Help me pick a gaming upgrade.

[MoridinUK]

So I've been back and forth on how to upgrade my broken pc.

It's currently a i7-7700k 32gb 3200 cl16, with a Sapphire Radeon RX 6800 XT with a 75hz freesync 32inch 2k monitor

I've not really had an upgrade in ages but I don't really have much money set aside. The system is almost 100% gaming I do not do any workstation stuff on it right now or expect to.

So I'm stuck between going all in and doing something sensible. I will need a new m.2 anyway.

So it's between these two builds I think really, unless someone else has a genius idea:
My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £499.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 32GB EXPO (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02786) = £89.99
• 1 x MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03993) = £235.00
• 1 x Crucial T500 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01089) = £73.99
• 1 x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE Black CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03291) = £33.95

Total: £932.92 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D Eight Core 4.1GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-01799) = £199.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMK32GX4M2Z3600C18) (SKU: MY-4CL-CS) = £62.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite V2 (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-593-GI) = £114.99
• 1 x Crucial T500 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01089) = £73.99
• 1 x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE Black CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03291) = £33.95

Total: £485.91 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

I've no real desire to invest in the GPU or monitor at this stage and I have a good PSU.

If I went with the 5700x3d I could reuse the current ram though it isn't perfect . I save £447.01 (£510 if I stick with the current ram) But I end up with a board with no future etc. I've looked at other am5 that are cheaper than the 7800x3d but while I can get cpus which will outcompete the 5700x3d in other applications, like the ryzen 5 7600x or ryzen 7 7700x or 9700x I find I'm actually spending MORE on the cpu and would need the ddr5 ram.

I only intend to run 1 gpu and 1 m.2 ssd.

 

[Tetras]

So it's between these two builds I think really, unless someone else has a genius idea:

I wouldn't call it genius, but a cheaper alternative:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12600K 3.70GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-69X-IN) = £149.99
• 1 x MSI PRO B760-P DDR4 II (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03380) = £124.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (SKU: MY-0AJ-TG) = £55.99
• 1 x Crucial T500 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01089) = £73.99
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £23.00

Total: £427.96 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

You could step down to a 12400F or 5600/5600X (with AM4) and it'll still keep pace with your 6800 XT at 1440p, for the most part.

If you don't have a lot of money to spend and only have a modest GPU, I don't think the 9800X3D is justified at £500, especially with a £200+ motherboard being purchased too.

It boils down to your goal here, I'd say:
- 1. Just get the PC working and a mild upgrade to pair with your GPU.
- 2. Get something that will take another graphics card (or can be upgraded to do so).

AM5 would meet both goals, depending on your choices, especially if you went cheap with something like a 7400F/7500F instead of what I consider the overpriced 7600/7700 (based on their much lower prices elsewhere in the world and when they have temporary very large discounts in the UK).

 

[MoridinUK]

I do still plan to also put together an inexpensive i5-12400f or 12600k build (but the 12400f is under £100 right now) As I actually need 3 pcs. Currently they are the i7-7700k/rx 6800 xt (broken cpu) an i5-6600k/1080 gtx (not in a pc but unbroken) a ryzen 5 5600x/970 gtx (which doesn't need an upgrade) and a i5-4430/1050 ti (which desperately needs an upgrade)

I also want to get them all to windows 11. (which only the 5600x can at the moment.)

So I was looking at a 'nice' upgrade for my pc then to put an i5-12400f together to replace the i5-4430 (well actually I was going to replace that with the i5-6600k/1080 gtx in the mean time)

My thoughts on the 9800x3d (or 7800x3d I guess) is that it would permit me a GPU upgrade without bottle necking it, where as the 5700x3d probably hold's back most upgrades. But a GPU upgrade would be at least 18-24 months away. I do think the 5700x3d would pair well with the rx 6800 xt. But as you say the 12400f or 5600x wouldn'y hold it back much.

Technically I may need 4 pcs soon as my youngest gets older. (Sharing is not my strong point!)

 

[Tetras]

I think I'd go with the cheap AM5 route and try to source an inexpensive 7400F/7500F, since it puts you on a different platform to the AM4/1700 options and can be upgraded again in the future, maybe alongside the GPU.

The 7800X3D/9800X3D are great gaming CPUs, but their cost is very high and I just don't think that make sense, especially when you won't need that performance for awhile.

 

[WARburton]

a 7600x as about the same performance as a 5700x3d, i'd go AM5 with a 7600 then your set for future upgrades to a 10800x3d.
if buying new DDR5 is the way to go no matter what you pick

 

[MoridinUK]

If I got with the 7600x then I'm only saving about £300 but I do get that upgrade path unlocked and a reasonable cpu upgrade on what I have now... But the ryzen 5 7600x doesn't really hold up against the ryzen 7 5700x3d in the best gaming cpu part of this benchmark round up

 

[WARburton]

ill be honest to game at 1440p 75hz, both upgrade options are stupid.
but i dont know what to recommend

i think getting the 5700x3d then spending £200 on a 165hz 1440 screen is the best option
if you wenmt 5700x3d you could reuse your current ram as ram speed is not really a thing thats needed with x3d chips

 

[GeorgeStorm]

I'd consider going for a cheaper am5 based build either with a 7600 or maybe a 7500f (as I did) to get you onto the newer platform which will give you a nice boost without breaking the bank, and then in a year or two give you the option to get a decent upgrade via a better cpu.

 

[MoridinUK]

I'm so frustrated but am starting to think about upgrade path which includes monitor, cpu and gpu.

So I think my options look like this:

Path A (Entry AM5):

1 (2025) £900 now small cpu upgrade and monitor to 165hz 1440 upgrade (R5 7600x + RX6800xt, R5 5600x + gtx 1080, 15-6600k/i5-4430 + gtx 970 or 1050ti)
3 (2026) £700-800 CPU upgrade to the AM5 + Cheap am5 board and ram to reuse the 7600x to upgrade the potato (R7 9800x3d + RX 6800xt, R5 7600x + gtx 1080, R5 5600x + 970 gtx or 1050 ti)
4 (2027) £1000 A gpu upgrade (may also need another monitor upgrade: R7 9800x3d + new gpu, R5 7600x + RX 6800xt , R5 5600x + gtx 1080)

Path B (High end AM5):
1 (2025) £900 now 9800x3dcpu upgrade (R7 9800x3d + RX 6800xt, R5 5600x + 1080 GTX, i5-6600k/i5-4430 + 970gtx/1050 ti)
2 (2025/6) £200 i5-12400f core for oldest system (potato upgraded here) (R7 9800x3d + RT 6800xt, 5600x +1080 gtx, i5-12400f + 970GTX or gtx 1050 ti)
3 (2026/7) £1200 A gpu + Monitor upgrade (R7 9800x3d + new gpu, R5 5600x + RX 6800xt , i5-12400f + gtx 1080)

Path C (Maximise AM4):
1 (2025) £600 5700x3d + monitor upgrade to 165hz 1440 (R7 5700x3d + RX 6800XR, R5 5600x + 1080 GTX, i5-6600k/i5-4430 + 970GTX or 1050ti)
3 (2025/6) £300 Monitor upgrade
4 (2026/7) £1000 GPU upgrade (R7 5700x3d + New GPU, R5 5600x + RX 6800XT, i5-6600k/i5-4430 + 1080 GTX)
5 (2027/8) £1000 CPU and core upgrade to AM5 (R7 9800x3d(or better) + New GPU, R7 5700x3d + RX 6800 XT, R5 5600x + 1080 gtx)

Path A leaves me in 2027 with one good system, one ok (but upgradable system), and one blocked system. In 2025 I get an effective boost to game performance. Medium wait to upgrade potato £2700 total
Path B leaves me in 2026/7 with one good system and two blocked systems. In 2025 I get an ok boost to game performance (probably Path A is a bigger boost). Shortest wait to upgrade potato £2300 total
Path C leaves me in 2027/8 with two good systems but two blocked systems. In 2025 I get the best upgrade to game performance. Longest wait to upgrade potato pc. £2900 total

It's clearly Path A or C isn't it and I'm leaning towards A though it's the least exciting in 2025!

Thank you for letting me think out loud!

 

[WARburton]

Path A leaves me in 2027 with one good system, one ok (but upgradable system), and one blocked system. In 2025 I get an effective boost to game performance. Medium wait to upgrade potato £2700 total

imagine if this is how things worked in real life, good plan's never work..
so you want CPU and monitor now, i'd go AM5. next upgrade would 100% be GPU. then drop a CPU in when needed

 

[pastymuncher]

My thoughts are that the 9800x3d is massively overpriced and not worth £500. Yes it's the best gaming cpu but that still doesn't make it worth £500. At the end of the day it's only a 8c/16t cpu that specialises at gaming and is lacking in other tasks. Same thing with the 7800x3d which was just £315 a few months ago. As you already have a AM4 pc I would be more than tempted to drop a 5700x3d and the 6800XT in that along with the fastest DDR4 memory you have and use that as your gaming pc along with a monitor upgrade to 1440p (1440p 165hz IPS monitor was the best upgrade I have made in the past couple of years) then sort the other two pc's out for whatever you do with them. At the most AM5 only has one more cpu generation to come and that's not even confirmed yet.

 

[nade]

I'm split between your Path A and B. You seem to have worked out B as cheaper, but spending money on an Intel chip does seem to throw things off a bit.

With Path A as you've said, you could just pass parts down as you upgrade. You would also have the confidence that you know the parts are good and working when reusing them.

I really only have one main PC in the house and whenever I do a full upgrade/replacement I worry about ending up with any faulty parts or having any such issues.

 

[MoridinUK]

Thanks all I'm still stuck between path a and C, Sensible and more future proof or instant gratification!

If I went path C I would need a new mainboard. I have a Ryzen 5 5600x in my current am4 board. Just not sure if it's best to put a 5700x3d in a cheap new am4 board (which supports faster memory though) or put the tryzen 5 5600x in that board and the 5700x3d into my current am4 board (Asus ROG crossfire VI Hero)?

 

[MoridinUK]

So a little sad but the 5700x3d is no long on sale and is not out of stock but hey so is the 7600x!

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 32GB EXPO (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02786) = £89.99
• 1 x MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03993) = £234.99
• 1 x Crucial T500 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01089) = £74.00
• 1 x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE Black CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03291) = £33.94
• 1 x Samsung 27" LS27CG510EUXXU G51C 2560x1440 VA 165Hz FreeSync 1ms Odyssey Gaming Monitor (SKU: MON-SAM-01618) = £228.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DG-AM) = £209.99

The cooler, I could replace it with:

[*] 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 280mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01988) = £69.95

Not sure if it's worth the extra stuff.

 

[Tetras]

The cooler, I could replace it with:

[*] 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 280mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01988) = £69.95

Not sure if it's worth the extra stuff.

The freezer is a nice cooler, but AM5 CPUs have such low power that a decent tower cooler like the peerless assassin/phantom spirit is more than enough.

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DG-AM) = £209.99

I know I said it before, but over £200 for one of these hurts my brains, they're really overpriced.

If you're not comfortable with bundles/imports for the 7400F/7500F I'd consider a 8400F as a cheap boxed entry point to AM5. They're not ideal, but they perform fine and you'll have a nice upgrade path available.

AMD's latest China-exclusive CPUs benchmarked — Ryzen 7 8700F and Ryzen 5 8400F aren't much slower than costlier models

Zen 4 without the RDNA 3 graphics

www.tomshardware.com

• 1 x MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03993) = £234.99

That's a lot of board for a 7600X I'd be inclined to go cheap, but not sure if this has already been discussed here too. I just think ~£150 odd is the most you really need to pay for a board to pair with a 7600X.

 

[WARburton]

The air cooler will work just fain if you want to save £70 on the AIO, also a good B650E board will save you around £100 too

 

[Gray2233]

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Six Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02677) = £239.99
• 1 x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE Black CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03291) = £33.95
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 32GB EXPO (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02786) = £89.98
• 1 x Crucial T500 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01089) = £74.00
• 1 x Asrock B850M Pro RS (Socket AM5) DDR5 mATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-04007) = £149.98

Total: £595.90 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

Personally I'd go for this in your situation, while the 9600X is on average only around 3-5% faster in games than the 7600X, there is the odd title (Assetto Corsa being one example) where uplift is closer to 20-30%.

For the sake of an extra £30 it's a no brainer imo, and these chips don't run hot so unless you really want the aesthetics of an AiO there's little point in going to the expense. I'd factor the savings into a monitor of your choice and maybe a new case, there's nothing that the above wouldn't play when paired with a decent GPU such as the 6800XT, and there's plenty of room for upgrades to one that's more powerful down the line too.

Given the 7500F can be had for around the £100 mark I'd feel ripped off spending £210 on a 7600X personally, either bump up or jump down.

 

[GeorgeStorm]

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Six Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02677) = £239.99
• 1 x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE Black CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03291) = £33.95
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 32GB EXPO (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02786) = £89.98
• 1 x Crucial T500 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01089) = £74.00
• 1 x Asrock B850M Pro RS (Socket AM5) DDR5 mATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-04007) = £149.98

Total: £595.90 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

Personally I'd go for this in your situation, while the 9600X is on average only around 3-5% faster in games than the 7600X, there is the odd title (Assetto Corsa being one example) where uplift is closer to 20-30%.

For the sake of an extra £30 it's a no brainer imo, and these chips don't run hot so unless you really want the aesthetics of an AiO there's little point in going to the expense. I'd factor the savings into a monitor of your choice and maybe a new case, there's nothing that the above wouldn't play when paired with a decent GPU such as the 6800XT, and there's plenty of room for upgrades to one that's more powerful down the line too.

Given the 7500F can be had for around the £100 mark I'd feel ripped off spending £210 on a 7600X personally, either bump up or jump down.

In general agree with this, although didn't realise the 7500F could be found for quite that cheap! Cheapest I found a month or so ago was ~£125 or so, at £100 that is a complete no brainer (even at £140 I'd consider it a no brainer to be honest)

 

[sx_turbo]

I don't think am4 is the way to go, and the cost of the bits for an obsolete platform is not significantly reduced to be worthwhile imo.

However for value, nothing at the moment screams value. Prices have increased quite drastically.

The 7600 route seems to be the most cost effective.

The 9800x3d is evidently very good, but real world gaming performance at 1440p isn't that noticeable, the 1% lows might increase but it's not as significant as you might think which imo isn't worth the additional cost if on a budget, the money saved would be best put towards the next GPU.

In terms of motherboard I presume you've gone for that because of pcie 5

 

[Gray2233]

In general agree with this, although didn't realise the 7500F could be found for quite that cheap! Cheapest I found a month or so ago was ~£125 or so, at £100 that is a complete no brainer (even at £140 I'd consider it a no brainer to be honest)

Yeah, it is on a certain "import" site/market, but a lot of people have bought them without issue, the price does fluctuate a bit however and with word of mouth spreading they might have went up a bit in price.

I'd say at under £150 they're a bargain tbh.

I struggle to justify the 7600's at their current price point.