I recently upgraded from a Ryzen 5 5600X to a Ryzen 7 9800X3D. My current system has the 9800X3D, an RX 9060 XT 16GB, and 16GB of system memory, and I'm currently gaming at 1080p. Once I've saved up some money, should I upgrade to a 1440p monitor first, or replace the GPU with something like an RX 9070 XT?
3 Answers
Upgrade the monitor, preferably to a 1440p OLED if your budget allows. Your current GPU is capable enough for that resolution, and the stronger CPU is more than sufficient. The higher resolution will shift more of the workload to the GPU and reduce CPU bottlenecks in many games.
Go for the 1440p monitor first. The RX 9060 XT should already handle 1440p well, so a new display will make a much bigger difference right now. I’d wait for a future GPU generation before replacing the card.
There are already predictions that the next AMD GPU generation may not arrive until around mid or late 2027, so waiting could make sense.
Consider increasing your system memory to 32GB before anything else, since 16GB can be limiting in newer games. After that, I’d prioritize a 1440p monitor and only then consider a GPU upgrade if your performance or graphics settings still aren’t where you want them.
Once you get used to a higher-resolution display, going back to 1080p can be pretty difficult.