My current gaming PC has an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT with 12GB of VRAM, a Ryzen 5 5600X, an MSI B550M PRO-VDH WiFi motherboard, 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM in a 2x8GB kit, and a 1TB WD Blue SN570 NVMe SSD. I mainly play at 1440p on an Acer Nitro XV275UP3biiprx monitor. Alan Wake 2 struggled to maintain a consistent 60 FPS even after adjusting the settings, and I'm also interested in newer games such as Control and Crimson Desert. With a budget of $1,000–$1,500, should I focus on the graphics card, upgrade the RAM, replace the CPU, or make several upgrades together?
4 Answers
The biggest improvement for 1440p gaming will come from a graphics card upgrade. A Radeon RX 9070 XT would be a strong match for your budget and should provide a substantial improvement over the RX 6700 XT. Your Ryzen 5 5600X can remain for now, especially if you’re primarily GPU-limited at 1440p.
I’d start with the GPU and consider either an RX 9070 XT or a GeForce RTX 5070, depending on pricing and whether you prefer their respective features. Since you already have a capable AM4 platform and an NVMe drive, there’s no need to rebuild the entire system. Adding another SSD could be worthwhile if your game library is filling the current drive.
A 9070 XT paired with 32GB of memory is probably the best-balanced move. Keep the 5600X for now, use upscaling or frame generation where a game supports it, and upgrade the CPU only if benchmarks show that it’s holding the new GPU back. Also check your power supply before buying the card to make sure it meets the manufacturer’s wattage and connector recommendations.
Upgrade the RAM to 32GB as well as the graphics card. Modern games can use more than 16GB, and a 2x16GB DDR4-3200 or DDR4-3600 kit is a sensible, inexpensive upgrade. The 5600X is still serviceable at 1440p, so I’d only replace it later if you notice CPU-related stuttering or poor minimum FPS. If you do upgrade the processor, an X3D chip that your motherboard supports could be a good final AM4 upgrade.
I’m using 2x8GB of DDR4-3200, so I have 16GB total. Would moving to 2x16GB alongside the graphics card be the sensible choice?