My husband says my gaming PC is outdated, so I'm trying to figure out where it stands. The system has a Ryzen 5 3400G, 16GB of DDR4-2444 memory, and a 512GB PCIe Gen 3 NVMe M.2 SSD. It doesn't currently have a dedicated graphics card. I'd like to play Forza Horizon at high settings in 1080p. Would this be considered entry-level, or should I upgrade something first?
4 Answers
It depends on what you use it for. As an office, school, or general web PC, it’s perfectly usable. For gaming, though, the 3400G’s integrated graphics are quite limited, especially for newer games and high 1080p settings. A dedicated graphics card would make the biggest difference.
For gaming, I’d call it low-end or slightly below entry-level. The Ryzen 5 3400G is an older four-core APU, and the relatively slow DDR4 memory also limits the integrated graphics. It may run lighter games, but Forza Horizon at high settings in 1080p is probably unrealistic without a dedicated GPU.
The platform may still have upgrade options. Depending on the motherboard and BIOS support, you could move to a stronger AM4 processor such as a Ryzen 5 5600 or Ryzen 7 5700G, although a dedicated GPU is still the priority for gaming. Check the motherboard model before buying a CPU.
It wasn’t a high-end build even when it was released, but that doesn’t mean it’s useless or ‘cooked.’ Keep it if it handles your everyday tasks well, and upgrade gradually if gaming performance is the problem. For your target of high settings at 1080p, start with the graphics card, then consider the CPU if needed.
A graphics card doesn’t have to be new or extremely expensive. A sensible used card could provide a much larger gaming boost than replacing the whole PC.