I built this PC in 2020 and am considering a couple of upgrades. I mostly play games casually on weekends, but I recently bought Cyberpunk 2077 and would like the best experience I can get without replacing the whole system. My current build has a Ryzen 7 3800X, Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE WIFI motherboard with BIOS version F11, 16GB of DDR4-2666 RAM, an RTX 3080, an AIO cooler, and a 60Hz G-SYNC-compatible display. I'm looking at a Ryzen 7 5800X3D for $349 and a 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3600 kit for about $260. Are these good investments, and is there anything else I should consider first?
3 Answers
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is probably the best gaming upgrade available for your AM4 platform. It should work with your X570 motherboard after a BIOS update, so check the CPU support list and update the BIOS before swapping processors. Your RTX 3080 is still a strong gaming card, especially if you are playing at 1440p.
With an RTX 3080 and a 60Hz monitor, you may notice more benefit from a higher-refresh display than from immediately replacing every component. The 5800X3D is still a worthwhile upgrade if you want better minimum frame rates in CPU-heavy games, but at 60Hz your current 3800X may already be adequate for many titles. For Cyberpunk, check your GPU settings and consider a 1440p high-refresh monitor if your budget allows.
Upgrading to 32GB makes sense, but that RAM price is far too high. You can usually find a 32GB kit rated around 3200 or 3600 MT/s for much less. Your current 16GB DDR4-2666 kit is slow by Ryzen standards, though it may not be an urgent problem unless you are running out of memory or seeing stuttering.
There isn’t a specific problem with my current RAM. A friend suggested I needed more, but I’ll compare prices and look at reasonably priced 32GB kits instead.