I'm looking to upgrade my PC after several years because newer games are becoming difficult to run. My current system has a Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite motherboard, Ryzen 5 3600, Gigabyte GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 16GB DDR4-3200 memory, Corsair CX550M power supply, Phanteks Eclipse P300 case, a 480GB Crucial BX500 SATA SSD, and a 1TB hard drive.
The main use will be gaming, particularly newer releases, along with emulation—especially PlayStation 3 titles, where my current system struggles. My budget is around €1,250, though I could spend up to €1,500 if I sell my existing components. I'm open to replacing everything, but keeping compatible parts would be helpful if that makes sense. What upgrades or complete build would offer the best value in Portugal?
2 Answers
The Ryzen 5 3600 is still usable, so I’d prioritize the graphics card rather than replacing the whole platform immediately. A modern card such as a Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB would be a substantial upgrade over the GTX 1660 Ti and would also provide newer upscaling and rendering features. After upgrading the GPU, check whether the CPU is actually limiting performance before replacing it.
You may also want a newer power supply to handle modern GPU power spikes. A quality 650W 80+ Gold unit would be a sensible choice. The existing BX500 SSD is fine if you have enough space, so an NVMe drive is optional rather than essential. If you keep the P300 case, make sure it has enough case fans for good airflow. A budget upgrade could include an inexpensive CPU cooler, a second 16GB DDR4 kit for 32GB total, a 1TB NVMe SSD, the new GPU, power supply, and several case fans for roughly €950–€1,000, leaving room in the budget for further upgrades.
A complete parts list around €1,300 can also make sense if you want a fresh system. Focus most of the budget on the GPU, use 32GB of memory, and choose a reliable modern power supply. The motherboard, case, and existing SATA SSD can potentially be reused to reduce costs, but the current CPU should only be replaced if testing shows it is holding back performance—especially at the resolution and frame rate you’re targeting.
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