I built a new gaming PC last month and expected it to handle 1440p gaming well, but performance in Mafia: The Old Country felt lower than expected and the image quality seemed disappointing. My system is a Ryzen 7 9700X, Gigabyte X670 Aorus motherboard, Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT 16GB, 16GB of borrowed DDR5-5600 CL36 RAM in a single stick, an ADATA Legend 960 1TB NVMe SSD, Corsair RM850e 850W PSU, DeepCool AK400 cooler, and a Circle Curve BTF case. The purchased components cost about ₹121,800. I plan to replace the temporary RAM with a 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30 kit later. I mainly want feedback on whether the overall build is balanced and what kind of 1440p performance I should realistically expect over the next few years. Should I have spent less on the CPU and chosen a faster GPU such as an RX 9070 XT instead?
4 Answers
The most important hardware change is replacing the single 16GB stick as soon as possible. One RAM module means single-channel memory, which can hurt minimum FPS and cause more noticeable stutter. Get a matched 2x16GB DDR5-6000 CL30 kit, enable the memory profile in the BIOS, and make sure the GPU is connected to the monitor. The 850W PSU is more than adequate, and the cooler and SSD are fine for this system.
Your expectations should be based on the GPU rather than the CPU. You can use the same visual settings as a higher-end card, but the higher-end card will render them faster. For consistently high 1440p frame rates over the next three years, a stronger GPU would have been the better place to spend extra money; otherwise, keep this card and plan to upgrade it later.
That game is an unusually demanding test. Even much faster graphics cards struggle at native 1440p with epic settings, so one game does not necessarily mean the build is faulty. Check the actual GPU usage, temperatures, clocks, and frame-time graph, and try lowering a few settings or adjusting FSR if you want smoother performance. Your card can still deliver good 1440p results, but ultra settings and a high refresh-rate target will require compromises.
The build is fine, but the Ryzen 7 9700X is stronger than necessary for this graphics card and resolution. For a 1440p-focused system, a cheaper CPU could have freed up money for a faster GPU. The RX 9060 XT 16GB is more of an entry-level 1440p card: around 60 FPS at sensible settings is realistic, while 100–120 FPS at high or ultra settings in demanding new games is not guaranteed. A future GPU upgrade makes sense if prices improve, but there is no immediate defect in the rest of the build.
I was hoping GPU prices would settle down later so I could upgrade to something like a 5070 Ti or 5080 in a few years, but the current prices may be the new normal.
I was using ultra settings with FSR 4 on quality, but the image still stuttered around the character. It sounds like the game is simply very GPU-intensive.