What should I upgrade first in my gaming PC with a $500 budget?
Asked by
MellowPine47
I inherited this PC from my brother about four years ago and haven't made any upgrades before. Lately, games have started running very poorly, with FPS sometimes dropping to around 15, so I'd like to improve it primarily for gaming. My budget is about $500, though I can be somewhat flexible. The current parts are an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 32GB of RAM, a 500GB Samsung 860 EVO SSD, and a 1TB WDC hard drive. The motherboard is an MSI Tomahawk, but I don't know the exact model yet. What should I check first, and which upgrades would make the biggest difference?
Answers
Since the main symptom is gaming FPS dropping to about 15, don’t assume the CPU is automatically the problem. Check GPU and CPU temperatures, GPU usage, background programs, and whether the graphics card is throttling. Also confirm that the monitor cable is connected to the graphics card rather than the motherboard. If temperatures and hardware usage look normal, updating drivers or doing a clean Windows installation could help.
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Your 32GB of RAM is already enough for modern gaming, so I wouldn’t spend the budget there. Check whether the memory’s XMP or DOCP profile is enabled in the BIOS so it runs at its rated speed. The Samsung 860 EVO is a SATA SSD, not an NVMe drive; replacing it with an NVMe SSD would improve load times and general responsiveness, but it usually won’t fix extremely low in-game FPS.
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First, identify the exact motherboard model before buying a processor. An MSI Tomahawk could be several different boards, and compatibility depends on the specific model and BIOS version. You can find it in Windows System Information by searching for “System Information” and checking the BaseBoard Manufacturer and BaseBoard Product fields. If it supports Ryzen 5000, a BIOS update may let you install a much faster gaming CPU such as a Ryzen 5700X3D, provided you can find one at a reasonable price.
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For a gaming-focused upgrade, keep the RAM and storage for now and prioritize either a compatible Ryzen 5000 CPU or a graphics card, depending on what your monitoring shows is limiting performance. A Ryzen 5700X3D would be a strong drop-in upgrade if the motherboard supports it, while a GPU upgrade may be more valuable if the GTX 1660 Ti is running at full usage during the FPS drops. Leave some money available for a decent power supply if the new graphics card requires more power.
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VelvetHarbor3: The 5700X3D can be difficult to find now, so a Ryzen 5600X3D or another compatible Ryzen 5000 chip could also be worth considering. Make sure the BIOS is updated while the current processor is still installed.