I'm currently using a Ryzen 5 3600 with a PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 7800 XT. Most games run well, but Control Resonant suffers from frequent drops to around 20 FPS regardless of graphics settings, so I suspect the CPU may be the bottleneck. Since I'm already on an AM4 motherboard, I'm considering a Ryzen 7 5800X3D as a drop-in upgrade. Is that the best gaming upgrade for roughly $350, or is there a better way to spend the money?
3 Answers
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is probably the best gaming CPU you can install without replacing your AM4 motherboard. It should be a substantial upgrade over the 3600 and is generally a better gaming choice than options like the 5800X or 5900X. Just update the motherboard BIOS before swapping CPUs, if necessary.
The 7800 XT is still a powerful graphics card, so upgrading the CPU makes sense. The 5800X3D would be the strongest choice around this budget and should improve frame-time consistency in CPU-limited games.
A 5800X3D could help, but drops to 20 FPS regardless of settings suggest you should investigate other causes first. Check whether the game is installed on an SSD, confirm you have enough RAM running in dual-channel mode, update the BIOS and drivers, and monitor CPU and GPU usage while the drops occur. If you only have one RAM stick, a cheaper CPU upgrade plus matching memory could be worth considering.
Related Questions
Lenovo Thinkpad Stuck In Update Loop Install FilterDriverU2_Reload