I'm considering a CPU upgrade because my Ryzen 5 5500 is frequently reaching nearly 100% usage while gaming and multistreaming. My system has a Radeon RX 6600, 48GB of DDR4-3200 memory, an Asus Prime B550-Plus motherboard, an EVGA 600W 80+ power supply, and a 1080p 180Hz monitor. I typically run a game such as Marvel Rivals or Helldivers 2 alongside OBS with Aitum Multistream, Social Stream Ninja, several browser tabs for stream sources, and Discord. I'd like to expand from Twitch, YouTube, and YouTube Shorts to additional platforms, but the heavier games currently suffer from bottlenecking. I'm looking at the Ryzen 9 5900X, 5900XT, or 5950X, but I'm wondering whether those chips are excessive. Would a Ryzen 7 be a better choice, or is it worth buying the fastest practical AM4 processor for this system?
3 Answers
A 5900X or 5950X can help if you specifically need CPU encoding or other productivity workloads, but they are probably more than this setup needs for gaming and streaming. With an RX 6600 and a 600W power supply, I’d first optimize OBS, use hardware encoding, and monitor whether the CPU, GPU, or encoder is actually overloaded. If the CPU remains the bottleneck afterward, the 5700X3D or 5800X3D is the more sensible AM4 upgrade.
Before buying anything, check OBS’s encoder setting. If it is using x264, the CPU will naturally stay close to 100% while streaming. Try AMD’s hardware encoder on the RX 6600 first. That may solve the problem without a CPU upgrade. If the GPU then reaches full usage or OBS reports encoder overload, the RX 6600 becomes the limiting part instead. Multistreaming also adds extra load, so settings and output resolution can make a big difference.
For gaming on AM4, a Ryzen 7 5700X3D or 5800X3D is usually a better upgrade than a Ryzen 9. The extra cache helps game performance and frame consistency, while the 5900X, 5900XT, and 5950X mainly offer more cores for heavily threaded work such as rendering or CPU-based encoding. The 5700X3D is generally the value pick if you can find one, and you should update the motherboard BIOS before installing it.
The 5800X3D is also a good option if its price is close to the 5700X3D, but neither chip will fully fix things if OBS is still configured for CPU encoding.