I built this PC a few years ago and would like to improve its gaming performance, but I'm not sure which component should be prioritized. Some games, especially Palworld, Fortnite, and Overwatch, run worse than I'd like. I've also experienced occasional graphics-card crashes after games close. My current system has a Ryzen 5 4500, Radeon RX 6600, 32 GB of DDR4 memory, and an ASRock B450M/ac R2.0 motherboard. My budget is around $1,000, although I can go somewhat higher if the upgrade is worthwhile. What should I replace first, and are there any troubleshooting steps I should try for the crashes?
2 Answers
The graphics card is probably the first upgrade to consider, since it will usually provide the biggest boost in gaming performance. Your 32 GB of RAM and motherboard are still usable. That said, the Ryzen 5 4500 is a fairly modest CPU and could limit performance in CPU-heavy or high-refresh-rate games, so a CPU upgrade would make sense after the GPU. With a budget near $1,000, you could potentially upgrade both, depending on current prices and your power supply.
For the AM4 platform, look at a Ryzen 5 5600 as a good value option, or a Ryzen 7 5700X3D if you want a stronger gaming-focused upgrade and your board supports it with the appropriate BIOS. Pairing one of those with a newer midrange GPU would give you a much more balanced system than replacing the motherboard and memory immediately. Check your motherboard’s CPU support list and update the BIOS before swapping processors.
My budget is roughly $1,000, but it isn’t a strict limit if a better-balanced upgrade would be worthwhile.