I originally built my PC on a budget and have upgraded it over time. The current specifications are:
- Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT
- Ryzen 5 9600X
- 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30
- 750W power supply
- MSI PRO B850-S motherboard
- Cooler Master Elite Liquid 240 CPU cooler
- Montech XR case
I'm wondering whether the lower-cost motherboard could limit the performance of the RX 9070 XT or the rest of the system. I'm also considering upgrading to an X3D processor within the next year, so would I need to replace the motherboard as well?
2 Answers
That motherboard is better than its budget-oriented image suggests. Its power delivery and heatsinks should be more than adequate for the 9600X and a future X3D chip, including higher-end AM5 models. You shouldn’t need a motherboard upgrade unless you specifically want additional features or connectivity; CPU compatibility and BIOS support are the main things to check before installing a newer processor.
The motherboard shouldn’t hold back your RX 9070 XT in any meaningful way. Even if the graphics slot were running at PCIe 4.0 instead of PCIe 5.0, the real-world performance difference would be extremely small. The 9070 XT itself also uses a PCIe 4.0 interface, so it isn’t being restricted by the board.
Regardless, the 9070 XT is a PCIe 4.0 card, so PCIe 5.0 support wouldn’t provide a performance benefit for it.
I thought this board supported PCIe 5.0 for the graphics slot?