I'm using a Ryzen 5 5600X with an RTX 4080 Super, and Star Wars Zero Company stays around 50 FPS regardless of whether I use Low or Ultra settings or lower the resolution to 1080p. That makes me think the CPU may be holding the system back. I haven't followed recent CPU releases closely—what would be the best upgrade for this setup, either while staying on AM4 or by moving to a newer platform?
5 Answers
The 5800X3D is the highest-end gaming upgrade for your existing AM4 platform, while the 5700X3D is often the better value if you can find one at a reasonable price. Just make sure your motherboard supports the chip with an appropriate BIOS update and verify the actual bottleneck before spending money.
Zero Company appears to have optimization problems right now, and people with much newer X3D processors are also reporting poor performance. Since your FPS barely changes when lowering resolution, the CPU or game engine is probably involved, but a new processor may not completely fix it. It’s worth checking for patches or trying a reputable performance and stutter-reduction mod first.
Before buying anything, check CPU and GPU utilization, per-core CPU usage, temperatures, clock speeds, and RAM usage with tools such as MSI Afterburner and RTSS. A CPU bottleneck doesn’t always show as every CPU core reaching 100%, and thermal throttling or limited memory could also cause the problem.
If you’re ready to replace the motherboard and RAM too, a Ryzen 5 7600X or Ryzen 7 7700 with a B650 board and 32GB of DDR5 would be a sensible route. You can sell the 5600X, board, and DDR4 afterward to reduce the cost. A used newer-platform bundle can sometimes be better value than paying a premium for a 5800X3D.
If you want to keep your current AM4 motherboard and memory, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D or 5800X3D is the obvious upgrade. The extra cores and 3D V-Cache can help a lot in CPU-limited games, although the 5800X3D may be overpriced compared with moving to a newer platform.
The game’s listed requirements don’t necessarily tell the whole story. Even if a 5600X is above the official recommendation, bad optimization can still produce low and inconsistent FPS.