I've just bought an NVIDIA RTX 4070 SUPER and I'm wondering whether my Ryzen 5 5600G will hold it back. I mainly play Call of Duty and Valorant, with some GTA as well. My current setup has an MSI B550-A PRO motherboard, a Ryzen 5 5600G, and an MSI MAG A750GL PCIe 5 750W power supply. If a CPU upgrade makes sense, what would be the best option, and is there anything else I should upgrade or check?
3 Answers
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is probably the best gaming upgrade you can make while staying on AM4. Its extra 3D cache is especially useful for games, and it should pair very well with the 4070 SUPER. Your B550 board and 750W power supply are suitable; just update the BIOS before installing the new CPU and make sure you have a capable CPU cooler.
You may not need to replace the 5600G immediately. Try the 4070 SUPER with your current processor first, especially if you play at 1440p, where the graphics card does most of the work. Check your frame rates and whether the GPU is staying near full usage. If the CPU is limiting performance or causing poor minimum FPS, then upgrade later.
If you want a less expensive AM4 upgrade, the Ryzen 7 5700X is a sensible choice. The 5600X, 5700X, and 5800X are fairly close in many games, but the 5700X gives you eight cores without the higher power draw of the 5800X. The 5800X3D is the stronger gaming-focused choice if your budget allows it.
One thing to remember is that the 5600G only supports PCIe 3.0, while the other suggested CPUs support PCIe 4.0. The performance difference with a 4070 SUPER is usually small, but moving to a newer AM4 CPU also removes that limitation.
I have some money saved for this, so I’m mainly interested in getting the best option that makes sense for the rest of the system.