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I am just looking for some advice regarding possible upgrade paths for my PC,
Currently have a 3900x, 16 gb ram, x570 mobo, 2080ti.
I just got a new monitor which is 4k 240hz, so that is what I will be driving.
options:
1 - upgrade now to a 5800x3d, get another 16gb of RAM, upgrade to a 7900xtx or 4080super
2 - hold off till the end of year/ early 2025 and upgrade to AM5, new RAM, 9800x3d or whatever that tier of SKU ends up being, look at RDNA 4 or rtx5080
3 - same as option 1 but to a 5080 or future RDNA 4 SKU.
It's been roughly 5 years since I built this PC and that tends to be my upgrade cadence.
thoughts/opinions would be appreciated, essentially: is it worth the extra $$$ to change platform in my use case with the next upgrade probably 5 years out.
I play a mix of esports and AAA titles. I'm fine to play on 'sweet spot' settings, don't need to max everything, RT is nice to have, but not a deal breaker. I really like DLSS but also not a deal breaker if I am getting +20% raster performance for example.
Edit: I can get a sapphire pulse 7900xtx for 730 usd but it’s time sensitive.
5800x3d would probably do fine for you unless you really want max CPU perf. The AM5 platform is currently a lot of money and bother to get like +30% for games, zen5 x3d will probably expand that to maybe +50% and it'll be a couple of years until zen6 x3d exists to be a really compelling upgrade.
The upgrades to Zen 3 and to vcache were much more impactful and easy since it doesn't require any software or hardware change other than taking off the CPU cooler and swapping CPU. No different board, no different RAM and no reinstalling windows BS. At the top end of the gains, going from a 3900x to 5800x3d was +150% perf on WoW.
Sweet sounds good.
I’m going to pull the trigger on the 7900xtx as well as it’s something like 30% cheaper than a 4080super in my region.
On January 11 2025 18:41 Firebolt145 wrote: I'm looking at what else would require upgrading if I were to buy an RTX 5080 to replace my 3070.
I currently have: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CORSAIR - TX550M Semi-Modular ATX PSU - 550 W MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX Motherboard ATX Crucial Ballistix BL2K8G36C16U4W 3600 MHz, DDR4, 16GB
Any of this stuff compatible?
I would consider a 5800x3D for the same socket (do check that it s ok with your motherboard) and also likely a PSU upgrade since the 5080 is rumoured to use 300+ W
On January 11 2025 18:41 Firebolt145 wrote: I'm looking at what else would require upgrading if I were to buy an RTX 5080 to replace my 3070.
I currently have: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CORSAIR - TX550M Semi-Modular ATX PSU - 550 W MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX Motherboard ATX Crucial Ballistix BL2K8G36C16U4W 3600 MHz, DDR4, 16GB
Any of this stuff compatible?
I would consider a 5800x3D for the same socket (do check that it s ok with your motherboard) and also likely a PSU upgrade since the 5080 is rumoured to use 300+ W
Agreed with the above. 5800X3D is ideal, but if you're comfortable, 5700X3D from Aliexpress is around 200USD or so, maybe lower with the New Year's sales.
It only has two PCI-E 8pin connectors, likely isn't enough given that the 5080 will probably have a 3x 8pin -> 16 pin adapter. There's adapters you can use to get the other peripheral connectors to an 8 pin, but it's sketchy at best.
Good advice, i would just grab a 5700x3d at the same time because the uplift from a 3600 is pretty enormous (in some cases it can reach 2x), value is pretty good with it using the same mobo/RAM (just BIOS update) & the 3600 is going to be a much more frequent and severe limiter when you double your graphics card performance.
You also need to double check the clearance on your case because graphics cards have gotten generally much larger, and different models are different sizes
Thanks for chipping in. Is the 5800x3d not worth the extra price over the 5700x3d?
I'll probably wait and see how the 5080 reviews look and how the selling prices are here in Australia before committing to upgrading. I'm seeing rumours that supply might be rubbish again.
On January 24 2025 05:08 Firebolt145 wrote: Thanks for chipping in. Is the 5800x3d not worth the extra price over the 5700x3d?
I'll probably wait and see how the 5080 reviews look and how the selling prices are here in Australia before committing to upgrading. I'm seeing rumours that supply might be rubbish again.
Depends on the price, it's around 10% faster across the board but it went EOL a while ago
My computer disconnects my monitors when I bump into it, while I could perhaps inspect the GPU area or check the cords or something, I think I would like to instead buy new computer parts before tariffs happen,
What is your current build? AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Tuf Gaming X570 Plus NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
What is your monitor's native resolution? Like 144p or something, theres like three and one of them is a Huion tablet
Why do you want to upgrade? What do you want to achieve with the upgrade? CPU overheats sometimes. Thats probably just a thermal paste needs replacing issue? Would just like generally better performance, probably better cooling (its all fans atm) before tariffs fuck me when something breaks, since its gotten warmer Im getting more 84C CPU Overheating shutdowns from doing what I didnt imagine was super burdensome 3D work. So mostly considering a new CPU/Cooler, but a good value upgrade on my 3070 is also something Im considering, but I have a hard time imagining prices are great atm.
What is your budget? Open, but not trying to spend 1000 dollars on a graphics card open.
What country will you be buying your parts in? The US, sigh...
If you have any brand or retailer preferences, please specify. I trust your recommendations O Wise Ones
EDIT: spooked by tariffs, I bought a Phantom Spirit 120 EVO CPU cooler, 64gb of RAM, a Ryzen 7 9800x3D processor, an RX 7900 XT gpu and a Tuf B650-E WiFi motherboard because my computer is old and shit cascaded. Sigh.
After the core parts of the last system everyone here helped me with held together held almost 12 years since my original question I'd love some advice on its successor.
What's stayed constant ever since is the combination of i7 4770k / Gigabyte Z87X-D3H / 550 Watt be quiet Dark Power pro 10 / Phanteks PH-TC14PE / Fractal Define R4.
A couple of days ago I had an instant shutdown during regular usage and haven't been able to get the system working anymore, memory tests & GPU tests via a Linux bootstick work fine but the second I do any combined test with the CPU or a CPU test alone it just shuts off, under-/overvolting/underclocking the CPU didn't help at all. Since to me that sounds like it's time to finally let it rest in peace (I'd assume it's the PSU though) I'd like to move to the AM5 platform where I can chill for the next 12 years maybe. What I plan on keeping from the old build: * Fractal Define R4 Midi Tower (I've looked around some but it truly seems like there hasn't been some massive leap I'm missing out on - also there's way too many towers with glass these days) * Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU cooler (I've contacted Phanteks regarding a mount kit for the AM4/AM5 platform, if that ends up taking too long I picked out another cooler) * 1070Ti, it's not keeping up with modern day AAA stuff but for right now it's fine. I do plan on upgrading to something like the RX 7800XT within the next half year or so if the lack of performance there starts to annoy me.
What I plan to buy within the next week: * Ryzen 5 7500F (144€) * AsRock B650M-HDV/M.2 (131€) * be quiet! Pure Power 12 M (88€) * WD Blue SN580 1TB (60€) * 32GB G.Skill DDR5-6000 DIMM CL36-36-36-96 kit (90€) * Arctic Freezer 36 CO Tower (30€)
My main issue: Motherboard. Between confusing naming schemes for every manufacturer I checked so far and sometimes very weird and subtle differences I'm a bit lost there and very open to recommendations in a similar price range where you guys think I might be happier with longterm for various reasons. Keep in mind I do plan on staying with AM5 for at least another 5 years and both support as well as (moderate) OC capabilities do matter to me. I was very happy with my old board in that regard.
I do have a proper audio setup with studio monitors and have a hard time finding out how much difference there is between the various Realtek audio chips via reviews - I might just end up buying a proper soundcard in the end but maybe anyone has ideas regarding that as well.
Also not sure if it matters but I do plan on dualbooting Arch Linux / Win10 for the time being. Hopefully that's still as easy on todays hardware as 10 years ago though.
Quicker questions: RAM. Am I understanding it correctly that "on-die-ECC" is more of a marketing gimmick that won't matter unless we're talking about server systems? "unbuffered" RAM is around 20-40€ cheaper. (And is the specific one I picked even decent?)
NVME SSD. Does manufacturer and whatnot genuinely matter these days when it comes to reliability or is "eh, just pick whatever is cheapest" a good idea?
PSU. Is 550W still fine for a system like this / is the be quiet! Pure Power line known to be reliable? I don't plan on buying flagship GPUs, part of me going this route with a cheap AM5 process is however that I can upgrade both CPU and GPU over the next few years when I'm not happy with performance anymore.
Thank you guys for some help in advance & I love that I'm still recognizing a couple names around here (hi Cyro! <3).
What route would you guys suggest when looking to add storage?
I’m currently on a 2tb nvme with only one more slot left.
If I buy an nvme, I’d probably want to go for a 4tb one, which can be had for ~$300. Idk whether I’d need that much, but with only one slot left, I wouldn’t want to settle for 2tb.
Or I can play it slow and buy a 2tb sata ssd for ~$100. I have 2 free sata slots. Feel like storage is one of those parts where its usually worth waiting because it still keeps getting faster/larger/cheaper.
what could be a worthwhile upgrade from a 5700xt to something that I can find second hand and save some bucks? hopefully something under $300... would prefer nvidia though, since amd's software issues are becoming a bit annoying, specifically adrenaline forgetting the settings I make (I turned off hybrid sleep but it didn't help...) Or if you know a surefire solution for that, that'd be very welcome too!
On May 12 2025 01:53 mantequilla wrote: what could be a worthwhile upgrade from a 5700xt to something that I can find second hand and save some bucks? hopefully something under $300... would prefer nvidia though, since amd's software issues are becoming a bit annoying, specifically adrenaline forgetting the settings I make (I turned off hybrid sleep but it didn't help...) Or if you know a surefire solution for that, that'd be very welcome too!
Difficult at that price, since stuff is not that much faster or has the same 8GB of VRAM etc. Maybe you can find a 3080 or take a smaller upgrade
If you can sell the 5700xt and add that to $300 (I assume USD) for a $400-$450 budget, the 5060ti (16gb) is probably the "best" new card you can get at ~60% faster than your current card. A used 4070 might be in the cards at that budget too.
If you're limited to $300, you can't really get a meaningful upgrade. Maybe 30% faster, but not really "worth" the cost.
When I see cards like the 3070 or 3070 Ti with wattage numbers around 320W, it makes me wonder—are these like small electric heaters? I’ve never used something with that kind of power. My mom used to have a 500W oven she used to bake pastries in...
On May 14 2025 02:23 mantequilla wrote: When I see cards like the 3070 or 3070 Ti with wattage numbers around 320W, it makes me wonder—are these like small electric heaters? I’ve never used something with that kind of power. My mom used to have a 500W oven she used to bake pastries in...
Only 3080 is that high (and can be undervolted very effectively), but yes
On May 14 2025 02:23 mantequilla wrote: When I see cards like the 3070 or 3070 Ti with wattage numbers around 320W, it makes me wonder—are these like small electric heaters? I’ve never used something with that kind of power. My mom used to have a 500W oven she used to bake pastries in...
A lot of people have started to lower power consumption (heat) and thus make them more quiet. Performance is usually close to equal even with a smaller power budget since they clock up to similar levels, assuming you got a decent to good example of the card. If you got a bad one you are stuck at the high power draw or a large reduction in performance.
Overall you are seeing massively diminishing returns on pretty much all computer hardware now a days. With performance per watt or performance per $ improving around 10-15% per generation if you are lucky. A good generation hits both those marks.
for 1080p, is there a difference btw 4070 super 12gb and 5070 12gb? benchmark scores seem very close, but I don't know if 5070 has some newer technology that can make a difference in the coming years
5070 here is available for $680 (new) and 4070 super is $555 (used)
EPT
