Upgrade path recommendations

[IAmAndre]

Hi,

 

So I recently started working on video animations projects and my PC is starting to struggle so I'm planning my budget for the next upgrades I'll make oner the next years. Here's a quick summary of my specs: MSI Tomahawk B450, Ryzen 5 2600X, Vega 56, 16GB of RAM at 3200MHz.

 

As you can see, the biggest issue for now is the amount of RAM. However my motherboard is having some issues with ports not working so I'd like to upgrade it as well. Overall I have a budget of around $500 for upgrades for next year and I would like to buy a new motherboard (probably the Tomahawk X570 because the website says that it's compatible with the 2000 series and the 5000 series after a BIOS update), 32GB of RAM, a new case, a new mouse, and a new keyboard. The following year, I would spend about the same amount on the CPU only and get something like a Ryzen 9, and then it would be the GPU. Now here are my questions.

 

1. Should the new RAM sticks be at the same frequency or should I go for something higher like 3600MHz, which would give me the opportunity to replace the 3200MHz sticks later on?
2. With DDR5 coming soon, is it still worth investing on a DDR4 platform, especially considering that the new CPU would be bought in 2023?
3. Does this upgrade path make sense or is it better to wait and then buy everything at once?
4. And finally, of course with the new MacBook Pro's coming, of course I need to recalibrate. After Effects is now M1-optimized so I'm also considering selling the desktop and my current MBA to get a MacBook Pro. So that's more of an open question: do gaming desktops still make sense, especially when you are not gaming all that much and are more concerned about productivity?

Thanks!

[Shimejii]

Dont bother with 3600 mhz as its not guranteed to even work. I dont think its a good investment at all to buy a motherboard now and then wait 2 years to buy the cpu "upgrade" when by that time its already a  few generations after. Id honestly say just update the bios on the b450 and go with a 3900x for cheap, since i dont think the 5900x will be cheap anytime soon for less the 500$ for the most part and i dont know how well it supports that board.

[IAmAndre]

6 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

I dont think its a good investment at all to buy a motherboard now and then wait 2 years to buy the cpu "upgrade" when by that time its already a  few generations after

The idea is to buy whatever the best CPU at $500 is at that time. Is it confirmed that X570 won't support the next generation of AMD CPU's?

 

6 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

i dont think the 5900x will be cheap anytime soon for less the 500$

It's currently at $559 on Newegg, with the 5800X at $469. They are both within the budget.

[Shimejii]

1 minute ago, IAmAndre said:

The idea was to buy whatever the best CPU at $500 is at that time. Is it confirmed that X570 won't support the next generation of AMD CPU's?

 

It's currently at $469 on Newegg.

Yes it is confirmed x570 is not supported on the next gen. They stated ryzen 5000 would be the last on am4.

 

Well dont forget sales tax and such too  if you dont mind then you could go with that if your motherboard supports it. 

[IAmAndre]

3 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Yes it is confirmed x570 is not supported on the next gen. They stated ryzen 5000 would be the last on am4.

That's good to know. Then I think I'll just buy the extra RAM for now, then buy both the CPU and motherboard later. However, the MBP stays in the conversation so I'll need to wait how the next generation AMD CPU's stack up against these. Do we have a release timeframe or performance expectations? I guess I could go Intel too, but then I'm also thinking about DDR5 because it's pointless to invest in RAM now if I have to replace it in a year.

[Jonathan Lee]

11 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

Should the new RAM sticks be at the same frequency or should I go for something higher like 3600MHz, which would give me the opportunity to replace the 3200MHz sticks later on?

I would go with same speed. More likely to work out of the box. Ideally, getting the same kit.

 

11 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

With DDR5 coming soon, is it still worth investing on a DDR4 platform, especially considering that the new CPU would be bought in 2023?

Don't think this should be something to be too worried of at the moment. DDR5 will probably be expensive and not be too much faster than DDR4 for a few years (CL ratings are not very good with current ones).

 

12 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

Does this upgrade path make sense or is it better to wait and then buy everything at once?

Yea I would wait to see what's up with 12th gen intel before making a decision. They will have motherboards for both ddr4 and ddr5 so you can use your current kit.

 

You do have a B450 tomahawk, which is a good motherboard (potentially one of the best b450's). You could put in the 3700X/3900X into it and throw a 2nd 16GB kit. Would be easier than swapping out the motherboard. Also, a new gpu might be more beneficial for your case.

[Shimejii]

Just now, IAmAndre said:

That's good to know. Then I think I'll just buy the extra RAM for now, then buy both the CPU and motherboard later. However, the MBP stays in the conversation so I'll need to wait how the next generation AMD CPU's stack up against these. Do we have a release timeframe or performance expectations?

If 3d Cache works out well, should be a 5-20% performance bump in certain games, as well as speed and other improvements. Other then that Its reasonable to expect around 10% but we could be pleasantly surprised with a much larger one since Cache size does play a major role in performance

[IAmAndre]

2 minutes ago, Jonathan Lee said:

You do have a B450 tomahawk, which is a good motherboard (potentially one of the best b450's).

I know but it's getting worse with time. Currently not all my USB ports are functional, the audio jacks stop working so I'm using a PCI-e sound card, and this week one of the PCI-e ports stopped working so I had to move the sound card. I hope the next issue won't be the PCI-e port where the GPU is. The motherboard came faulty but I used it anyway because I really needed a PC and couldn't wait to have it replaced, but the situation has gotten worse over the years.

4 minutes ago, Jonathan Lee said:

Also, a new gpu might be more beneficial for your case.

Actually no, After Effects, or I'd say video animation in more CPU-based. The GPU is only used when rendering the video or making complex effects but my GPU usage is super low during my workflow. It only spikes up when I start exporting the video in Premiere. I still want to upgrade my GPU though but only after the CPU.

[IAmAndre]

9 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

If 3d Cache works out well, should be a 5-20% performance bump in certain games, as well as speed and other improvements. Other then that Its reasonable to expect around 10% but we could be pleasantly surprised with a much larger one since Cache size does play a major role in performance

Meh then I'm still more excited about what Apple is offering. I can definitely see myself save for a year, then SELL both my desktop and my laptop to buy a M1 Pro Max MBP.