I'm planning to upgrade my 2018 Ryzen 2600X system. It currently has a Radeon RX 6700 XT, an MSI B450M Mortar motherboard, and 16 GB of RAM. I mainly use it for gaming—Diablo IV rather than demanding AAA titles—and for Lightroom and Photoshop. With a budget of about €350, I'm deciding between buying a Ryzen 7 5800X3D now and keeping my current 16 GB of RAM, or choosing a Ryzen 7 5800XT and upgrading to 32 GB at the same time. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D doesn't appear to be available in Portugal. Which option makes more sense for this system and workload?
4 Answers
If you can find one at a reasonable price, the 5700X3D would also be a good option. Otherwise, the 5800X3D makes more sense than the regular 5800X or 5800XT for gaming. The standard X chips tend to run hotter, although a decent water cooler can help with temperatures.
The 5800X3D is the safest choice if you want the best gaming performance while staying on the AM4 platform. Your 16 GB of RAM can wait unless Lightroom and Photoshop regularly push your system into swapping or you run many applications at once.
Go with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and upgrade the RAM or GPU later. It should provide a much larger gaming upgrade than the 5800XT, especially with your existing 6700 XT.
For a cheaper, cooler upgrade, a 5700X could be worth considering, since its gaming performance is close to the 5800X while using less power. However, if you are already spending around €350 and want the longest useful life from this platform, the 5800X3D is the stronger pick.
Would the difference between the 5800X3D and 5800XT really be that noticeable for my games and general use?