Up For Debate - What PC component do you want to upgrade next?

Written by Chad Norton on Wed, Oct 14, 2020 4:00 PM
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It’s nearly the end of the year, Christmas is on the horizon and the new next-gen consoles are right around the corner, 2020 has proven to be a pretty awful year for humanity, but now is arguably the best time ever to consider upgrading your PC to new hardware. So what PC component do you want to upgrade next?

Obviously there’s been the incredibly enticing launch of the new RTX 30 series graphics cards like the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, we even have the RTX 3070 coming out soon on October 29th which will arguably be even more popular.

There’s also the case of possibly needing a brand new power supply for the RTX 30 series since they draw so much power compared to their previous-gen counterparts. Maybe its not much of an issue for you, but it's always worth upgrading as a new generation of hardware comes around.

Then of course is the upcoming Ryzen 5000 series of processors from AMD, which recently got announced and is launching November 5th, including the Ryzen 9 5950X, Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X, and Ryzen 5 5600X. There aren’t any official third-party benchmarks out yet, but it's still a very exciting generation of processors.

And just like the RTX 30 series above, the Ryzen 5000 series will require a brand new 500 series motherboard to use, whilst those with 400 series motherboards will have to wait until January 2021 before they can get their hands on a Zen 3 CPU. So maybe its time to upgrade that new motherboard in time for the Ryzen 5000 launch?

Or maybe you’re not going for the heavy hitters like a new GPU or CPU, and instead you want a brand new PC case, keyboard, or maybe even 1080p has run its course for you and you want to upgrade to a 1440p ultrawide setup instead. Maybe you need some more storage in time for the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, or maybe you just need more RAM for these new next-gen games.

Perhaps you’ve already upgraded recently, and you’re not looking to upgrade anything else in the meantime. If so, let us know what you upgraded to! Has it performed as expected? And if you’re not upgrading at all anytime soon, why is that? Is there something else waiting in 2021 that you’re more interested in?

Whatever you’re considering upgrading next, we want to know! So what PC component do you want to upgrade next? Your GPU, CPU, or something else? Have you already upgraded recently? If so, what exactly? Let’s debate!

What do you want to upgrade next?

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05:55 Oct-21-2020

I'm looking at getting a RTX 3070, and then a 1440p monitor once those go down in price.

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14:53 Oct-17-2020

Plan was to get a 3080 Strix OC first but that may be the last due to availablity. Ill get the 5900x and a mobo for it then hopefully get lucky on the 3080. I just dont realistically see myself getting everything before 2021 sadly with the way it is going.

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09:03 Oct-19-2020

I'm pretty sure you can live with 1080Ti for few more monhs, I have 1080Ti STRIX too and it's still a beast :)

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22:14 Oct-15-2020

Well, for me it was graphic card, then graphic card and CPU, then I added SSD, maybe I also should upgrade my old PSU, I definitely would want new monitor with graphic card, also maybe motherboard, because I really don't like current one that much,... then I was like f*** it, lets just skip to where it always ends. Plus full used build is easier to sell than pats... :-D

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20:01 Oct-15-2020

I need to upgrade almost everything. I am searching and comparing components.
GPU first than the rest monitor and keyboard go last.

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14:27 Oct-15-2020

Nothing right now. But I’m on a gaming laptop and my gaming desktop is old. So it will be a new rig for me when the time comes.

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12:10 Oct-15-2020

Going from a spinning HD to NVMe SSD for my primary needs.

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13:57 Oct-15-2020

you think NVME is worth it yet?
I was testing some budget 1TB NVME SSD and went "back" to 1TB SATA 860 PRO as it feels faster and more consistent

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15:51 Oct-15-2020

To be honest with you, I don't even really mind using my 7200 RPM HDD... but I can get a decent deal on a 970 Evo, so I thought I'd just skip SSD and jump straight to NVMe.

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18:03 Oct-15-2020

ah that's nice!
if you can get 970 EVO right away, and have spare NVME slot, then nothing wrong about that, enjoy! ;)

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06:24 Oct-15-2020

I'm in a bit of a pickle here. If i were to upgrade one, i have to upgrade the other too XD. Currently i'm planning on upgrading everything on my PC in the next 3 years. We'll see how that goes.

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02:00 Oct-15-2020

Just ordered a 144hz 1440p monitor in the prime sale though could use a gpu upgrade as my Vega 56 will likely struggle a bit at 1440p. Can’t upgrade to 5000 cpu though only 3000 as my board is a B350 and it’s not getting a bios update.

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00:53 Oct-15-2020

Should have put an option for all of the above.

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23:41 Oct-14-2020

Upgrading CPU, MOBO, RAM - Waiting to see if the 5600X is better than a 3700X

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01:35 Oct-15-2020

in cinebench, it stomps it. in games, it should provide a similiar expeience. kind of like 3600x and 2700x.

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23:17 Oct-16-2020

I suspected as much but I'm in no rush to upgrade it at all, I'm just waiting to see will they release something like a 5700 ( or X ) for like a little bit more money as i think having 8 cores would benefit me the most as i will probably keep the CPU until 2025 at least.

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23:01 Oct-14-2020

GPU. I'm going to keep my 8086k for a few more years, I just bought several new SSDs and a new Revolt X PSU for a dual system, and my other components are still pretty new so GPU is most likey the only upgrade I'll consider for now.

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03:27 Oct-15-2020

No reason not to keep that 8086K, fine CPU!

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22:56 Oct-14-2020

I'm going to change my graphic card but I'm waiting for AMD's graphics cards and nVidia's 3060 before I make up my mind.

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07:48 Oct-15-2020

AMD or Nvidia for mid range, either way I don't think you will go wrong!

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21:24 Oct-14-2020

Nothing at the moment, im stuck with a 10 years old 1080p 60 hz monitor, gpu in 2 years maybe, i will wait for the rtx 4060ti or 4060 super, whatever they want to call it.

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20:40 Oct-14-2020

all of it? i'm literally just keeping the case...

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20:23 Oct-14-2020

Definitely CPU+MOBO.Going either Ryzen 5000 or 3000(depending on budget lol),most likely ryzen 3600/5600

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20:22 Oct-14-2020

Everything.

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19:01 Oct-14-2020

Nothing to be honest maybe next year i´ll do a new ryzen build as the 7700k reaches 5 years of age.

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18:50 Oct-14-2020

CPU then GPU, then something else, but not soon

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18:34 Oct-14-2020

I stay in India and the price of Rtx 3080 here is $1250 and Rtx 3090 is $2600. I wonder how much 3060 will cost since I want to upgrade to that. Here there is so much of tax u have to pay..will my cpu hold back an rtx 3060?

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18:43 Oct-14-2020

Here in Canada we pay 13% tax on every dollar. LOL

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21:17 Oct-14-2020

Yes sadly that cpu will hold you back alot if you upgrade to something like a 3060,specially if you are playing on a hiogh refresh monitor.

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08:28 Oct-15-2020

I am using a 60hz monitor (Dell S2240l) and I game on 1080p only

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18:21 Oct-14-2020

the next year i hope to buy the new amd gpu similar to 5700 xt but with ray tracing

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Can They Run... |

| 60FPS, Low, 1080p
Ryzen 5 5500U 6-Core 2.1GHz GeForce GTX 1650 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, Ultra, 1080p
Ryzen R5 1600 Radeon RX 580 Sapphire Nitro+ 8GB 16GB
0% No [2 votes]
| 60FPS, Ultra, 1440p
Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core 3.8GHz GeForce RTX 3090 Zotac Gaming Trinity 24GB 32GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
| 30FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 5 2600 GeForce GTX 1660 Gigabyte OC 6GB 16GB
0% No [2 votes]
| 60FPS, Low, 1080p
Ryzen 5 5500U 6-Core 2.1GHz GeForce GTX 1650 16GB
| 60FPS, High, 1440p
Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core 3.8GHz Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB 32GB
| 60FPS, Medium, 720p
Core i5-10300H 4-Core 2.50GHz GeForce GTX 1650 8GB
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Core i9-9900K 8-Core 3.6GHz GeForce GTX 1060 Gigabyte Mini ITX OC 6GB 32GB
66.6667% Yes [3 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core 3.6GHz Radeon RX 5700 PowerColor Red Dragon 8GB 16GB
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
0% No [1 votes]
| 60FPS, Ultra, 4k
Core i9-9900K 8-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Asus ROG Strix OC 11GB 32GB
| 30FPS, Ultra, 1440p
Ryzen 5 2600X 6-Core 3.6GHz GeForce GTX 1080 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
0% No [1 votes]
| 60FPS, Ultra, 1080p
Ryzen 5 5600X 6-Core 3.7GHz Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB 32GB
| 30FPS, Low, 720p
Core i3-2367M 1.4GHz Intel HD Graphics 3000 Desktop 4GB
| High, 1080p
Ryzen 5 2600 GeForce GTX 1070 Ti MSI Gaming 8GB 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]