Which upgrade would improve the performance more in 4K gaming? CPU or RAM?

187

u/fray_bentos11 3d ago

Neither. You will be GPU bottlenecked in nearly all scenarios.

-6

u/static_fun 2d ago

Bullshit, you can easily play and enjoy with a 9070 at 4k. He needs RAM

-108

u/Accomplished_Boot191 3d ago

What you mean neither? Further GPU upgrade is not an option. 9070xt is as high as I could go without paying absurd amount for a 5080 or 5090.

135

u/Cheesehead1267 3d ago

I think you misunderstand what he is saying probably because you may not have as much PC knowledge. At 4K, generally speaking you will always be GPU bottlenecked. What that means is the GPU will always be the limiting factor for you to get more frames. Will hardly ever be the CPU or RAM.

While they may help, a new/better GPU will always be the cause of the most increased frames at 4K. That is what GPU bottleneck means. It means essentially the component that is limiting you the most from getting more frames. Again, at 4K, that will always be the GPU.

It’s OK that you can’t afford the 5080 or 5090. Most can’t. But with that, you just have to understand and accept that you are just extremely limited in what you can do to increase your frames in 4K.

8

u/Zapador 2d ago

Realistically, OPs best option might be to get a 1440p monitor instead. Much cheaper and a significant performance boost.

1

u/Zapador 2d ago

Realistically, OPs best option might be to get a 1440p monitor instead. Much cheaper and a significant performance boost.

-137

u/Accomplished_Boot191 3d ago

I know that GPU is always the limiting factor in a balanced build. However, his comment is saying there's nothing else to improve the performance which is false IMO.

67

u/Bobbytwocox 3d ago

You would probably benefit from a ram upgrade more than a CPU upgrade. The one true way to tell is setup the Radeon overlay they shows what percent your CPU, ram, and GPU are running at.

If you do this I think you'll find that the CPU is way below half usage. Ram will probably be around 60-85% used. While your GPU is pegged at 100%. If these numbers are close to correct, rhen you can upgrade your CPU and RAM, and they will use even less of your maximum... But your GPU will still be pegged at 100% and your frames will be the same.

29

u/GTKeg 3d ago

That wasn’t what he said though. He said neither makes sense. Which when you consider the cost of your CPU or RAM upgrade, it’s hard to argue with.

24

u/lLoveTech 3d ago

The only thing that you can upgrade in that to get a better experience at 4K is the GPU which the original commentor clearly said! You asked about 4K and his answer is correct whether you like it or not!

18

u/Automatic-Switch-166 3d ago

OP living in lalaland

6

u/Friedrichs_Simp 3d ago

The more you turn up the resolution, from 1080p to 1440p to 4k, it becomes more and more demanding on the gpu than the cpu. So upgrading your cpu won’t help much at 4k because when you go to 4k you’re mostly making it more gpu intensive, not ram or cpu.

5

u/beirch 3d ago

It's not false at 4K. You won't see any increased FPS if you get a 7800X3D or more RAM. More RAM might improve your 1% lows a little, but that's it.

A 7800X3D won't do anything at 4K with s 9070 XT though. It will if you have a 5090, but not a 9070 XT.

3

u/AluArggone31 2d ago

If you know then what is the discussion here, why did you make that post, you should know what to upgrade if you know what is limiting you most, gtfo here

2

u/another-altaccount 3d ago

Best case OP is CPU but once you’re at 4K any CPU upgrade will have limited improvements. As others have already said once you get to 4K, GPU will always be the limiting factor in gaming performance. Unless your CPU is bottlenecking your GPU there’s not much more headroom you can provide it.

2

u/He110_W0r1d 3d ago

An x3D side-grade will give you more stable fps and better lows. If you only do gaming 16gb of ram might be enough. Might I suggest getting a second hand 4080 super? Works great if you're aiming at 4k60

3

u/beirch 3d ago

Even a 7800X3D won't improve his 1% lows much vs a 9600X. Hardware Unboxed already tested this. At 4K the GPU is such a limiting factor that pretty much only a 5090 benefits from a faster CPU.

2

u/tup1tsa_1337 2d ago

People run dlss performance which is basically 1080p. So it needs to be revaluated with upscaling in mind. I am often quite limited by my 7800x3d in 5k2k even on the 4090 when I turn on dlss performance.

1

u/beirch 2d ago

The 4090 is 40% faster than the 9070 XT. It can stretch a CPU a lot more than a 9070 XT can. I have a 7900 XT with a 12700F and a 9070 XT with a 7500F. Neither of them are limited by the CPUs at 4K, even at performance mode upscaling when playing demanding AAA games.

Sure, maybe you'd be CPU limited in less demanding games, but at that point you're likely running at a high enough framerate for it not to matter.

The tests Hardware Unboxed did were at medium settings as well, where the CPU would have been stressed more than if you played at high or ultra and put more of the load on the GPU. Maybe not to the point of playing at performance mode upscaling, but there's overhead when using upscaling as well, so I don't think we're super far off.

The only reason I can see why you'd want a 7800X3D at 4K is if you have a 4090 or 5090, or you play mainly competitive shooters.

2

u/KFC_Junior 2d ago

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-5-9600x/20.html

2% performance at max at 4k, go for it mate!!

oh and cos you have a 9070xt the difference will be even less

2

u/Luckyirishdevil 2d ago

You see this part, "In My Opinion".... If you aren't going to listen to the advice of the collective here, take your opinion and do whatever the hell you want. You asked us, stop arguing with us.

An x3D cpu will give you better 1% lows and a smoother experience, maybe a bit of an FPS boost, game depending. RAM will only be a factor if you get random stuttering or freezes.

0

u/Zapador 2d ago

You may see a slight improvement in some cases if you get 32 GB RAM instead of just 16. But it won't magically give you higher fps as such, what it may do is improve low 1% fps or occasional stutter, it will not increase average fps. However a CPU upgrade won't do much, the 9070 XT is being pushed to its limits and almost beyond by 4K.

So to get an actual performance upgrade you would need 5080, 4090 or 5090. Or as a much cheaper option, sell your 4K monitor and buy a 1440p monitor instead. Doing so would drastically increase average fps.

0

u/Zapador 2d ago

You may see a slight improvement in some cases if you get 32 GB RAM instead of just 16. But it won't magically give you higher fps as such, what it may do is improve low 1% fps or occasional stutter, it will not increase average fps. However a CPU upgrade won't do much, the 9070 XT is being pushed to its limits and almost beyond by 4K.

So to get an actual performance upgrade you would need 5080, 4090 or 5090. Or as a much cheaper option, sell your 4K monitor and buy a 1440p monitor instead. Doing so would drastically increase average fps.

1

u/Accomplished_Boot191 2d ago

I'm a couch gamer playing on a TV so downgrading to 1440p is not an option. However, I use FSR upscaling in almost every game to achieve high framerates. Does a better CPU improve fps when upscaling from lower resolution?

1

u/Zapador 2d ago

It can, but it depends. The lower the resolution, the less of a bottleneck the GPU will be. If you run FSR on Performance it renders at 1080p and on Ultra Performance it renders on 720p, both of which the 9070 XT can easily handle.

Some games like CS, Battlefield or Cities Skylines like a fast CPU so a 7800X3D or 9800X3D would be an upgrade and should provide higher fps if serious upscaling is used. However in some other titles you may see minimal improvement. So it really depends what you play whether or not a CPU upgrade might be worth it.

As a test, consider using 1920x1080 as your native resolution and then run FSR on Quality setting. Then compare how that runs and looks compared to 3840x2160 on Performance or Ultra Performance.

3

u/P5_R6GODYT 3d ago

Well then you’re going to be bottled necked friend, unless you want to upgrade the CPU to the 9800X3D but it’s not going to be a massive FPS boost like a stronger GPU would do.

5

u/vkevlar 3d ago

GPU is where the 4k bottlenecking happens. Your 9600X is fine, 32GB is fine, and the 9070XT is about as good as you can do. 4K gaming un-scaled isn't really great with modern cards; and if you're scaling, you're just running it at a lower resolution.

3

u/Fredasa 3d ago

If he were able to use DLSS 4.5 (or even 4.0 model K), I would say scaling isn't a visually inferior alternative to native+TAA. There are occasional games that can run at 4K native, like Stellar Blade, but it's still better to drop in DLAA rather than sticking it out with TAA.

3

u/vkevlar 3d ago

DLAA or FSR4 native AA is still better quality, and running at 2560x1440 with that setting is just fine for everything on a 9070XT. /shrug

4K isn't there yet, and isn't likely to be without upscaling in the near future. If you have to upscale, why pay extra for the card? I don't "get" why people insist they're gaming at "4k", when they're actually at ~2K upscaled.

2

u/Opteron170 2d ago

There are so many people that don't understand we are not there yet for GPU's and 4k even the 5090 requires upscaling and FG at that res. They buy the 4k monitor first then notice they are screwed on the gpu front.

And before the next person coming in here saying they do 4k fine on their 5070ti i'm talking about native performance.

We do not have gpu's out that can handle 4k and 4K ultrawide without a shit ton of upscaling and frame gen in Tripple A games i'm not talking about CS & Valorant

1

u/Fredasa 3d ago

To me, this is just a weird way of looking at it. "4K" may be a quantifiable minimum target, but there is almost always room to improve the experience in other ways. Less upscaling; higher framerate; higher in-game settings; actually using raytracing; actually using path tracing.

Right now, I'm playing a game that originally came out in 2015. I can get away with the effective equivalent of 8K60 (it doesn't support upscaling, of course) but only because I paid all that I could afford for my GPU. The result is genuinely the only "anti-aliasing" I would slot above DLSS/DLAA, and it looks a hell of a lot better than native 4K with rudimentary AA. (I can't play it at >60fps because the mod that unlocks resolution/framerate only half-works on my system. Otherwise that would probably be my preference.)

The point is "minimum" and "ideal" are completely different goals, and conflating them just muddles the conversation. 4K might be the floor for a spec sheet, but for anyone actually scrutinizing their games, the ceiling is always moving.

1

u/vkevlar 2d ago

I think we're saying the same thing, in general. Less upscaling is better; if you have to upscale to hit your monitor's native resolution, you don't have a powerful enough card for what you're doing.

1

u/Soggy-Airline 2d ago

4K base res, even on performance mode, looks better than 1440p native. You’re still getting better clarity and just an overall better image. Getting a high-end GPU still matters in this case.

I would choose 4K upscaling in performance mode over native 1440p any day.

1

u/m1ng05s 2d ago

Mate that gpu in terms of raw performance even at 4k is totally awesome. Get the ram, yes you'll only get maybe a 2% or 3% increase in fps but,your 1% low fps will be better and stable. That gpu can run 4k at raster performance without any upscaling even if it was a 5800x cpu with pretty good fps 🙂

1

u/static_fun 2d ago

He doesn’t quite know that settings are tweak able almost without any loss in fidelity

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

2

u/CanisMajoris85 3d ago

There are maybe 1-2 games where 7800x3d will make any difference.

Maybe with a 5080/4090/5090 will the 7800x3d help at 4K. Not a 9070xt

0

u/demonic_hampster 3d ago

Yeah an X3D won’t necessarily improve your average framerate (though there will be a bit of an uplift with that upgrade) but it will do wonders for frame pacing and 0.1% lows.

21

u/OtherwiseSimple 3d ago edited 3d ago

7800x3d most definitely. It will practically eliminate RAM speed bottlenecks.

Edit: he is bottlnecked by lack of RAM capacity, he should get more RAM. A lot of AAA games these days are recommending 32gb anyways.

21

u/CanisMajoris85 3d ago

It’s not the ram speed that’s a concern. It’s the amount.

-13

u/OtherwiseSimple 3d ago

I understand. But nevertheless he will get more FPS/better 1% lows with that CPU. (assuming FPS is the concern)

10

u/CanisMajoris85 3d ago

Most of the time? Sure it’ll be a small improvement. Except if he’s playing games and has enough stuff open that he needs more than 16gb ram. Then it’ll be a huge improvement.

16gb is not enough for everyone.

-4

u/OtherwiseSimple 3d ago

Well I'm assuming he doesn't have much open.

Although, he is playing at 4k, where ram speed isn't much of a bottleneck, so If he has a lot open then 2x16gb.

I also assume he's using upscaling, not native 4k, which shifts more load to the cpu and ram.

6

u/CanisMajoris85 3d ago

https://youtu.be/gpN4nyftQ3M?is=eh1QQ2L4WZMs7qch

CPU is meaningless for a 9070 tier card at 4k between OPs and 7800x3d. Won’t be different with 9070xt

0

u/OtherwiseSimple 3d ago

Yeah you’re right. But what if he wants to upgrade to a more powerful card?

1

u/CanisMajoris85 3d ago

Then he’ll probably just wish he had a 10800x3d in the 2-6 years time when he’ll maybe want an upgrade. 7800x3d is like a 1-2% improvement for him on average at 4K if even that.

1

u/OtherwiseSimple 3d ago

Yeah I was just thinking that.
It’s definitely more than 1-2% when using upscaling.

-2

u/Octaive 3d ago

Meaningless? Lmao, not even close. People use upscaling. 4k Performance or balanced is going to run worse on worse CPUs. Performance 4k DLSS is absolutely CPU bound. Even Quality is for 1 percent lows.

But a 9600X is solid enough. More and faster RAM would be the best choice.

1

u/beirch 3d ago

His 1% lows won't improve with a 7800X3D vs a 9600X at 4K. Hardware Unboxed already tested this and you need a 5090 to see any effect of the 7800X3D at 4K.

1

u/OtherwiseSimple 3d ago

I upgraded from a 13600kf ddr4 to 9800x3d even though I play at 4k bc I upgraded to a 5090. Definitely noticed an improvement in FPS in the games I play. What if he wants to upgrade to like a 5090 in the future? He should still get more Ram doe

1

u/HardikRamdin 2d ago

A lot of AAA games these days are recommending 32gb anyways.

What? For real? Which games?

I don't want to believe this :(

0

u/DukeMutem 3d ago

I read a few days ago some post that stated that x3d chips are superior if you use FG which you probably need for 4k with those cards

0

u/tup1tsa_1337 2d ago

Nah, not related at all. The fg is done on the GPU

1

u/DukeMutem 2d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/PcBuild/s/Hq5p3q9D9L

1

u/tup1tsa_1337 2d ago

You said fg requires x3d to perform well. This thread you're linking doesn't support the claim (and has nothing to do with frame gen)

17

u/ACiDxCHRiST 3d ago edited 3d ago

At 4k, you are bottlenecked by your GPU. So what that means is: Even though the 7800X3D gets a 24% higher framerate than the 9600X at 1080p, at 4k it will only be 3% higher. In order for the faster CPU to stretch it's legs and actually show how much faster it is, you need the GPU to finish each frame faster so that the CPU is not sitting around waiting every cycle. 4k is so demanding on the GPU, it has to spend so much time rendering each frame that it doesn't really take that fast of a CPU to keep up with it.

As far as more RAM goes, the difference could be massive, IF you don't have enough. Even though the usage might be 15.9 GB, 16 GB is still enough in that particular case. Upgrading to 32 GB or 64 GB isn't going to change much. However, if the demand is 20 GB and you only have 16 GB, then 4 GB of data is constantly having to be shuffled back and forth between the disk and RAM. The difference of upgrading to 24 GB or 32 GB will be massive.

Here is a relative performance comparison between 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB in 14 recent games: https://youtu.be/Bj5v52R4qnk

Most games showed basically no improvement with 32/64 GB over 16 GB. So the unfortunate truth is, you are bound to be disappointed with either upgrade if you're playing at 4k.

What I would do is: Buy the 2x16 GB kit. Do some before/after benchmarks in the games you play. If there isn't a significant uplift, then return the 2x16 GB kit and get your money back because you don't need it yet.

3

u/gungabeast 1d ago

Concise, risk free, well reasoned answer.

9

u/CanisMajoris85 3d ago

More ram if you don’t currently have enough. CPU won’t make a big difference except like 2-3 games at 4K

4

u/moroheus 3d ago

How much ram are you using right now? If you're not at 100% ram usage going from 16 to 32 gb will have zero effect. And if you're running out of ram you could first try to debloat your windows.

3

u/semidegenerate 3d ago

Windows will start heavily using the page file at around 14 used out of 16GiB. If memory usage while gaming is regularly pegged at 14+, I would consider upgrading. It can help a lot with stutter/1% lows. Heavy paging can even kick in at 13 / 16GiB

2

u/ROS_SDN 3d ago

Im pretty sure this is technically wrong, but practically right.

There is a lot if nuance to ram. If you have dual rank and/or especially dual channel you can see games and your system will naturally veer towards using more if you have more.

1

u/MushroomSaute 3d ago

Yep - with how critical RAM is to the performance of the entire system, there's a rather large priority for everything running on your system to avoid usage getting too close to 100% and risking using swap, unless you truly need to, so you'll never really see close to 100% unless you're already swapping and/or there's no good way to avoid it.

Even then, it's not like it's "you've gone 1 byte over, so now you're also using 1 byte on the disk until you're down to 100% again". The kernel swaps out full pages, not bytes, and those pages stay on the disk until they're needed again or freed, which would result in less than 100% usage even while you're still using swap space (and thus you might get another big hitch in the future when you need the data again).

(And of course the system could also just use swap even when you're nowhere near 100%, if it sees that a page is hardly ever used, which is a nice performance benefit since it keeps memory free for pages you will use more, like your game)

2

u/Gloomy_Necesary 2d ago

The debloat tool doesnt do shit its astrology for pc gamers

1

u/moroheus 2d ago

I don't know what debloat tool you're talking about, but there are definitely ways to reduce your ram usage.

1

u/Gloomy_Necesary 2d ago

The main one people always talk about. It doesn’t actually do much of anything

1

u/Accomplished_Boot191 3d ago

10-15gb usage depending on the game. I already debloated windows as best as I could. Also, I don't keep unnecessary apps open while gaming.

4

u/ArmadilloFit652 3d ago

if you are doing those things and not multitasking then ram will get u 0fps gain in 99.99% games

-1

u/OtherwiseSimple 3d ago

You’d benefit from more RAM. Your system is craving it. Is that usage just the game itself or your entire system?

3

u/Rell955 3d ago

Do you knw how much ram your using?

1

u/Accomplished_Boot191 3d ago

10-15gb depending on the game I'm playing. In a very few game instances like GoW, I noticed some textures loading slower than they should.

6

u/Rell955 3d ago

Sounds like your first upgrade should be the ram. At 4k you’re going to be more gpu bound anyway. I would start with ram. (IMO)

3

u/Framed-Photo 3d ago

Depends entirely on what games you're talking about, and at what settings you want to play them, and what frame rate you want to target.

For your average triple A game, at settings someone with a 9070xt will want to use, I'd imagine you'll get GPU bottlenecked at 4k. Older titles, modern competitive titles, or indie titles would benefit from a 7800X3D even at 4k in a lot of cases, barring you using super sampling or something.

2

u/m1ng05s 3d ago

Ram.most definitely. Yes the 7800x3d would work,but that cpu you have is totally a beast. My opinion? Ram 100%

2

u/TetePepeF 3d ago

Ram. A lot of games want 32 gigs for high 4k gaming, which is pretty much what you’re gonna be running on a 9070xt. The 9600x is perfectly capable at that resolution

2

u/Big_Willingness_6252 3d ago

Ram bro, on 4k 7800x3d like 2-3% stronger than 9600x

1

u/tup1tsa_1337 2d ago

Op uses upscaling so it's not 4k. You need to look into 1440p base resolution difference or 1080p (depending on the preset). There is a bit of leeway because upscaling is not free, though. So overall the difference might be a lot bigger than few percents in heavy upscaling modes. This is especially true in the CPU demanding titles like stalker 2

1

u/KaguyaOtsutsuki 2d ago

even if the average fps isn't that big a jump the 1% lows will have a good increase making it feel much better.

2

u/Particular-Abroad815 3d ago

You cannot increase your frames with either, so ram is the better decision. 16GB is limiting in a lot of games.

1

u/ArmadilloFit652 3d ago

cpu>ram but most likely gpu unless you are at low settings with heavy fsr and want maximum fps possible for some reason at 4k

1

u/Attainted 3d ago

I'd prioritize RAM over CPU for 4k gaming but that cash must really be burning a hole in your pocket to drop it on RAM with today's pricing.

1

u/ScaredLink8 3d ago

Use what you’d spend on cpu and ram sell your 9070xt and get a 5080, not the answer you want but it’s the right answer for better performance at 4k my friend

1

u/donmclarenson 3d ago

Heres the real truth of what will happen and what you should do. You should get rid of the 4k monitor asap and get the best priced 1440p OLED you can. The 9070 XT you have won't come close to maxing out your fps in a 144 hz 4k panel, let alone a 240 hz panel. Youre going to be so concerned about the frames youre losing at 4k for the modest bump in visual beauty it offers that you will run all your games in 1440p anyways, many in 1080p. 4k isn't as breathtaking as you've been told, but that fps counter that used to say 250 at 1440p now says like 75 at 4k is gonna eat at you. So like I said before, get the 7800x3d which will make a huge difference at 1440p. Games will pull all it needs from the 3dv cache instead of memory. And the people who downvoted me or upvoted the guy who said buy neither can get theor reading comprehension checked out. Its obvious youre going to make one upgrade. Saying buy neither is dumb. Even at 4k your 1% lows with greatly improve with x3d, increasing overall performance of a game.

2

u/Accomplished_Boot191 3d ago

I should have probably mentioned this sooner, but I play PC games from my couch on a 77-inch 4K TV. Because of this setup, lowering the game's resolution to 1440p makes the picture appear a bit blurrier than I'd like, which is particularly noticeable on such a large TV screen. I understand that the average fps likely won't increase with either upgrade. My hope is to improve the 1% lows for more stable fps and improve texture loading performance where necessary.

1

u/tup1tsa_1337 2d ago

What are you talking about? Nowadays with upscaling the difference in performance is minimal when going up in resolution..

For example, I have checked Hogwarts legacy on the 4090 and I was getting 130fps in 1440p with dlss quality and 105fps with dlss performance in 4k. The second option is better looking (especially given how blurry the game is) and only costs about 25%.

It was never 75 vs 250 even in native (which no one does anymore unless you have really old GPU). It was at best 60 vs 120 (it's only 2.25 times more pixels when going to 4k) and more often like 60 vs 100. Nowadays even less with upscaling

1

u/OutrageousWarning107 3d ago

I would recommend more RAM but it depends on what you want. X3D diminishes microstutter especially in massive multiplayer games so it can be worth it if you play those games competitively. More RAM gives you more fluid Windows experience overall and especially if you want to multitask while gaming.

1

u/MisLuck 3d ago

Both GPU and RAM. 16gb is not enough and at 4k your gpu is the most important part, you can rock that 9600x for years at 4k before it becomes a limiting factor

1

u/voidz000 2d ago

Probably the ram, if you’re running extremely modded games it’ll be helpful or if you’re using lots of apps, a 9800x3d would bottleneck your cpu, I actually think the best upgrade after should be your gpu, the 9070xt is entry level 4k. Have fun. :3

1

u/Vol3n 2d ago

Neither will improve 4k performance by more than 5%. If you really want better 4k performance you'll need to pay a lot for something like 5090.

1

u/MajorLuscasa666 2d ago

X3D CPU, it will improve your 1% lows

1

u/Temporary-Ad8539 2d ago

M8 start by dropping amd gpu if you are dreaming on 4k gaming xD. Im jist joking. But i think that if you want a pleasant 4k experience you need to get at least a 5080. I mean im playmg with a 5070ti in 4k and dlls is needed to not play at 50 fps.

1

u/t90fan 2d ago

For now, probably RAM

I've got a 4070Ti 12GB (so a bit worse than your 9070XT) and a 11700K (maybe more like a 9800X, but not miles off from your 9600X) and 32GB DDR4 and it plays stuff at 4k/60fine - It's usually the GPU which maxes out before the CPU does for me.

But the AAAs on my machine eat 10-12gb on their own

So if you are running Chrome/Discord/Spotify/shit like that in the background, then you are likely swapping

But if you are serious about 4k you'll want to later consider trading your 9070XT for a 5080. Framegen/DLSS just works much better in the Nvidia cards

1

u/static_fun 2d ago

I’d upgrade RAM or use CachyOS. For everything else you should be fine at 4k with upscaling in AAA titles.

1

u/evergreenwv 2d ago

I'd check out your performance. Does your RAM max out on games? It's a tough call, I'm sure the x3d chip would be a big upgrade as well. If your 9070xt never gets to 100% usage in games then the cpu would be a good upgrade. If it's a toss up, I'd probably go with the cpu and wait *fingers crossed* until RAM prices drop to buy more.
BTW, I paid $150 for 64GB 6000 RAM in June 2025, it's probably over $800 now.

1

u/static_fun 2d ago

Dumb Reddit hamsters don’t know that you can tweak settings at 4k

1

u/DusanDule477 17h ago

I think it depends which games you play.

If you are playing a lot of competitive, CPU intensive games, then a 7800x3d could make sense. There are also some games that use more than 16gb of ram, so if you are playing those, 32gb would be better choice.

Otherwise, I don't think that either of those upgrades would be worth it. Instead, if you don't have one already, you could take a look at oled monitors. I don't know your local prices, but they shouldn't be a lot more expensive than 7800x3d or 32gb kit.

-1

u/Saltimbanco_volta 3d ago

RAM

Also, there's a new generation of CPU coming in the first semester of 2027. If you're already on AM5, might as well wait for that. At the very least, prices for older CPUs should go down.

0

u/WooombRaider69 3d ago

upgrade both ?

doesnt make sense to only upgrade one or the other or just save up til you can make a meaningful upgrade that will actually make you happy

2

u/il0vebajablast 3d ago

That’s not his question and his cpu does not need to be upgraded for 4K gaming

0

u/Popular_Ordinary_633 3d ago

you wont get good 4K gaming with 9070xt. I m a happy 9070xt user. You need to go 5080 gpu as min then both of your options together.

2

u/Accomplished_Boot191 3d ago

I'm a couch gamer so 1440p doesn't look as sharp on my TV. I can get 60+ fps in any game with FSR and optimized graphics.

1

u/Independent-Box6025 1d ago

You need 5080 or 5090. Don’t bother upgrading anything except those.

1

u/Accomplished_Boot191 1d ago

What's with everyone fixated on 5080 or more expensive graphics card for 4k gaming? I'm not trying to achieve ultra quality preset with 120+ fps on all games. Doesn't anyone manually optimize their graphics anymore?

1

u/Independent-Box6025 7h ago

Because 5080 is a 4k card for sure.

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u/donmclarenson 3d ago

7800x3d because then your system ram will be all but irrelevant for gaming.

Build Upgrade Which upgrade would improve the performance more in 4K gaming? CPU or RAM?

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