I'm planning a new gaming PC with a Radeon 9070 XT. I'll be using Linux and don't care much about ray tracing. I mainly play single-player games, but I also play Team Fortress 2 and would like enough performance for games such as Counter-Strike 2. My total budget is about €2,000, and I can reuse an SSD and power supply from my old system.
My brother has some DDR4 memory available, so I'm considering a Ryzen 5900X with an AM4 motherboard to save money. The alternative is moving to the AM5 platform with a Ryzen 7800X3D and DDR5, which would cost roughly €300–€400 more for the memory and platform. Is the extra gaming performance and upgrade path worth that additional cost, or would the DDR4 setup make more sense for my budget? I'm in Ireland.
4 Answers
If saving money is the priority, use the existing DDR4 but consider a gaming-focused X3D chip rather than the 5900X. A 5800X3D, or another compatible AM4 X3D processor available at a good price, would generally be preferable for gaming. Just keep in mind that AM4 has essentially no meaningful CPU upgrade path afterward.
The AM5 setup is the stronger long-term choice, especially with a powerful GPU like the 9070 XT. The extra cost gets you faster gaming performance now and a platform that can accept newer processors later. With your budget, it should be possible if the reused parts are still suitable.
The real comparison is the performance gain versus the cost of the DDR5 platform. A 7800X3D can be noticeably faster than an AM4 X3D chip, especially in CPU-limited games such as competitive shooters, but the difference may be less important in visually demanding single-player games where the GPU is doing most of the work. If the extra €300–€400 forces compromises elsewhere, the cheaper AM4 build is still perfectly reasonable.
For a primarily gaming-focused build, I’d choose the 7800X3D with DDR5 if it fits comfortably within your €2,000 budget. The 5900X is still capable, but it’s more of a general-purpose and productivity CPU, while the 7800X3D is substantially better suited to high-refresh gaming. AM5 also gives you a much better future upgrade path.
I’m not too worried about the CPU price itself; I’m mainly hesitant to spend several hundred euros on RAM when DDR4 is available cheaply or even free.