I built a PC with a Ryzen 7 3700X and Radeon RX 6700 XT a few years ago, and I later upgraded to 32 GB of RAM. I found a Ryzen 5 5500X3D for $130 from a seller who has provided proof that it is legitimate. Since I mainly play games at 1080p, would this be a worthwhile upgrade, or should I keep using my 3700X? I may also upgrade to a Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB later, so I plan to stay on my current AM4 platform for now rather than move to AM5 and DDR5.
4 Answers
You could save for a higher-end AM4 or AM5 processor, but that is not necessary for this use case. At $130, the 5500X3D is a good drop-in upgrade for a gaming-focused system, particularly if you are planning to keep the AM4 platform through your next GPU upgrade.
For gaming, especially at 1080p, it should be a very noticeable upgrade. The extra 3D V-Cache and newer architecture can improve average and 1% low frame rates, and $130 is a strong price if the chip is genuine and working properly.
The upgrade is mainly worthwhile for games. If you use the PC for heavily threaded work or multitasking, the 3700X's eight cores may still have advantages, but for gaming the 5500X3D should be substantially better. A 5600X3D could also be worth considering if one is available locally for only a little more.
It makes sense if you want to keep your current motherboard and RAM. Moving to AM5 would also require DDR5 and probably a new motherboard, so the 5500X3D is a much cheaper way to extend the life of your system. Just update the motherboard BIOS before swapping CPUs.
That is exactly why I am leaning toward it. I would rather put the money toward the graphics card instead of replacing the whole platform right now.