I'm planning my first major upgrade and would like advice on whether to make a few targeted improvements or replace most of my system. My current build is a Ryzen 5 3600, GTX 1660 SUPER, MSI B450 Tomahawk Max, 16GB DDR4, a 250GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, and a 650W power supply. I mainly play at 1080p, although I sometimes need to lower settings depending on the game. My total budget is about $1,500, but I'm not in a rush and would rather not spend all of it unnecessarily. My main priorities are increasing the RAM and storage. I was considering a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, an AM5 motherboard, 32GB DDR5, and a 2TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD while keeping my current graphics card and power supply. Would moving to AM5 make sense mainly for the newer memory and additional storage options, or should I simply upgrade to 32GB of DDR4 and add a larger SSD? If I stay on AM4, would a faster CPU or graphics card be worthwhile?
3 Answers
For the simplest and most cost-effective route, buy a 2TB NVMe SSD and move to 32GB of RAM. You can use either two additional 8GB sticks or replace the existing kit with two 16GB sticks if your board has compatibility issues with four modules. If you want a CPU upgrade, look at the Ryzen 5600 for a budget option or the 5700X3D for a substantial AM4 gaming upgrade. I would skip the 9800X3D unless you are also planning to buy a much faster graphics card. PCIe 5.0 storage is not necessary for gaming, so a good PCIe 4.0 drive is usually the better value.
Your proposed parts would be extremely unbalanced because the 9800X3D is far more CPU than a GTX 1660 SUPER needs. For 1080p gaming, the graphics card is likely to be the biggest limitation, so I’d prioritize a modern GPU rather than spending heavily on an expensive AM5 motherboard and flagship processor. A Ryzen 5 7500F or Ryzen 5 9600X would already be plenty for a new AM5 build. Also, you don’t need to spend a lot on a motherboard unless you specifically need its features or connectivity.
AM4 is still a perfectly usable platform, especially if you want to save money. Start with 32GB of DDR4 and a 2TB NVMe SSD, then put the remaining budget toward a much newer graphics card. Depending on current prices, an RTX 3060/4060-class card or a comparable Radeon model would be a much more noticeable gaming upgrade. You could upgrade the CPU later if your games need it; a 5700X3D or 5800X3D would be strong drop-in options, though the 5700X3D is usually the better value.
The motherboard choice was mainly because my current board doesn’t support DDR5 and only has room for one M.2 drive. I understand the concern about spending too much on the board, though.