Wanting Opinions on PC Upgrade

Sepp on 17/07/2023 - 22:08

So my dillema is that Im running an RTX 3070, 3700X, 32Gb 3200MHZ RAM on a B450 Aorous ITX board. I game at 1440P and I'm finding theres some games and scenarios where I'm just not getting as much out of my system as I was three years ago. Its a 3 year old PC so im at half of its life and I'm considering doing a mid-step upgrade.

I was looking at the 7900 XT / 7900 XTX but im concerned of Bottle-Necking. I've also looked at the 5800X3D but I occasionally like streaming and it feels like the 5800X3D will become too good for my 3070.

For any fellow tech enthusiasts I guess I'm wondering what you guys would do in my scenario. I am going to wait for bargains to buy hardware of course.

Computing Computer Desktop Computer

Comments

  • John Doh on 17/07/2023 - 22:23

    That is a very balanced system. Upgrading one will bottleneck the other. 3070 is still good for 1440 unless you want the best of latest AAA games at high FPS. I would wait and upgrade altogether when I had the cash. For example, I would wait for the Ryzen 8000 CPU and GPU if I had that system and at 1440P.

    My Path: I had a 3700X and GTX 1080. I upgraded my 1440P to 42 C2 and my GTX 1080 was a huge bottleneck for 4K. So I upped the GPU to used 3080Ti and CPU to 5600(for 180$ with free game and sold the 3700X). Now its a balanced system for 4K and would let it sit there for another gen. Had I stayed at 1440p, I would have probably upped the GTX 1080 to a 3080 10GB or 12GB. But if I had a 3070, wouldnt have bothered. Strictly YMMV.

    • Sepp on 17/07/2023 - 22:41

      Yeah I get where you’re coming from. I tried exoprimal this weekend and the game hovers 60-80fps on low and it’s like come on man I’m at 1440p and the game can’t even hold 120fps. I’m worried how Starfield will run

      • John Doh on 17/07/2023 - 22:52

        Like I said YMMV. If you feel gaming is a priority and you spend lots of time on it and not happy with the performance, then upgrade it. I would do 7800X3D and 4080 minimum. 7900XTX is not bad, but 4080 is dipping in price too occasionally.

        • Sepp on 18/07/2023 - 06:51

          Yeah that sort of goes into new PC territory if I’m doing both when I can only do GPU or CPU at the moment

          • John Doh on 18/07/2023 - 07:30

            @Sepp: If you want better performance right now and can only afford one, go with GPU upgrade, also sell your 3700X for 150 if you can and pick up a 5600 for 50 bux more. I got my 5600 running at 4.65 using curve optimiser and it runs cool and quite within the default power envelop. System feels overeall snappier compared to 3700X and is definitely noticeable. 1440P isnt hard to drive, so nvidia or AMD card depends on if you would like to RT or not. DLSS is always an added bonus so is the fake frame generator which would get better over time like dlss, but VRAM on AMD cards is also a bonus if you want to support AMD. If I would buy a card today it would be a 4080 around a 1500 to 1600 mark on deals. Or you can wait for the 4080Ti if that ever happens.

            Note that once you upgrade the GPU, you will start feeling bad that you are bottlenecking it and will start thinking about CPU upgrade. It happened to me and thats why the 3700X to 5600.

          • Sinnerator on 19/07/2023 - 08:43

            @Sepp: sell current rig and buy new pc?
            put it on a credit card?
            If it's important/fun and you spend a lot a lot of time on it, then invest the money in yourself :-)

      • scrimshaw on 17/07/2023 - 23:52

        If Starfield is the game you're interested in playing, the CPU requirements appear to be pretty tame and you should be fine sticking with your current processor.

        Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K
        Memory: 16 GB RAM
        Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (?)

        The GPU requirements are a bit higher and if visual quality is what you're aiming for, then I would suggest GPU upgrade as a higher priority (mainly because of 8GB VRAM limitation on RTX 3070)

        The recommendation is pretty strange for nVidia cards however:, the RTX 2080 is older and lower end than the RX 6800XT. Maybe they have taken ray tracing performance into account.

        • Sepp on 18/07/2023 - 06:51

          Hmm interesting. I think you might be right

  • AustriaBargain on 17/07/2023 - 22:34

    I'd do nothing and upgrade in a few years. Maybe get a XSX to hold you over if you pay for your games, that way you don't need to worry about performance, you just get what you get.

    • Sepp on 17/07/2023 - 22:39

      XSX and PS5 are just showing their age too much for me being forced to play triple A games at 30fps is just pointless for me

      • AustriaBargain on 17/07/2023 - 22:43

        But that's an intended experience. When they were designing the games they were testing them on 30fps machines because that's what most people (all console players and most actual PC players) will experience it at. If you got the Gamepass deal then $25 a year to play Starfield and the rest will be worth it. Though they will work on PC too with the Gamepass deal as well..

      • Qazxswec on 17/07/2023 - 22:44

        but pretty much every ps5 game runs at a minimum of 60fps

  • garetz on 17/07/2023 - 22:40

    https://pc-builds.com/bottleneck-calculator/

    good way to see if you have a bottle neck instead of just being concerned.

    While running general tasks, processor AMD Ryzen 7 3700X will be utilized 100.0% and graphic card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 will be utilized 100.0% .

    looks like they are perfect for each other.

    For the configuration you specified to upgrade to:

    AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is too weak for AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT on 2560 × 1440 pixels screen resolution for General Tasks.

    This configuration has 18.8% of processor bottleneck .

    • Sepp on 17/07/2023 - 22:47

      Yeah the 5800x3d is apparently perfect for 3070 as well according to that. It also says the 5800x3d will bottle neck the 7900xt

  • jv on 17/07/2023 - 22:43
    +2

    For any fellow tech enthusiasts I guess I'm wondering what you guys would do in my scenario.

    I'd look at upgrading my mouse mat first.

  • OMGJL on 17/07/2023 - 23:23

    I recommend you learn what bottlenecks your system properly before making your decision.

    if you player multiplayer, or games that come with a lot of NPC / AI / Calculations, you are more likely CPU/RAM bottlenecked,

    if you play AAA with pretty texture and everything, GPU upgrade might be on a higher priority.

    Download CapFrameX, record your FPS/Frametime graph, screenshot and share it here, I am happy to break it down for you.

    • Sepp on 18/07/2023 - 06:52

      I’ll do this and report back when

  • 2-1 on 18/07/2023 - 09:30

    I agree with the opinions posted so far.

    Between 7900xt/xtx, I think the 7900xt is the way to go so you can save a bit of money to get the CPU upgrade sooner to achieve better balance. With a GPU and CPU upgrade you can hang on comfortably with the AM4 platform for a couple of more years.

  • jk82 on 18/07/2023 - 10:53

    Can you get both? 7900XTX (or a 4080) and a 5800X3D would give you a solid system for another 5-6 years

  • TheFreaK on 18/07/2023 - 11:02

    Wait for another generation or two, current generations of GPUs and CPUs just aren't in a great spot especially with Nvidia's 40 range

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