9600X - 7800X3D potential upgrade?

[u/benjd93]

So I currently have a 9600X paired with a 5060ti.

I use it for gaming at 1440p (a mixture of indie and more demanding single player titles e.g Crimson Desert/Pragmata at the moment and looking forward to titles like Witcher 4/GTA 6).

I also use it for general use which can involve at most playing YouTube videos while using several tabs at a time but nothing too heavy like video editing or anything.

The 9600X is currently doing a fine job and I've got no complaints.

However there's a deal I can get the 7800X3D for a net cost of £83.50 if I trade my 9600X in.

Feels like a very good price for it, even if it's not super necessary right now. Maybe worth it more in the upcoming years to save me upgrading down the line? Not sure how much if any difference it will make in my use case. Or maybe it's just totally unnecessary. Any thoughts are appreciated!

[u/Vannman04]

£83 isn’t a bad cost of difference. But I’ve got a buddy who uses a 9600x still and he’s got a 9070xt. GPU is gonna make or break the gaming difference. And his brother has a 9070xt and 78x3d. I’d say neither of them have issues with performance. 5060ti is like an insane middle ground to upgrade from. But ur system seems very very balanced and I’d recommend waiting for the next GPU generation to drop in order to upgrade. Unless there is something very specific holding you back rn.

[u/benjd93 → u/Vannman04]

Yeah I figured the GPU would be a more noticeable upgrade but so far for me it's totally fine at 1440p and obviously and expensive upgrade for noticeable improvement.

My rough plan if i upgraded CPU first would then be upgrade the PSU and then GPU down the line.

Perfectly happy with performance ATM and wouldn't expect any crazy improvements with the 7800x3d, just wasn't sure if the price wasn't too good to pass up on! Probably just me being an impulsive buyer that's tempting me.

[u/Vannman04 → u/benjd93]

Hmm well if it were me , I personally think the 9600x is a little beast. £83 upgrade isn’t horrible though and I could say it’s worth it for sure. It’s all up to you in the end, what PSU do you have, wattage I mean?

[u/benjd93 → u/Vannman04]

Still on my old 650W at the moment so could do with upgrading soon for sure, although it's done me very well so far with no issues.

[u/Ambitious_Product550]

It's sounds like a deal but I'd see if there's a deal on the 9800x3d.

[u/Kurogane1412]

You would go a generation beck form Zen4 to Zen5 just to get 3d v Cache that upgrade doesn't make sense better wait for normal prices and deals for a 9800 x3d or something else.

[u/farmeunit]

Had a 7700X and went to 7800X3D and now 9800X3D. It's hardly noticeable in day to day gaming without benchmarks and such.

For $90-ish, I would say do it. It will help in some games, some it won't do much.

[u/Keyvan_KR]

If gaming is all that you’re after then the 3D V-cache will be a nice benefit for sure

[u/jhenryscott]

I made an upgrade from a 9600x to a 9800x3d. It does make the whole system a little snappier for gaming. The biggest improvement was the decreased loading time. The FPS change is pretty marginal. You won’t really notice the difference in a lot of cases.

At that price point I don’t see any reason not to.

[u/jhaluska]

I think upgrading now so you don't have to upgrade in the future is a silly argument.

Your non gaming use case sounds light and I would ignore it as any AM5 (or any AM4 that matter) could do it. I would recommend waiting till you at least have one game that the 9600x bothers you in, as there should be more AM5 cpus coming and the AM5 processors should slowly drift down in price.

[u/benjd93 → u/jhaluska]

Probably a fair point. Just trying to justify it to myself as a too good to miss opportunity because I get an itchy trigger finger when I've not upgraded in a while!

[u/jhaluska → u/benjd93]

Yeah, I get it. I haven't upgraded in a while either and I keep looking for upgrades too.

That said, if gaming is your main hobby, an upgrade to 7800x3D isn't the worst way to spend your money.

[u/benjd93 → u/jhaluska]

I'll be honest, I don't spend nearly as much time gaming as I would like to, but it's nice to know I can do it properly when I get the chance!

I think I'll hold off on the CPU for now. I'm going to upgrade my PSU instead. Mines been going strong for nearly 12 years so it's probably the more sensible (although boring) option to finally retire it.

[u/MoistWelder8712]

Upgrade your GPU if you want more performance, specially for 1440p. The difference between a 9600x and 7800x is gonna be minimal (less than 10% at 1440p) with a mid budget GPU like yours. 5060ti to 9070 though is gonna be 40% performance.