Hey everyone! I'm a newbie looking to upgrade my gaming PC for the first time, and I could really use some advice. I'm planning to swap my Intel i5 9400F for an i7 8700, and I'm also looking to upgrade my RTX 2060 to a 5060 Ti with 16GB of RAM. I've checked the compatibility of the parts on pcpartpicker.com, but I'd love to get some input from more experienced folks to see if I missed anything.
4 Answers
If you're aiming for a solid gaming setup, you might want to consider more modern options. Sure, the i7-8700 could work, but you'd be hitting the limits of an old platform. If your budget allows, check out the Ryzen 5 7600 or an Intel i5-13600F—they’ll perform much better. And for the GPU, an RTX 4070 or RX 7800 XT would be a great upgrade over the 2060. Also, I recommend upgrading to DDR5 and a newer motherboard when you can for better long-term performance.
You might not see any AMD CPU options in part picker because of your motherboard choice. Your 600W PSU should be enough for your current upgrades, but consider that putting so much into swapping CPUs could be wasted if a full mobo, CPU, and RAM upgrade would give you a much better boost.
Ah, that makes sense now!
It's awesome that you want to upgrade! But it's worth noting that swapping to the i7 8700 isn’t a huge leap since it’s also a 6-core CPU, just with more threads. Unless you’re playing resource-heavy games like Warzone or Battlefield, you might not see a ton of difference. On the other hand, the 5060 Ti will be a big performance boost! Maybe just hold off on the CPU swap and save up for a better motherboard down the line.
Thanks! I get what you mean. I'm just nervous about changing the motherboard myself, even though I know people say it's pretty straightforward. I picked the i7 because that’s what pcpartpicker suggested, and it helps that I can find it for a good price second-hand.
Honestly, going from a 9th gen to an 8th gen CPU doesn’t make a lot of sense. If you're upgrading, I recommend doing the CPU, motherboard, and RAM all at once, ideally to something like the AM5 platform. Investing in the LGA1151 isn’t a great move since it's kinda outdated.
Sorry, could you explain that a bit? Isn't the i7 a step up from the i5?
Thanks for the tips! I did think about changing the motherboard, but I'm just not feeling confident enough yet. I can grab these parts at a great price now, so I thought I'd just upgrade what I can for the moment.