I built this PC about five years ago and it has started struggling with newer games. The current specs are a Ryzen 5 1600, 16GB DDR4 RAM, a GeForce GTX 1660 Super, an ASRock B450M Pro4 motherboard, a 500GB SSD, and a 2TB hard drive. My monitor runs at 74Hz. I'm getting around 45 FPS in Deadlock, and I'd like to be ready for games such as Dawnwalker and Total War 40k when they release. My upgrade budget is roughly $350, while a completely new build would be around $800. Would replacing the CPU and GPU be enough to keep this system going, or would a new build make more sense?
4 Answers
An upgrade should be enough. A Ryzen 5 5600 paired with a Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB would provide a major improvement without replacing the whole platform. Check whether your motherboard needs a BIOS update first, and verify that your power supply has enough wattage and the right connectors.
If you can stretch the budget, an X3D processor such as the Ryzen 5 5500X3D or 5600X3D would be especially helpful in CPU-heavy games. With about $350, though, a used Ryzen 5 5600 and a used RTX 3000- or RX 6000-series graphics card may offer the best value.
A new build makes more sense only if you want a much larger performance jump or your power supply and other components are outdated. For an $800 budget, a new system could be worthwhile, but your B450 board and DDR4 memory still give you a relatively inexpensive upgrade path. Plan to move to 32GB of RAM eventually, since newer games are increasingly demanding.
Don’t choose the parts without checking the power supply. A high-end card such as an RX 9070 XT or RTX 5070 Ti may require a PSU upgrade, and those cards would also be excessive for a $350 upgrade budget. If the total cost gets too high, compare it with a used gaming PC and see which offers better value.
Related Questions
Lenovo Thinkpad Stuck In Update Loop Install FilterDriverU2_Reload