First post - upgrade suggestions

[Jim_173]

Budget (including currency): £250-500

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Mainly Tarkov, some GoPro video editing 

Other details MSI B450 A Pro board, Ryzen 5 3500X, Arctic 360 AIO, 32gb 3200 Ram, Nvidia 3070 ti founders edition gpu, 850w power supply, Thermaltake Core P6 case, LG 4K 27in monitor. 
 

First post - newbie. New to pc gaming - bit of a potato! Rig has done many hours of work, but now I want to get into Tarkov more seriously and think I need better CPU or board. Recently got the AIO cooler and want to start to learn about overclocking. Be great to max out the gpu and monitor, want to get more FPS and enjoy PC gaming.

 

 

 

[venomtail]

21 minutes ago, Jim_173 said:

MSI B450 A Pro, Ryzen 5 3600X

Just get a Ryzen 5700X3D while you can. You board should be able to handle it. After that a GPU upgrade. A 3070 will struggle with Tarkov at 4K and a 9070XT would be an ideal upgrade, thankfully your PSU is good enough so it can stay. Just avoid the 900W Powercolor red devil 9070XT. 32GB of RAM is healthy, no need for more.

 

Pretty solid system otherwise, will age gracefully.

[Jim_173]

Quote

17 hours ago, venomtail said:

Just get a Ryzen 5700X3D

 

Thanks, I assume this suggestion is because of the cache gain?

Grateful for your tip because it made me research more and I can now see why cache is more important than clock speed - particularly for Tarkov. 
 

Am I right in assuming this? 

[venomtail]

4 hours ago, Jim_173 said:

Thanks, I assume this suggestion is because of the cache gain?

Grateful for your tip because it made me research more and I can now see why cache is more important than clock speed - particularly for Tarkov. 
 

Am I right in assuming this? 

I'm not familiar with Tarkov too much anymore but when it released the 3D CPU's had like 50% extra fps. Devs said they optimised the game since then but not sure by how much. Even when summarising, gaming benefits from bigger cached CPU's such as the 3D ones.

 

So in this case the 5700X3D will be a great fit and give your GPU a boost you didn't know was still in there.

[Jim_173]

On 4/6/2025 at 5:11 PM, venomtail said:

5700X3D will be a great fit

Thanks again - sorry to be a pain and ask more questions... I have not upgraded a CPU independently before so am just wanting to make sure im not about to mess something up noob style!

 

I going to order the CPU but wanted to ask a BIOS question, the version i currently have is as up to date as it can be i believe. But i didn't provide my motherboard full details to begin with...  It is a B450-A PRO MAX , see attached. 

 

Do you know if the new CPU be plug and play on my board and current BIOS? 

[venomtail]

10 hours ago, Jim_173 said:

Thanks again - sorry to be a pain and ask more questions... I have not upgraded a CPU independently before so am just wanting to make sure im not about to mess something up noob style!

 

I going to order the CPU but wanted to ask a BIOS question, the version i currently have is as up to date as it can be i believe. But i didn't provide my motherboard full details to begin with...  It is a B450-A PRO MAX , see attached. 

 

Do you know if the new CPU be plug and play on my board and current BIOS? 

BIOS updates should be as simple as having an empty USB stick, downloading the BIOS update and placing it on the USB stick. Plug it into the dedicated port, if CPU is compatible update it through BIOS, if not, use BIOS flashback and after that it'll restart itself and you're good to go.

 

5700X3D compatibility BIOS is the 7B86vMK one that was released in 26/9/23 and as your BIOS is dated 9/2/24 you should be fine but it is a bit weird that I cannot find any BIOS version under the name of 7B86AMS.

 

You can also upgrade to the latest stable BIOS 7B86vML for a peace of mind.

[Jim_173]

On 4/6/2025 at 5:11 PM, venomtail said:

Thanks again, yes i updated it a month ago before I started playing with overclocking.

 

I thought BIOS version was weird too, but when I checked the latest ‘7B86vMN2’ download the file name it matches mine so I am confident I’m on very latest and not had any issues.

 

thanks again. I will let you know how I get on. Super excited to upgrade- probably something I should have done a while back instead of trying to OC my existing!

[Jim_173]

On 4/6/2025 at 5:11 PM, venomtail said:

5700X3D will be a great fit and give your GPU a boost you didn't know was still in there.

Well I must say I am blown away by these gains! The CPU was plug and play and give double the previous Cinebench score! FPS improvement is absolutely mega also, I even get 60-80fps at 4K which is nice! 
 

Thanks so much for the tip. Now I’ve just got to improve my mouse & keyboard gaming skills as only recently converted from a lifetime on console/controller!!

 

Cheers buddy!