I'm putting together a budget gaming PC for about $1,350 CAD (roughly $1,000 USD) and I'm deciding between two CPU and GPU combinations. The first is a Ryzen 5 5500 with an RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, while the second is a Ryzen 5 5600 or 5600X with an RTX 5060. I'll mainly be playing at 1080p and want consistently decent to high frame rates.
The current prices are about $125 CAD for the Ryzen 5 5500, $215 CAD for the Ryzen 5 5600/5600X, $560 CAD for the RTX 5060, and $610 CAD for the RTX 5060 Ti. I've heard that the Ryzen 5 5500 may bottleneck the 5060 Ti noticeably at 1080p, while the 5600X paired with the RTX 5060 should have minimal bottlenecking. Which combination makes more sense for this build?
The rest of the parts are an MSI B550M Pro-VDH WiFi motherboard, Patriot Viper Steel 3200MHz CL16 memory, and an MSI MAG A650BN power supply.
2 Answers
You could also look into a Ryzen 5 5500X3D if it’s genuinely available for around $150 USD. Its extra 3D V-Cache can give it much better gaming performance than the regular 5500 and sometimes better results than a 5600X. Just be careful buying from marketplace sellers, and verify the seller, return policy, and compatibility before relying on that option.
For 1080p, the Ryzen 5 5600 or 5600X paired with the RTX 5060 is probably the more balanced choice. The 5500 has fewer CPU resources and less cache, so it can limit frame rates in CPU-heavy games, especially if you’re aiming for very high refresh rates. That said, a bottleneck isn’t automatically a problem—the 5500 and 5060 Ti combination can still perform well, and the stronger GPU may be preferable in graphically demanding games. The 8GB of VRAM on the Ti is worth keeping in mind as well.
The prices are accurate for me: I found an RTX 5060 for about $560 CAD and an RTX 5060 Ti for about $610 CAD from Canadian retailers.