I recently upgraded my graphics card to an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and am considering replacing my Ryzen 5 5600X with either a Ryzen 7 5700X or Ryzen 9 5950X. I mainly use the system for gaming and video editing. Would either upgrade provide a noticeable improvement, or should I consider a different AM4 processor? I currently have a 650W 80+ Bronze power supply—should that also be upgraded?
4 Answers
The best choice depends heavily on the editing software and the tasks you perform. Many modern editors use GPU acceleration, so doubling the CPU core count may not improve every operation. If you regularly export, encode, or render with the CPU, the 5950X—or a less expensive 12- or 16-core AM4 option—could help. Otherwise, an X3D processor is likely the better all-around upgrade.
If gaming is the priority, an X3D chip is the more meaningful upgrade. A Ryzen 7 5700X3D or 5800X3D can improve CPU-limited gaming performance much more than a standard 5700X. The 5950X is better for heavily threaded editing and rendering, but it is usually not worth buying specifically for gaming.
For gaming, moving from the 5600X to a regular 5700X probably will not feel very different. The extra cores can help with multitasking and some editing workloads, but the gaming improvement is usually small. A 650W power supply should generally be enough for this graphics card and CPU as long as it is a decent-quality unit and is not unusually old.
Check your memory before replacing the processor. If you only have 16GB of RAM, upgrading to 32GB may help video editing and some games more than moving from the 5600X to a 5700X. Also verify that your motherboard BIOS supports whichever AM4 CPU you choose. There is usually no need to replace the 650W supply unless it is low quality, aging, or showing instability.
Would a 5700X3D be a better choice for a mix of gaming and video editing?