I bought a prebuilt system for 855 CAD with an ASUS B650 motherboard, Ryzen 5 8600G, 16GB of DDR5-6000 memory in a single stick, and a 500GB NVMe SSD. I also added several free 2.5-inch SATA hard drives, bought a used GTX 980 Ti for 60 CAD, installed a Thermalright Frozen Warframe CPU cooler, and added extra case fans. What upgrades would make the most sense next, especially if I want to play Cyberpunk 2077 at ultra settings?
4 Answers
The graphics card should be your first major upgrade. The 980 Ti was a decent card in its day, but it is now very old and will struggle badly with Cyberpunk, especially at ultra settings. The right replacement depends on your resolution, target frame rate, and budget. Also check that your power supply has enough capacity and the necessary connectors.
For an ultra-settings build, expect to spend significantly more on the GPU, and possibly on the power supply as well. A current high-end card or a strong used option such as a Radeon 6900 XT or GeForce RTX 3080 Ti could be considered, but verify condition, power requirements, and warranty. A newer card with good ray-tracing support may be preferable for Cyberpunk.
The 8600G is not necessarily the first thing to replace. Once you install a dedicated GPU, its integrated graphics are simply unused, but the processor can still be adequate depending on your frame-rate target. Upgrade the CPU later only if it limits performance after the new graphics card is installed. The old hard drives are fine for bulk storage, but keep Cyberpunk and other frequently played games on the NVMe SSD when possible.
Before buying an expensive GPU, add a second matching 16GB DDR5-6000 stick. Running one 16GB stick means the system is using single-channel memory, which can noticeably reduce performance. Ideally, use a matched 2x16GB kit if your budget allows, giving you 32GB for newer games.
At 1080p, a modern 8GB card may be workable, but higher resolutions, ray tracing, and ultra textures benefit from substantially more VRAM.