My current gaming PC has a Ryzen 7 5800X, 32GB of DDR4 memory, and an RTX 5070 Ti. I bought the graphics card several months ago, expecting the 5800X to keep up, but newer games such as Battlefield 6 are showing the CPU at nearly 100% usage while the GPU sits around 40–70%. At 1440p ultra settings, I'm getting roughly 80–100 FPS.
The CPU reaches about 80°C during all-core loads and stays above 4.6GHz. I'm using an NZXT Kraken 360, have the memory profile enabled at 3200MT/s, and haven't changed PBO. I previously applied a light undervolt because temperatures approached 90°C. Background CPU usage appears normal.
I can now afford to spend around £800–£1,000 on a platform upgrade, but I'd rather avoid wasting money if the 5800X can be tuned or replaced more cheaply. Should I upgrade, and if so, what CPU, motherboard, and reasonably priced DDR5 memory would make sense?
2 Answers
If you want a substantial upgrade and plan to keep the machine for several years, a modern AM5 gaming CPU paired with 32GB of DDR5-6000 is the sensible route. A midrange B650 or newer equivalent board should be enough; you don’t need an expensive enthusiast motherboard. A current X3D processor is ideal for high-refresh gaming, but choose based on UK pricing and availability rather than spending the entire £1,000 by default.
Before buying, confirm that the CPU bottleneck is consistent across several games and check the 1% lows. At 1440p ultra, some games will still be GPU-limited, while poorly optimized or highly simulation-heavy games can pin the CPU even with a powerful graphics card.
The 5800X is still a capable processor, so I’d investigate the game and system settings before immediately replacing the whole platform. Check whether the game’s thread or worker-count setting is configured correctly, confirm that the GPU is installed in the motherboard’s top PCIe slot, and look at per-core CPU usage rather than only the overall percentage.
Your temperatures and clock speed don’t suggest thermal throttling. You can also try enabling PBO with a sensible curve optimizer undervolt, although the improvement may be modest. Since your memory is running at 3200MT/s, tuning it to 3600MT/s with suitable timings could help minimum FPS if your kit and motherboard can handle it.
The memory profile terminology is usually XMP on this AM4 system rather than EXPO. Either way, 3200MT/s is normal for the 5800X, while 3600MT/s can offer a small improvement when stable.