3600x to 5900x, plus RAM increase

[Seearbe]

Thinking of swapping the processor on by B450 MAX board, plus adding 2 x 16GB RAM modules to the existing 2 x 8GB, taking me to 48GB across the 4 modules. ON1 Photo Raw is a complete hog on both CPU and RAM, so thinking the extra cores will be worthwhile.

Just wanted to check that the 5900x will definitely give a performance uplift.

I guess whilst here, is this approach with the RAM ok too - I've never had mismatched sizes but can't see it would be a problem.

Current RAM is Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 3600MHz - PVS416G360C7K
Looking to add Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 32GB (2 x 16GB) 3600MHz - PVS432G360C8K

Also, will I need to reinstall Windows or will I be able to just drop in and go, aside from a likely licencing check?

 

[Armageus]

Just wanted to check that the 5900x will definitely give a performance uplift.

Should be a huge uplift - decent increase in individual core performance, and then obviously double the cores/threads that you have at present

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

I guess whilst here, is this approach with the RAM ok too - I've never had mismatched sizes but can't see it would be a problem.

Current RAM is Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 3600MHz - PVS416G360C7K
Looking to add Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 32GB (2 x 16GB) 3600MHz - PVS432G360C8K

Should be fine, although you may have to manually set the RAM up in the BIOS - your 16GB kit is CAS 17 from what I can find, the new kit is CAS 18

https://assets-global.website-files.com/63b6412d4ef17b35c8b5f9d5/6434b92afa45406f2619aedf_PVS432G360C8K_sku_sheet.pdf

Also, will I need to reinstall Windows or will I be able to just drop in and go, aside from a likely licencing check?

Shouldn't need anything from a Windows point of view - shouldn't affect activation either. It would be worth doing a BIOS update before changing the processor, unless you are already on a recent version.

 

[Seearbe]

Thank you! I should be ok with all of that and an added bonus to not have to reinstall Windows.

 

[Tetras]

I guess whilst here, is this approach with the RAM ok too - I've never had mismatched sizes but can't see it would be a problem.

Current RAM is Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 3600MHz - PVS416G360C7K
Looking to add Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 32GB (2 x 16GB) 3600MHz - PVS432G360C8K

I definitely wouldn't expect XMP to work with that, but eh, you might get lucky.

 

[Seearbe]

Doesn't look like they do CAS 17 in the 2 x 16GB kit. We can but see what happens - I was only really planning on 32GB (640K ought to be enough for anyone, right) so it's no great loss if I can't get them to behave correctly together. If they do, then there's a bit of a bonus.

 

[Armageus]

Doesn't look like they do CAS 17 in the 2 x 16GB kit. We can but see what happens - I was only really planning on 32GB (640K ought to be enough for anyone, right) so it's no great loss if I can't get them to behave correctly together. If they do, then there's a bit of a bonus.

Worst case you'll just have to manually specify the timings to match the Cas18 kit