €210 and feel risky, while a sale from within Europe brought one closer to €150.