My younger brother bought a prebuilt gaming PC and wants to improve it, but some of the components are difficult to identify. It appears to have either a B450 or A520 motherboard, a Ryzen 5 5600G, 16GB of DDR4 memory, and a 600W power supply. He mainly plays Rocket League, Fortnite, PEAK, Roblox, and other Steam games. Should the first upgrade be a dedicated graphics card, and what models would make sense? The budget is probably limited, though we do not have an exact amount yet.
3 Answers
For those games, the Ryzen 5 5600G should be fine for now, so upgrading the CPU first is unnecessary. Depending on local prices and the monitor's resolution, look at an RX 6600 or RX 6650 XT on the used market, or a newer budget card such as an Arc B580 or a 16GB midrange model. The best choice depends heavily on the budget, target resolution, and whether the power supply is safe.
A dedicated graphics card is probably the biggest performance upgrade, since the 5600G's integrated graphics are the main limitation. Before buying one, find the exact power-supply model and check the case clearance and available PCIe power connectors. The listed Evotec P4600W does not clearly identify a trustworthy 600W unit, so I would replace it with a reputable power supply before installing an expensive GPU if its quality cannot be verified.
Do not choose a GPU solely by the wattage printed on the prebuilt's power supply. Confirm the exact motherboard, power supply, case dimensions, and monitor resolution first. For 1080p gaming, a modest dedicated card is enough for Rocket League, Roblox, and similar games; spending money on a 5600X-class CPU would provide much less benefit than adding a GPU.
He only plays games and probably does not have a large budget, so a reasonably priced card is likely the goal. I will check the exact power-supply details before recommending anything.