My girlfriend wants to play The Witcher 3 Remastered, and I'm trying to figure out whether her current PC needs an upgrade. The announced requirements list a Ryzen 5 2600 or Core i5-8400, a GTX 1660 or RX 5500 XT 8GB, 12GB of RAM, and 6GB of VRAM. Her current system has an ASUS Prime B450M-A II motherboard, Ryzen 5 3600, GTX 1660 Super, and 32GB of DDR4 memory. She mainly plays indie games and uses Photoshop, Figma, and similar design software, so she doesn't need an extreme high-end gaming build. Budget isn't a major restriction, but I'd prefer sensible midrange or upper-midrange parts with around 12–16GB of VRAM that will also remain useful for future games. The power supply is unknown and can be replaced if necessary. What would be the best upgrade path?
5 Answers
A good staged upgrade would be: first verify the SSD, operating system, temperatures, and current PSU; then upgrade the GPU if performance is insufficient. The Ryzen 5 3600 and 32GB of RAM are still perfectly usable for this game and design applications. If a future CPU upgrade is desired, move to a 5600 or an AM4 X3D chip rather than replacing the entire platform immediately.
The current system may already meet the listed requirements, especially for 60 FPS, but the GTX 1660 Super is the obvious weak point. For a sensible upgrade, an RX 9060 XT 16GB would be a strong choice. The Ryzen 5 3600 can stay for now unless testing shows a CPU bottleneck. Before buying anything, confirm that the game is installed on an SSD and that the system is running Windows 11, since those may be required for the updated version.
For 1440p, I’d look at an RX 9070 or RX 9070 XT. That’s more than necessary for 1080p, where an RX 9060 XT 16GB or similar GeForce card would be a better-balanced purchase. Ray tracing can reduce performance heavily, so factor in whether she actually wants to use it rather than choosing parts around maximum settings alone.
Since the motherboard supports later AM4 processors, you can get a lot more life out of the platform without replacing the board and memory. A Ryzen 5 5600, Ryzen 5 5700X3D, or Ryzen 7 5800X3D would be reasonable options depending on price. The X3D chips are especially good for gaming, though the 5800X3D is only worth it if you find one at a sensible price. Check the motherboard BIOS support before purchasing.
Definitely identify the power supply before installing a stronger graphics card. If it’s old or from an unreliable model line, replace it with a modern, reputable 750W unit; an 850W model makes sense for a higher-power card such as a 9070 XT. Also check case clearance, GPU power connectors, cooling, and whether a BIOS update is needed for the new CPU.
The 9070 XT is a powerful option, but it may be overkill for someone mostly playing at 1080p or targeting a steady 60 FPS. The 9060 XT-class cards should be enough for several years at that resolution.