I upgraded from a GTX 1660 to a Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB, along with a Corsair CX650 power supply and 32GB of RAM. The memory is currently a mixed 8GB + 8GB + 16GB setup and is not running in an ideal dual-channel configuration, but I plan to address that later. My system uses a B450M motherboard.
My main concern is whether the Ryzen 5 3600 will noticeably hold back the new graphics card. I mostly play CPU-heavy or demanding games such as Throne and Liberty, Aion 2, Sons of the Forest, and No Man's Sky, and I'm also thinking about future games like GTA 6. Will the processor be good enough for now, or should I plan a CPU upgrade?
3 Answers
There is no need to rush an upgrade. Future games such as GTA 6 may be much more demanding on the CPU, but performance requirements and the eventual PC version are not known yet. See how your current games perform first, then upgrade if you experience poor minimum FPS or stuttering. Also, make sure the BIOS is current and configure the RAM in a more balanced dual-channel arrangement when possible. PCIe 3.0 may cost a small amount of performance in some cases, but it should not make the new card unsuitable.
The answer depends heavily on resolution, settings, and the game. At 1440p, the graphics card will usually be the limiting component, while 1080p with a high refresh rate is more likely to expose the Ryzen 5 3600’s limits. Your B450 platform gives you a reasonable upgrade path later, potentially to a Ryzen 7 5700X3D or another compatible gaming-focused processor, assuming the motherboard BIOS supports it.
It will bottleneck the GPU in some situations, especially at 1080p and in CPU-heavy games, but it is not a serious problem right now. You may see something like 130 FPS instead of 200 FPS in a processor-limited game, while GPU-heavy games should use the RX 9060 XT much more fully. It is still a major upgrade over the GTX 1660, so I would test your actual games before replacing the CPU.
Some demanding games can still become CPU-limited at 1440p, so resolution does not completely eliminate the issue. It is better to monitor GPU usage, frame times, and CPU utilization rather than rely on a general bottleneck percentage.