I used a Ryzen 5 5600X with an RTX 2060 Super for several years, then recently upgraded to a 16GB Radeon RX 9060 XT. I mainly play Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p and usually average around 120–140 FPS, but performance drops to roughly 60–70 FPS in dense city areas. I have already purchased a B850M motherboard and DDR5 memory, and I'm considering a Ryzen 7 9800X3D because the poor 1% lows may be caused by my CPU. I'm not planning to replace my monitor because I also play Apex Legends. Would moving to the 9800X3D provide a noticeable improvement in average FPS and especially 1% lows at 1080p?
4 Answers
The 9800X3D is one of the strongest gaming CPUs available, but it is probably more CPU than an RX 9060 XT needs. A 7800X3D or possibly a 9600X would likely deliver very similar results with this graphics card. The money might be better spent moving up to a faster GPU if you want higher settings or eventually plan to use 1440p.
Since you already bought the AM5 motherboard and DDR5, using the 9800X3D is a reasonable upgrade and should make the system feel much smoother. Just keep in mind that the improvement will be largest when you are CPU-limited; in GPU-limited scenes, average FPS will barely change.
If you had not bought the new board and memory, keeping the old platform and installing a Ryzen 7 5800X3D would be a cheaper route with a big gaming boost. That option only makes sense if you return the AM5 parts, though, since the 5800X3D uses a different socket. Also check your Cyberpunk settings, ray tracing, upscaling, and background processes before spending a lot, because those can affect city-area performance too.
You should see a substantial improvement in CPU-heavy situations, especially in dense Cyberpunk areas and games like Apex. At 1080p, the processor has more influence, and the extra cache on an X3D chip can make frame times and 1% lows much smoother.
Since the B850M and DDR5 are already purchased, switching back to an older platform would probably erase much of the savings. A less expensive AM5 CPU or a stronger GPU may be the better comparison now.