Upgrade Order/Advice

treker_ed

treker_ed

treker_ed

Associate
Joined
3 Mar 2023
Posts
9
Location
UK
Current system:
  • Asus Strix 650E-E Wifi MB
  • AMD Ryzen 5 7600x AM5 CPU (Zen 4)
  • Corsair Vengeance 32gb (2x16gb) Vengeance DDR5 RAM
  • Asus Tuf Gaming RTX3070 8GB OC Edition
  • EK Nucleus AIO CR360 Dark WC Loop
  • Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 850w Gold PSU
  • Storage :
    • 2 x 2TB SSD
    • 1 x 1TB SSD
    • 1 x 1TB NVME
    • 1 x 500GB NVME
  • All encased in Fractal Design Define 7 XL
Okay, this system is no slouch, but the GPU is now two generations behind, and with only 8gb VRAM it's starting to show, and it's time to do an upgrade. I'm edging towards a 5070TI due to the fact that it has 16gb of VRAM, anything lower only has 12gb, with 16gb VRAM may just extend it's lifespan - certainly not guaranteed in this day and age.Should mention that I recently also upgraded my monitors from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440. Running two of them, but only having games appear on one of them, no across the two of them!


The other upgrades I'm considering:
  • CPU to Ryzen 7 9700X (Zen 5) (The 9000 series seem to be the recommended processors to be matched with the RTX5000 series from Nvidia, along with the equivalent from Intel).
  • I am aware that my PSU will need to be changed to an ATX 3.0 standard, and strongly considering something in the 1KW threshold, probably stick with Thermaltake been happy with the one I have.
  • Memory to 64GB - doesn't immediately need it, but extra memory would be nice. Sadly, the type of RAM I have in the system I have now is no longer available, so would require buying new sticks. I'm thinking 2x32 would be better, to allow possible expansion in the future. System has to stick around for a while, due to funds, this upgrade will probably have to last a few years or so!

Now then, which way around would people suggest this upgrade? GPU then CPU or CPU then GPU? I'm personally edging more CPU then GPU, due to the costs involved. CPU upgrade is cheaper and easier to do, and will give a small boost in the short term and then allow me to save the funds for the GPU & PSU.

Thanks for comments and thoughts.
 
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Unless you're playing DCS you don't need 64GB.
I haven't seen memory usage go above 22GB @ 1440p

There's the AMD 9070XT as well.

850W PSU is fine for 9070XT cards.
 
treker_ed said:
Now then, which way around would people suggest this upgrade? GPU then CPU or CPU then GPU? I'm personally edging more CPU then GPU, due to the costs involved. CPU upgrade is cheaper and easier to do, and will give a small boost in the short term and then allow me to save the funds for the GPU & PSU.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't bother with the CPU, so just get the card first and see how it goes. PSU upgrade is also not necessary, just use the adapter in the box.
 
hornetstinger said:
Unless you're playing DCS you don't need 64GB.
I haven't seen memory usage go above 22GB @ 1440p

There's the AMD 9070XT as well.

850W PSU is fine for 9070XT cards.
Click to expand...

tamzzy said:
nah, the only worthwhile CPU upgrade is to either the 7800X3D or the 9800X3
Click to expand...
Thank you for the comments so far.

The choices I've made in regards to the upgrades were settled on after nearly 2 weeks of reading reviews across multiple sites, and reviewing the various differences in the hardware between Zen 4 & Zen 5 architecture, and AMD & Nvidia GPUs. Whilst I appreciate other peoples opinions, on this occasion, from a cost perspective, these are the most cost effective that I can afford at this time. The X3D versions (whilst seemingly on special offer at the moment) seem to be in the order of £540 for the 9800X3D normally, and £499 for the 7800X3D, prices I cannot justify spending at the moment (even taking into account any special offers). For the CPU I've specced above, from where I normally purchase, its currently sat at £305, expensive, yes, but between £194 - £235 cheaper than those suggested, which would pay for the extra memory, or even a couple of 2TB SSDs or NVME drives!

The PSU was purchased, and installed before the ATX 3.0 specification, and is not designed for RTX4000/RTX5000 or the AMD equivalent GPUS, it is no longer being manufactured by Thermaltake, and is not rated for use with these GPUs (based on the information I can find) this is why it needs to be replaced. This one would actually be recycled into a media PC that I have to replace a PSU that is getting on for 10 years old, if not older, that is currently sat in that PC, which I built as a project back in 2020/2021!

The 64GB of ram would just be a nice thing to have, but not an essential upgrade, it's just one of those things that's on my mind to do at some stage in my rigs life path!

The advice that I am after is what would be best initial upgrade to my system based on the components stated above in my initial post? CPU or GPU
 
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treker_ed said:
The choices I've made in regards to the upgrades were settled on after nearly 2 weeks of reading reviews across multiple sites, and reviewing the various differences in the hardware between Zen 4 & Zen 5 architecture, and AMD & Nvidia GPUs. Whilst I appreciate other peoples opinions, on this occasion, from a cost perspective, these are the most cost effective that I can afford at this time.
Click to expand...

Coming from what you have you're looking at about 5-10% CPU uplift if that in games, do you actually use the PC for anything else or is it just gaming?

There is actually the odd niche scenario where the jump from a 7000 series to a 9000 series can see uplift of around 20-30% in games, Assetto Corsa is one example, but even then you'd probably be better off saving cash and opting for a 9600 over the 9700.

If you play random AA/AAA games rather than specifically focus on one or two which fit the aforementioned niche, you're wasting money. You'd be better off spending the money elsewhere and sticking with a GPU upgrade, or saving longer for an X3D chip, but all of this would be easier to advise on with a clear use case and overall budget.
 
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treker_ed said:
on this occasion, from a cost perspective, these are the most cost effective that I can afford at this time
Click to expand...
It isn't cost effective to upgrade your CPU at all, that's what we're getting at. A 7000 series CPU to a 9000 series CPU is an incremental upgrade at best and unlikely to be noticeable outside of niche cases. You're really just throwing money in the bin.

GPU: no argument there, a 3070 can be upgraded meaningfully/affordably (affordable is subjective, but eh).
 
tamzzy said:
what is your budget?
Click to expand...

Gray2233 said:
Coming from what you have you're looking at about 5-10% CPU uplift if that in games, do you actually use the PC for anything else or is it just gaming?

There is actually the odd niche scenario where the jump from a 7000 series to a 9000 series can see uplift of around 20-30% in games, Assetto Corsa is one example, but even then you'd probably be better off saving cash and opting for a 9600 over the 9700.

If you play random AA/AAA games rather than specifically focus on one or two which fit the aforementioned niche, you're wasting money. You'd be better off spending the money elsewhere and sticking with a GPU upgrade, or saving longer for an X3D chip, but all of this would be easier to advise on with a clear use case and overall budget.
Click to expand...
Gaming, surfing, some productivity! I have a rather eclectic choice of games that I play from AAA to indie, including one which is very heavily CPU dependant rather than being GPU dependant. Technically I don't have a budget as such, I have to save up literally every pound I have as do not work (due to health reasons). I receive no benefits (at this time), but thanks to the fact that we own our house outright so do not have mortgage or rent payments to make, and a wife who, thanks to her generous wage, she is able to give me a monthly stipend, which I can use as I see fit. However.... It's not a massive amount, and it takes time to save the sort of money we are talking about here, just for the GPU or CPU! Which Is why I am asking the question.

My other consideration between the chips is the TDP - 65w compared to 120w TDP compared to 105w in my current.
 
treker_ed said:
Gaming, surfing, some productivity! I have a rather eclectic choice of games that I play from AAA to indie, including one which is very heavily CPU dependant rather than being GPU dependant. Technically I don't have a budget as such, I have to save up literally every pound I have as do not work (due to health reasons). I receive no benefits (at this time), but thanks to the fact that we own our house outright so do not have mortgage or rent payments to make, and a wife who, thanks to her generous wage, she is able to give me a monthly stipend, which I can use as I see fit. However.... It's not a massive amount, and it takes time to save the sort of money we are talking about here, just for the GPU or CPU! Which Is why I am asking the question.

My other consideration between the chips is the TDP - 65w compared to 120w TDP compared to 105w in my current.
Click to expand...

I would just get the GPU upgrade, your motherboard will be fine with any of the CPU's you're looking at but there's really not much point.

I do think you will be pleasantly surprised by the performance uplift a graphics card will offer you, there's really no need in your situation to buy a new CPU unless going for an X3D, which in of itself isn't really necessary for a good gaming experience and the cards you're looking at.

Put the saving on the CPU into a pot for when the inevitible 10X000 series of CPU's launch on AM5 in a year or two, or your gaming budget! If you're really chomping at the bit to enjoy yourself, how is your sound system, what about peripherals like your mouse/keyboard/controller setup etc?
 
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treker_ed said:
My other consideration between the chips is the TDP - 65w compared to 120w TDP compared to 105w in my current.
Click to expand...
The X3D CPUs are very power efficient with a fairly low power use when gaming, so the TDP is misleading on that front and really used more as a guide for cooling for OEMs.

The 7600X can be set to 65 if you want to run it more efficiently, but for gaming it is very similar to the 9700X regardless. The X3Ds on the other hand, can generate more frames per watt.
 
treker_ed said:
Thank you for the comments so far.

The choices I've made in regards to the upgrades were settled on after nearly 2 weeks of reading reviews across multiple sites, and reviewing the various differences in the hardware between Zen 4 & Zen 5 architecture, and AMD & Nvidia GPUs. Whilst I appreciate other peoples opinions, on this occasion, from a cost perspective, these are the most cost effective that I can afford at this time. The X3D versions (whilst seemingly on special offer at the moment) seem to be in the order of £540 for the 9800X3D normally, and £499 for the 7800X3D, prices I cannot justify spending at the moment (even taking into account any special offers). For the CPU I've specced above, from where I normally purchase, its currently sat at £305, expensive, yes, but between £194 - £235 cheaper than those suggested, which would pay for the extra memory, or even a couple of 2TB SSDs or NVME drives!

The PSU was purchased, and installed before the ATX 3.0 specification, and is not designed for RTX4000/RTX5000 or the AMD equivalent GPUS, it is no longer being manufactured by Thermaltake, and is not rated for use with these GPUs (based on the information I can find) this is why it needs to be replaced. This one would actually be recycled into a media PC that I have to replace a PSU that is getting on for 10 years old, if not older, that is currently sat in that PC, which I built as a project back in 2020/2021!

The 64GB of ram would just be a nice thing to have, but not an essential upgrade, it's just one of those things that's on my mind to do at some stage in my rigs life path!

The advice that I am after is what would be best initial upgrade to my system based on the components stated above in my initial post? CPU or GPU
Click to expand...

It's only worth upgrading your GPU . Not worth changing ram or CPU

Whatabout getting some decent speakers ?
 
hornetstinger said:
Whatabout getting some decent speakers ?
Click to expand...
yeah, I love a good set of speakers for my PC, that or a decent OLED monitor would be great.

Agree with the rest of the comments about not stressing too much about the CPU. I would definitely consider AMD in this case as their 9070XT is great.
 
treker_ed said:
My other consideration between the chips is the TDP - 65w compared to 120w TDP compared to 105w in my current.
Click to expand...

My 7800x3d rarely pulls more than 58w when gaming thanks to it being undervolted and overclocked so don't get caught up in TDP figures as they are absolute worse figures.

I am with the others with regards to the cpu. Going from a 7600x to a 9700x is a complete waste of time and money. Stick with your 7600x for the time being and save up some more for a 7800x3d or 9800x3d, you will get the biggest gain from a gpu upgrade anyway. One of AMD's 9070/9070XT gpu's would be a very big jump in performance from a 3070. I made the switch from a 3070 that was running out of vram at 1440p to my current 7900GRE and that was a very nice upgrade, the 9070/9070XT is even more powerful.

Don't replace the psu which is a very good one. If going with Nvidia or certain 9070XT's just use the adaptor that comes with the gpu if needed. Many 9070/9070XT still use good old pci-e connectors.
 
Tetras said:
It isn't cost effective to upgrade your CPU at all, that's what we're getting at. A 7000 series CPU to a 9000 series CPU is an incremental upgrade at best and unlikely to be noticeable outside of niche cases. You're really just throwing money in the bin.

GPU: no argument there, a 3070 can be upgraded meaningfully/affordably (affordable is subjective, but eh).
Click to expand...

Video of me throwing money at my computer

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Watch VID_20250519_142958434 | Streamable

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:D
 
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