I live in Ireland, so I'll mainly be buying parts from Ireland, the UK, or Germany rather than relying on US-specific deals. I'm receiving enough money to afford a very high-end PC, but I'm more interested in getting good value than building an expensive 5090 showcase system.
My goals are 1440p gaming at around 144 FPS, 4K gaming at 60 FPS for a possible home-theater setup, and better consistency in VR. I currently have a Ryzen 5 3600, Radeon RX 7700 XT, 32GB of DDR4, an Asus Prime B450M-A II motherboard, and a 550W PSU. I would also like to keep my existing storage if possible.
I'm considering a Radeon RX 9070 XT, which costs roughly €750 locally, compared with around €1,100 for an RTX 5070 Ti. Nvidia may be better for VR, but the price difference is difficult to justify. For the CPU, I could upgrade to a Ryzen 7 5800X3D, but it costs about €350 here, while a Ryzen 7 7800X3D is around €230. I'm also concerned that my motherboard's weak VRMs may not handle the 5800X3D properly, and I'll need a new PSU either way.
Would it make more sense to keep AM4 and upgrade the CPU, or sell the current system and move to AM5 with new memory and a motherboard? I'm happy to consider used parts, and I'd appreciate advice on the best-value combination for 1440p, 4K/60, and VR.
5 Answers
You don’t need to spend everything just because the budget is available. A 5090 would provide more headroom, particularly for demanding VR and 4K, but it’s excessive for the stated targets if it costs several times more than the 9070 XT. Put the savings toward a good monitor, PSU, cooling, and the home-theater setup instead.
Since you’re already questioning the motherboard and need a new power supply, I’d lean toward AM5 rather than putting expensive money into a platform at the end of its upgrade path. A 7800X3D or newer X3D chip, a reasonably priced B650/B850 board, 32GB of DDR5, the 9070 XT, and an 850W quality PSU would give you a strong long-term system without going anywhere near 5090 money.
If VR and maximum visual quality are the top priorities, Nvidia is worth considering because of its VR support, upscaling, and stronger ray tracing. However, that doesn’t automatically make the 5070 Ti or 5090 good value. For normal rasterized gaming at 1440p and 4K, the 9070 XT is likely the more sensible purchase, especially at the price difference you’re seeing.
The RX 9070 XT looks like the strongest value choice here if you don’t specifically need Nvidia features or software. For your targets, it should be a substantial upgrade over the 7700 XT without paying the large premium for a 5070 Ti. A 5800X3D would still make sense for a cheaper drop-in upgrade, but only if the motherboard can run it properly and you can find one at a reasonable used price.
Selling the current PC as a complete working system could offset a meaningful part of the rebuild cost and is usually less hassle than selling every component separately. You can still remove the storage drives first and include a cheap replacement drive, or sell the system without storage as long as that’s clearly stated. Keeping the drives is reasonable given their current prices.
The 5800X3D is worth comparing against used 5700X3D pricing. If the 5800X3D costs more than an entire AM5 platform upgrade, the older socket stops being good value.