My current PC has an RX 6750 XT, a Ryzen 5 5600, 32 GB of RAM, and a 1080p 144 Hz monitor. A Ryzen 7 5800X3D costs nearly three times what I paid for my 5600 where I live. Would the upgrade provide a meaningful improvement, particularly for heavily modded Skyrim or Total War, or would I be better off keeping my current CPU? I also use the computer for browser-based work and code editing, but I doubt those workloads need a faster processor.
3 Answers
The 5800X3D makes the most sense for games that are strongly CPU-bound, such as large Total War battles or heavily modded Skyrim with lots of scripts and NPCs. Even then, check your frame-time graphs and CPU/GPU usage first. If the 5600 is already delivering the performance you want, the money would likely be better saved for a future platform upgrade.
For general use and most games, the 5600 is still a good match for the RX 6750 XT and probably won't hold the graphics card back. The 5800X3D can help in CPU-heavy situations, but at nearly three times the price, the performance gain probably isn't large enough to justify replacing the 5600 right now.
It depends on the games and settings, but this is more like replacing a normal highway car with an off-road vehicle when you mostly drive on paved roads. The 5800X3D is faster and has a larger cache, but the improvement may not be noticeable enough at 1080p unless you're specifically running into CPU limits or targeting very high frame rates.
It would also use somewhat more power, so the upgrade has an ongoing cost as well as the purchase price.
My work is mostly browser-based and code editing, so that part shouldn't matter. The games I care about most are heavily modded Skyrim and Total War, where I assume the extra CPU performance could be more useful.