I'm in Brazil and deciding whether to upgrade to AM4 or AM5. Please consider local prices, since DDR5 is currently extremely expensive here.
My current PC has a Ryzen 5 4600G, A520M-E motherboard, 16GB of DDR4, and an RX 6600. I mainly use Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Blender, and ZBrush, along with gaming.
My AM5 option would be a Ryzen 7 7700, B650M motherboard, 32GB of DDR5, a new power supply and case, while keeping my RX 6600 for now. That build would cost about R$6,723.
The second option is an AM4 upgrade with a Ryzen 7 5700X, B550M motherboard, 32GB of DDR4, an RX 9060 XT 16GB, plus a new power supply and case, totaling around R$7,923.
The cheaper option is the same AM4 setup while keeping my RX 6600, which would cost about R$4,471.
The main issue is that 32GB of DDR5 alone costs more than R$3,000 here, while DDR4 is much cheaper. AM5 gives me a newer platform and a better upgrade path, but I could spend the savings from AM4 on a stronger GPU instead. I use the GPU for Blender rendering, although I'm not sure whether my overall Blender workload depends more on the CPU or GPU.
Which option would make the most sense for my software, gaming, and Brazilian prices?
5 Answers
If you want more performance immediately and the GPU is important for both gaming and Blender, the AM4 build with the RX 9060 XT makes more sense than spending thousands extra on DDR5. On the other hand, if the RX 6600 is meeting your needs, the cheapest route is to upgrade the CPU and memory first and keep the graphics card. You do not need integrated graphics because you already have a discrete GPU.
For Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, and ZBrush, having more RAM matters more than paying a huge premium for faster RAM. Since your DDR4 is still usable, a DDR4-based Core i5-14600K system could be worth considering. It generally performs very well in these applications and would let you add another 16GB instead of buying expensive DDR5. For Blender, also compare local prices for an RTX 3060 12GB; depending on availability, it may offer useful VRAM for less money than the newer GPU.
You may not need a full platform change yet. A Ryzen 5 5600X or another stronger Ryzen 5000 chip would be a straightforward upgrade from the 4600G, especially because the 4600G has less cache. Moving to 32GB of DDR4 could also help your creative applications. That would leave more money available for a future GPU upgrade.
The AM5 build is difficult to justify when DDR5 alone takes up nearly half the price of the system. The performance difference between DDR4 and DDR5 in many creative workloads is relatively small, so that money may have a much bigger impact when spent on the GPU. Since you render with the GPU, keeping the RX 6600 temporarily and upgrading later is also perfectly reasonable if it is still handling your games.
That’s my main dilemma. The RX 6600 is still fine for gaming, but a stronger GPU would help with Blender rendering. I’m trying to decide whether to buy the GPU now or keep the 6600 and upgrade once prices improve.
I would stay with DDR4 for now. Current prices make AM5 hard to recommend unless you specifically need its upgrade path or plan to keep the platform for several years. For your mix of Blender rendering and gaming, the GPU is likely to provide a more noticeable improvement than moving from DDR4 to expensive DDR5.
That option is starting to make more sense to me. Reusing my current DDR4 and putting the money saved from DDR5 toward the rest of the build seems more practical. I’m also going to check local pricing for the RTX 3060.