I recently upgraded from a GTX 1060 3GB to an RX 9060 XT 16GB, but I'm still using a Ryzen 5 1600 and a 1TB hard drive. With a limited budget, which upgrade would make the biggest difference first: replacing the HDD with an SSD or upgrading the CPU? I'm mainly concerned about avoiding the biggest performance bottleneck and making the system feel faster overall.
3 Answers
Upgrade the HDD to an SSD first. It will make Windows, game loading, multitasking, and general use feel dramatically more responsive for relatively little money. A used SSD with good health or an affordable 1TB NVMe drive would be worth considering.
For the processor, a Ryzen 5 5600 would be a sensible upgrade if your motherboard supports it after a BIOS update. It should pair much better with the new graphics card than the Ryzen 5 1600. Still, an SSD is usually the biggest quality-of-life upgrade, so choose the CPU first only if you’re seeing clear CPU-related frame-rate limits.
I’ve heard the Ryzen 5 5600 is a good option too. The 3600X isn’t available where I live, so I’ll compare local prices for the 5600 against an SSD.
The better choice depends on how you use the PC. If you mainly play one game and your frame rates are limited by the processor, upgrade the CPU first. If you switch between programs, play large modern games, or want the whole system to feel snappier, the SSD will provide the more noticeable improvement.
That seems to be the general recommendation, so I’ll probably start there. SSD prices are unfortunately much higher than they used to be, though.