My current PC has a B450 Tomahawk motherboard, Ryzen 7 2700X, RTX 2070 Super, 16GB of DDR4-2400 memory, a 2TB T-Force SSD, and a Cooler Master MWE 750W Silver power supply. I play at 1440p and 60Hz, but some games are dropping to uncomfortably low frame rates. I found a good deal on a Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB and am considering pairing it with either a Ryzen 5 5600X or Ryzen 7 5700X. Would it make more sense to upgrade the CPU and GPU on this platform, or keep the SSD and build an entirely new system?
4 Answers
For gaming, a Ryzen 5 5600X is already a worthwhile jump from the 2700X, particularly for 1% lows and reducing stutter. The 5700X is more useful if you also run demanding applications or want extra multitasking headroom. If you can find a Ryzen 7 5700X3D at a reasonable price, that would be the strongest gaming upgrade available for this motherboard.
There is no urgent reason to replace the B450 board, SSD, or power supply. The 750W unit should be adequate as long as it is healthy and has the required power connectors. Your DDR4-2400 memory is fairly slow, though, so moving to 3200MHz or 3600MHz memory later could help. Ideally, use 32GB if newer games are pushing past 16GB.
You can definitely keep the motherboard. Upgrade the CPU and GPU rather than starting over. A Ryzen 5 5600X would be a solid minimum, while a 5700X gives you two more cores and is the better choice if the price difference is small. Check that your motherboard BIOS supports the new processor before swapping it in.
If the RX 9060 XT is genuinely a great deal, buy the GPU first. The 2700X will hold it back in some games, especially for frame-time consistency, but you can replace the CPU shortly afterward. At 1440p, the new GPU should still provide a substantial improvement over the 2070 Super.
A CPU upgrade first would make the current GPU feel smoother, but it will not raise average frame rates as much as the newer graphics card. The best order depends mostly on whether that GPU deal is temporary.