Hi Uncle, good start of the week to you!
I apologize for the “long” answer I want to give but I want to be detailed in my reasoning: TL;DR: Wait until you can build a fully specc’d new PC. Your GPU is fine, and I would even say maybe even held back a tiny bit by the processor- it’s not bad, but it’s already quite old and even 2-3 years after those came out, when Ryzen came along those i7s were already “out of date” (GENERALLY speaking not literally).
I would love to ask, in your 1080p play sessions, what is your GPU usage %? As long as the game demands it, if it’s 90% or even 95% or above at all times, then great. If it’s 85% or below or goes up and down, then my suspicion about the CPU is true.
Anyway, due to unforeseen events (mobo dead), availability and money, I have ended up with a Frankenstein of a mismatch that isn’t quite as bad, but shun some light into some things. I can be wrong, but I personally feel that in the last 5 years with all the “RT, PT, FrameGen, upscaling, AI” we have gone back to the rule of thumb of: Good processor always good choice like it was 10-15 years ago. People keep talking about technologies, graphics and 5090s or even PCIE slots and I think it’s the wrong approach.
My current rig as it stands is as follows:
Asrock B450M HDV
2x8 - 16GBs of RAM (rated originally 2666MT/s but OC’d to a stable 3000MT/s (or 3200, can’t remember, same shit basically).
Ryzen 5 5500X3D
RX 9060XT 16GB (lol)
Thermaltake SmartRGB 600W PSU (I have a 850W core reactor still sealed in box because I didn’t feel to change and rewire all the stuff yet and also while much better quality PSU, is not really needed but I’ll put it in eventually).
The idea was using a bonus I got at work to TRY to get a 9070XT 16GB for the future and a 1440p monitor to make use of that new card. The stretch was a bit too much since I would’ve needed the new PSU without doubt. So I decided to spend a bit less, since the performance difference for me wasn’t huge considering the money being limited and get the monitor, the PSU, the 9060XT 16GB instead and a UPS (this is a different story XD). The whole idea was getting the GPU (more expensive part) early and THEN finish the build with new MoBo, CPU and RAM but prices went nuts so I left the hobby momentarily and got into tennis instead haha.
Within that context, and after many many benchmark/review videos and my own experience, here’s what I came up with:
- If your CPU is weak-ish, depending on the type of game you play, X3D is not worth the hassle/price as it will give you great performance on some things or scenarios but make no difference in others. For example, I had an R5 2600, of course this CPU is miles better but for some reason it didn’t blow my mind? Yes, FPS went up and overall LOWS were much better, steady lines which is great, but in moments where raw CPU matters such as compiling shaders or being fast at loading assets such as in open-world shooters, it’s still a bit lack-luster due to the low speed it has.
- 9060XT (16GBs always! pretend 8GB doesn’t exist) is actually an insanely capable card. No matter the card, if you play without scaling, you will have low FPS nowadays - so with the premise that upscaling is used anyway, “mid tier” 1440p gaming with this card is definitely possible; Would I like to have the 9070XT instead? Yes, but is not critical. Regarding PCIE, yes, this card is being hampered by the 3.0 interface however, * as already shown in testing by Hardware Unboxed for example, LOWER PCI-E Interfaces are worse considerably when VRAM is exceeded. However, 16GBs or more of VRAM, this is not relevant as you will ALWAYS want 16GBs (12 minimum) or more anyway. This is important because it will come later in the conclusion.
- Depending on the type of game, DDR5 faster memory will yield you better results but not by much. DDR4 3200 MT/s is still 90-95% completely fine and it doesn’t matter much.
- PCI-E interface for the SSD doesn’t really matter much as it has a bunch of variables: SSD controller, your own CPU PCI-E lanes and maybe IMC, the bifurcation done by the MoBo itself and its chipset and then also (critically important!!), when streaming game assets, you will rarely reach any “insane speed” as it’s not something constant but rather random access to a lot of tiny and bigger stuff. This is where cache and NAND flash memory comes in (If I’m not wrong). In plain English, having an NVMe SSD for games is 99% completely fine and it doesn’t matter much if it’s PCI-E 3.0, 4.0 or 5.0. Of course, if you can have a 4.0 or 5.0 working at full capacity, it’s better but not needed.
- I personally like to play with constant FLUIDITY and NO TEARING. I don’t play Counter-Strike anymore, but everything else I play now looks fine or constantly fluid - now that I have a 185hz monitor, I can safely say 100-120FPS constant minimum is IMO the sweetspot because you stop perceiving that “stutteriness” that comes from having lower FPS. I am not 100% sure, but I do think that this has to do with the monitor being higher refresh rate - similar stuff happens on phones and my previous monitor, 1080p@75hz, if I had 70FPS stable it was completely fine.
In conclusion, it is my opinion that today, while having a good GPU is great and matters quite a bunch, having a beefy CPU is still an unbeatable golden rule. You can always lower graphics or res (I personally can’t use lower res than the monitor’s because everything looks slightly fuzzy and I hate it) to give yourself a bit more FPS. But you can’t really do much for the CPU to work better. CPUs ALWAYS work at “100%” in the sense that whether is 2 cores or all core, it will always TRY to be as fast as possible giving you the best snappier result - meanwhile the GPU will work “scaling up”.
In simple with a real example: If you have a 1080 capable GPU and play at 720p for more FPS, you will achieve that as long as your CPU is good / fast enough to process all those frames. If you have spikes or stutter and lower % usage for the GPU, means the CPU isn’t able to handle all of it. This is when you increase graphics/res to give the CPU a breather and you have better and more stable lows, at the cost of lower FPS across the board because of the GPU not being capable of more and sometimes those FPS you don’t get matter a ton.
This ties in with all the “AI” stuff nowadays - Since upscaling gives you MORE FPS and makes the GPU work less, you need a good CPU to keep up. Upscaling is basically the previous situation I mentioned but with an easy toggle. This technology, imo is the BEST one so far and the only one that should matter.
However, if you can/need to activate FRAME GEN, you definitely need AT LEAST 60fps or more for it to be “good enough” and for that you need… you guessed it a good CPU as well.
CPU overhead is needed for a lot of stuff in general, and this is not counting things OUTSIDE of gaming. But even inside of gaming as I mentioned before, having a beefy CPU is always a great choice.
So, to finish 
do not buy a new GPU, especially not for the current CPU you have right now. Wait until you can save and make a full rounded up build.
) but I just thought I’d note it.