Hey everyone! I'm 14 and turning 15 soon, and I'm looking to upgrade my gaming PC a bit. I got a prebuilt system from CyberPower back in December 2020, and it's served me well, but newer games are starting to push it to the limit. My current setup includes a Ryzen 7 3700X CPU, a Gigabyte B450M DS4H WiFi motherboard, 16GB of Crucial Ballistix RAM (2x8GB sticks), and a Gigabyte RTX 2060 GPU.
I really want to upgrade to an RTX 5060 Ti, even though I've heard mixed reviews about it. To me, the performance jump from a 2060 to a 5060 Ti sounds amazing, especially since I don't have a ton of money to spend. I'm also worried about my CPU bottlenecking the new GPU. Plus, I'm unsure about what power supply I should get, since PC Part Picker suggested I'll need around 319W, but I've heard it's good to have extra. I really don't want to drop $400 on something that won't work out!
4 Answers
Going from a 2060 to a 5060 Ti should definitely boost your gaming performance! Just keep in mind that with only 16GB of RAM (which you have), you might hit limits with some newer games. Most games nowadays recommend at least 16GB, and it’s better to have more if you can get it.
The 5060 Ti is a solid card for you and will definitely be a worthwhile upgrade. For the next couple of years, your current CPU should still hold up fine if you're on a budget. You might want to upgrade RAM eventually but only if you also upgrade your CPU or motherboard. Also, your prebuilt's PSU might not be the best quality, but it should work fine for the 5060.
Your CPU might bottleneck the 5060 Ti slightly, but it shouldn't be a huge issue. Your RAM is the bigger concern though; I’d suggest at least 16GB, but going to 32GB would give you more room for multitasking. If you can stretch your budget a bit to around $430, consider getting a 9060 XT 16GB along with a 2x16GB DDR4 RAM kit. This will enhance your overall system. And don’t worry too much about the PSU right now; the 9060 XT is relatively low power.
Your main issues are going to be the CPU bottleneck and possibly your PSU. The newer GPUs consume a decent amount of power, so if your PSU is around 700W, that should be adequate. Currently, 16GB of RAM is usually enough for gaming, but if you plan to have a lot of apps running, you might max it out.
That’s why I intend to upgrade to 32GB in the future, just taking it one step at a time.
Just to clarify, I do have 16GB total with two 8GB sticks.