My current system has a Ryzen 9 3900X, 32GB of DDR4-2666 memory, and a Radeon RX 7600 XT. I'd like to connect the PC to my TV and play single-player games such as Dawnwalker, Lies of P, Elden Ring, Resident Evil Requiem, and eventually Silent Hill Townfall at around 4K and 60 FPS. I'm mainly considering a GPU upgrade right now, though I may upgrade the rest of the system later. What graphics card would be a good fit, and would my current CPU hold it back significantly? I'm also fine with using upscaling when necessary.
4 Answers
The Radeon RX 9070 XT is probably the strongest value-oriented choice to look at, with the RX 9070 as a slightly cheaper alternative. Native 4K at 60 FPS depends heavily on the game and quality settings, so upscaling will still be useful, but either card should be a major improvement over your current GPU. The graphics card is the part worth upgrading first.
I’d start with the GPU and consider a Ryzen 7 5700X3D later. It’s a very strong gaming processor for the AM4 platform and could improve frame rates and frame-time consistency, especially if the new GPU is being held back by the 3900X. Your 32GB of RAM should be enough for gaming. Since you also do game development and video editing, keeping the 3900X for now is reasonable because its extra cores can still be useful for productivity.
That makes sense. I’ve read that the 5700X3D is much better specifically for gaming, but I also use the PC for development and video editing. Would upgrading to it still be worthwhile later, or would I lose too much productivity performance?
Moving straight to a new AM5 platform with a modern gaming CPU and a card such as the RX 9070 XT or RTX 5070 Ti would provide a more balanced long-term system. However, that means replacing the motherboard, memory, and processor as well as the graphics card. If you can only afford one component now, upgrade the GPU first and revisit the platform later.
If you’re trying to stay within a reasonable budget, the RX 9070 XT is a good place to start and is often considered a strong value for high-end 1440p and 4K gaming. It should handle high or ultra settings in many games, although demanding titles may still require upscaling or adjusted settings. Your current processor may limit performance in some CPU-heavy games, but it shouldn’t make a GPU upgrade pointless.
Upscaling won’t be a problem for me. With the 9070 XT, would I generally be rendering closer to 1080p or 1440p and then upscaling to 4K?