I'm looking to upgrade my somewhat outdated PC to improve gaming performance. Right now, I have a Ryzen 3 3100 and an RX 580 8 GB, along with a B450-M motherboard and 16 GB of DDR4 RAM. I'm considering moving to a Ryzen 5 7500F, upgrading the motherboard to B650, and switching to 16 GB of DDR5 RAM, with plans to eventually get an RX 7700 XT 12 GB for better graphics. Will this initial upgrade to the CPU, motherboard, and RAM noticeably boost my gaming experience? Or would it be better to hold off and buy everything, including the new GPU and more RAM, at once?
5 Answers
Your real issue right now is the RX 580; it's the main bottleneck for modern titles at 1080p. Even if you upgrade CPU and RAM, the GPU will still cap your frame rates. So the sooner you can upgrade that GPU, the better!
I recommend starting with a 32 GB (2x16 GB) kit of DDR5 right from the start, rather than getting 16 GB now and replacing it later. And instead of the RX 7700 XT, consider the RX 9060 XT for the next upgrade; it’ll handle ray tracing better with the latest games. FSR4 will also help boost performance!
Keep in mind that the RX 580 is getting pretty old these days. Even if you upgrade your CPU and RAM, that GPU might still hold you back in new games, especially at higher settings. You might need to run games at lowest settings to get decent frame rates, relying on FSR for any playable performance. It’s definitely a budget card for 2025.
Upgrading to the Ryzen 5 7500F should give you a solid performance boost, especially in CPU-intensive games like Fortnite or CSGO. For RAM, consider going straight for 32 GB of DDR5-6000 instead of starting with 16 GB; it’s more future-proof. You’ll really notice the difference in gameplay with that setup!
I'm not sure if moving from 16 GB of DDR4 to 16 GB of DDR5 is worth it. If you can swing it, just go straight for 32 GB of DDR5 to future-proof your build. With that amount, do you think I could see a significant improvement in 1080p or even 1440p gaming?
Yeah, with 32 GB, you should definitely notice a difference in gaming at those resolutions because RAM won't be a bottleneck anymore!