Hey everyone! I'm looking for some guidance on upgrading my CPU. It's been a while since I've upgraded anything besides my GPU, which I replaced a year ago with an NVIDIA 4080. Now I'm facing a bottleneck while gaming, especially with Skyrim on my LG 5k2k monitor. I'm considering moving from my current setup to either a Ryzen 7 9800X3D or a Ryzen 9 9950X3D, and I have a few questions: 1. Which CPU would you recommend for my use case? 2. Is the main difference between the two models just the additional cores? 3. How reliable is PCPartPicker for compatibility issues? It keeps flagging that the CPUs are incompatible with my motherboard, memory, and cooler. Here's my build for reference: [PCPartPicker Link](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/hsqMYd)
3 Answers
Honestly, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D should serve you well for gaming. It's not slow at all, and for most games, it performs great. As for the 9950X3D, it's more suitable if you're planning to do heavy multi-tasking or productivity tasks alongside gaming, but it might not be necessary for your setup.
GPU prices skyrocketed during the pandemic because companies realized they could charge more when demand surged. As for CPU selection, you should consider the Ryzen 7 7800X3D instead, as it offers excellent value and performance, especially at 1440p and 4K. The differences between the 9800X3D and 9950X3D mainly lie in the number of cores, but gamer-focused performance may be similar. And regarding your motherboard compatibility, make sure your BIOS is updated to the latest version to avoid issues!
If you’re looking at making a big upgrade from a 5950X, you might have to rebuild with an AM5 setup. The 9800X3D is decent for gaming, just remember the bigger monitor might need a more powerful GPU. Just a thought—if you don’t need extreme multi-threading for your projects, the 9800X3D should be fine!
Thanks for the clarification! I appreciate the input on the BIOS updates too.