Find a $500-$800 AUD budget to keep my gaming PC strong for the long term.
Find a $500-$800 AUD budget to keep my gaming PC strong for the long term.
Hey guys, this PC started with some cool stuff back about five years ago and now I'm thinking about what should come first when it comes to upgrades. Right now, my parts are: Mobo is an Asrock x570 Phantom gaming 4, the CPU is an AMD 5600x, the GPU is an RTX 3070, and I have 16gb of memory (Corsair vengeance LPX) running at 3600MHz. The power comes from an EVGA 750w G+ and my storage is a Corsair 500Gb m.2 2280 NVMe PCIe. My main goal right now is to switch to a 1440p screen because mine is just 1080p. If I had this setup today, what would be the best thing to upgrade on first? I need to keep my performance high for new and super graphically demanding games that are coming out these days. Thanks so much in advance!
If you have my setup, what is the first thing you should upgrade? You need something to handle newer games better because they are more demanding on graphics. Please follow these rules: use bold words for key info like this one in every reply. I made this thread so people can get good advice here and on CPU forums. We can all help out there. When asking about your current system, list the parts like this: Processor, cooler, motherboard, RAM, hard drive or SSD, graphics card, power supply, case, operating system, monitor, plus how old the power supply is besides its brand and model. You also need to tell me your BIOS version right now for the motherboard. I moved this thread from the Components section over to Systems because that makes more sense here.
Hey everyone! I built this gaming PC back about five years ago with these specific specs. Now that it's been a while, I'm thinking about what upgrades would be best for me to start making. Here are my current parts: CPU: AMD 5600X, Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S Chromax Black Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 (BIOS: P3.60, dated Jan 12, 2020) RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB running at 3600MHz SSD/HDD: Corsair 500GB m.2 2280 NVMe PCIe and a Samsung 1TB SSD using the 860 EVO drive for SATA, Graphics Card: ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 Power Supply: EVGA 750W SuperNOVA G+ Modular Power Supply rated at Gold efficiency (about five years old) Case: Deepcool Matrexx 50 Black E-ATX Case Operating System: Windows 10 Monitor: MSI Optix G32C4W with a resolution of 1920x1080 and a refresh rate of 165Hz Budget Range: Roughly between $500 to $800 AUD. My main use for this setup is gaming. Ranking things by importance, the most important part is the GPU because it makes all the graphics look good. Other parts are less critical right now. I want to upgrade these parts so that I can keep playing newer and more graphically intense games on medium or high settings at 60+ FPS in the future. Thanks for helping out!
What kinds of games do you play? Fast action? Multiplayer? Sims or strategy? From a power perspective, your upgrades are mostly about adding more processor threads, going from 12 up to 32 on that 5950X. That helps with multiplayer but not other types. Here is the CPU support list: https://pg.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570 Phantom Gaming 4/index.asp#CPU The single thread speed hardly changes, and there seems to be no X3D support. A power boost will need a motherboard change and probably a ram upgrade to DDR5 and 32GB. Go ahead and buy an upgraded monitor. See how you do. I might suggest looking at a 4k monitor in the first place. You can always adjust settings or resolution. With a 3070, there are no issues with games like civilization running at 120hz. A big graphics upgrade will likely also need a power supply change.
In this situation I'd recommend a dedicated graphics card like a GPU, especially if you're playing in 1440p. You can add more RAM too, but that would cost way more than your budget allows. Here is the list of parts: Memory comes as G.Skill Ripjaws V with 32 GB (two sticks of 16 GB) at $115 from Centre Com. The video card is a Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7800 XT with 16 GB for $749 also from Centre Com. That brings the total cost to $864. Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. This list was made by PCPartPicker on May 15th, 2025 in Australia (AEST+10 hours).
actually, the best move is to swap out your graphics card and buy two sticks of 16 gigabytes of memory running at 3600 megahertz. unfortunately, spending five hundred to eight hundred dollars in australia isn't enough to upgrade your GPU meaningfully. the cheapest option right now is an RTX 5060 Ti with sixteen gigabytes which costs eighty-one nine dollars and you get better performance in 14k resolution than your old card thanks to newer features and twice as much video memory. but it's still not worth buying because it only runs ten percent faster at the basic graphics part compared to your RTX 3070 model. I would also skip an older Radeon 7800 xt with FSR three which is just twenty five percent faster than your RTX 3070 and too expensive for seven hundred dollars of money. you should aim for a newer RTX 5070 or Radeon 9070 instead as these are the best ways to make a big difference over your current card. another option would be to switch to an AM5 platform now so you can upgrade the graphics later in time. you won't get any new pictures right away but you will free up your old AM4 system for something better. on top of that, a nine six zero x processor paired with a B850 motherboard and two sticks of twenty gigabytes of DDR five memory should fit within eighty dollars to eight hundred AUD budget. here is the part list from pcpart picker based on their prices as of this moment today plus shipping costs included in the total price. the cpu comes with its own cooler though if you want something better and also for running pbo maybe it's time to get a stronger cooler that's quieter too or just stick with your current noctua cooler which might be fine.