I'm currently using an Intel Core i5-9400F on an LGA 1151 motherboard with an RTX 2060. I have around $200–250 available for an upgrade and live in Poland, so used-market pricing may be different. Should I replace only the CPU, or would switching platforms give me better performance for the money?
4 Answers
The fastest drop-in option for LGA 1151 would generally be a used i9-9900K, assuming your motherboard BIOS supports it and its power delivery and cooling are adequate. However, those chips can be expensive enough that moving to a newer platform makes more sense.
I’d seriously consider upgrading the graphics card instead of the processor. A used RX 6700 XT can sometimes fit within this budget, and that would usually be a bigger gaming upgrade than moving from the 9400F to a Ryzen 5 5600. A faster card such as an RX 6800 XT could also be considered if you find one at a good used price, but check your power supply first.
If you want to keep your current DDR4 memory, a platform change could be worthwhile. A used AM4 board with a Ryzen 5 5600 is one option, while a new i5-12400F with an H610 DDR4 board may also fit the budget. Both would be solid pairings for an RTX 2060, though the improvement over the 9400F may not be huge in every game.
Before choosing a CPU, check the exact motherboard model, power supply, cooler, RAM, monitor resolution, and the games you play. If your main goal is higher gaming performance, the RTX 2060 may be the limiting component more often than the 9400F, so a GPU upgrade could provide a more noticeable improvement.
The jump from the 9400F to a Ryzen 5 5600 isn’t massive, so I’d compare prices carefully before buying a whole new platform.