I currently have a Ryzen 5 5600G, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, an RX 6600 XT, and a 1TB NVMe drive. My main gaming display is a 1440p 240Hz OLED monitor, while I use a secondary 1920×1200 60Hz monitor for schoolwork and background music. I have around £600 (about $800) to spend and am considering an RX 9070 XT priced at £620 from a local retailer, mainly because its five-year warranty and nearby physical store are important to me. My main games include Red Dead Redemption 2, Metaphor, Cyberpunk 2077, and heavily modded Minecraft, and I also use Ollama occasionally. Would upgrading to the 9070 XT give me the biggest improvement, or should I prioritize replacing the CPU or increasing my RAM to 32GB?
3 Answers
A Ryzen 7 5700X would be a sensible later upgrade, while an AM4 X3D chip such as the 5800X3D would be the best gaming-focused option if you can find one at a good price. However, the CPU upgrade is less urgent for your 1440p use than replacing the RX 6600 XT. Also compare the total price carefully: a new card may cost only slightly more, but the five-year store warranty and convenient returns could reasonably justify paying extra for the local retailer.
I would upgrade the graphics card first. Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk, and heavily modded Minecraft can all benefit substantially from the extra GPU performance at 1440p. The CPU is not ideal for a high-end card, but it is not so weak that buying the 9070 XT would be pointless.
For your actual gaming monitor and the games you listed, the GPU upgrade makes the most sense. The RX 6600 XT is much more suited to 1080p than high-refresh 1440p, so an RX 9070 XT should provide a very noticeable jump in performance. The Ryzen 5 5600G may hold it back somewhat in CPU-heavy situations, but it should still pair reasonably well at 1440p, especially with demanding settings. If you later find a good motherboard, CPU, and RAM bundle, you can move the card into a newer system.
At very high frame rates or in CPU-heavy games, monitor CPU and GPU usage for stutters. The 5600G is more likely to limit performance in situations such as uncapped Minecraft or competitive games at low settings, rather than in demanding 1440p titles.
The longer warranty is the main reason I am considering the local retailer. It is nearby, so returning the card in person would be much easier than dealing with a shorter online warranty.