I have a Ryzen 5 3600, GTX 1660 Super, 32GB of RAM, a B550M Mortar and a 650W Gold power supply. I want to play at 1440p with stable frame rates, even if that means low or medium settings.
A used 6700 XT looks to be around £220 to £250, and either CPU is roughly £150. My budget is about £350, though I can stretch it. I also do coding, light rendering and multitasking. Which upgrade makes more sense?
For gaming, the 5500X3D is the more tempting choice at a similar price. The extra cache can help in games that are sensitive to CPU performance, though the benefit will vary by game and settings.
The 5700X has eight cores, so it may be the better fit if your rendering or other work can use them. For coding and general multitasking, I'd weigh how much time you actually spend rendering against how much gaming performance matters to you. Check motherboard BIOS support for whichever chip you choose before buying.
I'd consider saving for a 9060 XT 16GB and keeping the Ryzen 3600 for now. That gives you a larger GPU upgrade first, and you can decide later whether the CPU is holding back the games you play.
The 3600 can still limit performance in some games, especially when chasing high frame rates. But for 1440p, putting more of the budget toward the graphics card is a reasonable option. The extra wait and price would be the tradeoff.
The 6700 XT and either CPU would already put you over £350 at those prices. If that stretch is uncomfortable, I'd get the 6700 XT first and try it with the 3600 rather than buying both parts at once.
You can lower settings as needed, then revisit the CPU if performance is still disappointing. When buying used, check the card's condition and what return options the seller offers.
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hexagon.please:
Keeping the current CPU also lets you see how the new card performs in your actual games before spending more on the processor.