My RTX 3070 failed, so I replaced it with a Radeon 9070. I'm currently using a Ryzen 5 5600X with 32GB of DDR4 memory and gaming at 1440p. I have some budget left, but not enough to upgrade both the CPU and memory platform. Would moving to a Ryzen 7 5800X provide a noticeable improvement, or should I keep the 5600X and save for a different upgrade?
4 Answers
For gaming, the regular 5800X is usually not worth the money. The 5600X and 5800X have very similar performance in most games, and the extra cores mainly help with heavily threaded productivity work. At 1440p, your new GPU will usually be the limiting factor anyway.
A regular 5800X would offer only a small improvement, and some games may show virtually no change. The 5600X is still a capable gaming CPU, especially at 1440p, so I’d avoid upgrading unless you’re seeing clear CPU limits in the games you play.
I’d keep the 32GB of DDR4 rather than replacing it with 16GB of DDR5. Switching to DDR5 means buying a new motherboard too, and dropping to 16GB is not a great trade for gaming. Save for a complete platform upgrade later, or put the money toward an X3D chip if you find one at a good price.
If you want to maximize the AM4 platform for gaming, look at an X3D processor such as a 5700X3D or 5800X3D. The extra cache can make a meaningful difference in CPU-limited games, unlike the standard 5800X. Otherwise, just install the 9070 and see how the system performs before spending more.
I already have 32GB of DDR4, so I was wondering whether moving to 16GB of DDR5 would be worthwhile. It sounds like keeping the current memory makes more sense for now.