I'm looking to surprise my daughter by upgrading her current PC, and I could really use some help! She mostly uses her PC for school and enjoys gaming, especially RPGs and simulation games like City Skylines, Elden Ring, and Baldur's Gate. I want to keep the budget around $1200, but I'm open to some flexibility. I'm not very tech-savvy, so any advice on what parts I should focus on would be greatly appreciated. Here are the current parts she's using.
4 Answers
Upgrading to a Ryzen 7 5800XT CPU and pairing it with an RX 9060 XT GPU would really boost her PC's performance. If you don’t mind spending a bit more, you might consider a more powerful GPU like the RX 9070 or RTX 5070, but make sure to check if her power supply can handle it. Additionally, swapping in an M.2 SSD and adding another 16GB of RAM could give her a significant performance increase, especially for the types of games she plays.
I’d suggest going for an M.2 SSD instead of SATA since they're way faster and would work well with her motherboard. Also, if her current CPU comes with a cooler, you might not need to buy a new one. Prices are a bit high right now, but budget around $100-200 for a motherboard and $70-140 for a power supply; this should give you a good start. For the GPU, if you're shopping new, consider an RTX 5050 or RX 6600, both of which offer great performance for about $200.
If you're looking for a solid yet affordable upgrade, consider just replacing the existing GPU with an RTX 5070 or 5070 Ti. This change, along with a decent power supply, should really enhance her gaming experience without needing a complete overhaul of the PC. Also, if she doesn’t have a 1440p monitor, that's worth considering too!
For games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring, a new graphics card is crucial, like the RTX 5060 Ti. It will boost performance significantly and handle newer games better. While the 2070 Super is still decent, prioritizing RAM upgrades to 32GB would also help, especially for Cities: Skylines, which can really use the extra memory as cities grow large. Here’s a sample parts list I compiled: CPU, GPU, RAM, you should be just under budget! Just keep in mind that you might need to update the motherboard’s firmware for the new CPU.
Absolutely! The monitor resolution can really change how well the games perform, so going for 1440p is a solid investment.