Should I buy a new PC or upgrade?
Posted by Puzzleheaded-Owl-675@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 6 comments
Hey everyone, looking for some opinions from people who are really into PCs/performance because I’m at a bit of a crossroads with my setup right now.
I’ve been into PCs and competitive gaming for a long time now and I’d say my current setup is already decent overall. I mainly play competitive FPS games like Valorant and Siege and my PC currently pushes around 240 to 300(low res)(low/medium graphics) FPS give or take depending on the game/settings.
I play on a 240Hz Gigabyte monitor with a second asus 120Hz monitor on the side, recently upgraded to a 5060 Ti, have 64GB RAM (DDR4 3200), good peripherals, etc. Overall the setup already feels decent for competitive gaming.
The thing is EOFY sales are coming up and now I’m debating between three options:
Fully upgrading/rebuilding my current PC
Selling parts and upgrading platform parts only (AM5/X3D/DDR5 type route)
Just buying a completely new high-end prebuilt while sales are on
Budget-wise I’m pretty flexible honestly. Somewhere around the $5k range but I’m happy to spend less if that’s the smarter option, or a bit more if it’s genuinely worth it long-term. I’m leaning toward just buying a whole new PC because it’s easier and I like the idea of having a fresh premium setup, but I genuinely don’t know if that’s actually worth doing considering my current setup is already okayish.
I’ve also been hearing a lot of people say that once you already have:
240Hz
high FPS
a decent GPU
good peripherals
then upgrading starts becoming diminishing returns pretty quickly, especially for esports titles. A lot of recommendations I’ve seen seem to point toward AM5 + X3D + DDR5 being the best “real world” upgrade path instead of just throwing money at a completely new system.
I also eventually wanna branch out more into AAA games and just have an overall premium experience, not only competitive FPS stuff.
So I’m mainly wondering:
Would a full $5–7k PC actually feel THAT much better than what I already have?
Is it smarter to just upgrade platform parts and keep the GPU for now?
If I do upgrade, should I sell parts individually or sell the whole PC?
Has anyone here gone from a similar setup to a top-end build and felt it was genuinely worth it?
At what point do upgrades become more “luxury” than actual noticeable performance?
Would appreciate honest opinions from people who’ve gone through similar upgrades because I’m trying to make the smartest decision rather than just impulse buying during EOFY sales. TIA!!!
It_420_somewhere@reddit
Besides a 5060 Ti and 64GB or RAM what is the rest of the system?
Puzzleheaded-Owl-675@reddit (OP)
Sorry, the actual specs 😭
• Intel i9-10900KF • ASRock Z590M Phantom Gaming motherboard • RTX 5060 Ti • 64GB DDR4 3200 CL16 G.Skill RAM • WD SN550 NVMe SSD
SlenderSmurf@reddit
love when the OP leaves out the important details
SlenderSmurf@reddit
If you get 300 fps in the games you play why do you want a better computer? In the current PC parts market you will be spending 2-4 times as much for the same build you could get 2 years ago. Even if I was rich I would stick with the current pc.
Puzzleheaded-Owl-675@reddit (OP)
Yeah that’s honestly fair and that’s kind of exactly why I made the post. I know my current setup is already pretty solid for competitive games which is why I’m trying to figure out whether a massive upgrade would actually FEEL noticeably different or if I’m just entering diminishing returns territory now. I’m more chasing smoother frametimes/overall experience and maybe branching into more AAA
northcrc@reddit
Exactly what I was going to comment. Already getting more frames than the monitor can display.