I've recently gotten back into gaming on my old PC, but the performance in modern games is quite poor. I'm considering upgrading my GPU to improve my experience. Currently, I have a Ryzen 5 2600 CPU, a GTX 1060 GPU, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and a B350 Tomahawk motherboard. I'm looking at the RTX 5060, which costs around 340€, but the 5060 Ti with 16GB is over 480€, which is more than I want to spend. I don't game excessively, so I'm not in a rush to upgrade if there are potential better options down the line. My question is, will upgrading just the GPU be enough, or am I likely to hit a bottleneck with my CPU or other components?
3 Answers
Using a hardware monitor could help you determine where the bottleneck is. If your GPU utilization hits 99%, a GPU upgrade will definitely boost performance. But if it’s below 90%, you’d need a CPU upgrade to really see improvements. If it’s somewhere in between, then upgrading both could be beneficial.
Since you're running on PCIe 3.0, keep in mind that some current 8GB GPUs might not perform their best with it. You should look into options like the B550 motherboard and GPUs like the RX 7700XT or 9060XT 16GB. Those could give you decent performance without breaking the bank.
Your CPU will definitely hold you back if you go for a high-end GPU. I'd suggest at least updating the BIOS and considering a Ryzen 5600 for a better balance.
So if my GPU is only at 95% utilization, I should look at the CPU first? That sounds tricky!