A PC can start to show its age when the components installed start to slow down or are unable to keep up with newer software and games. Perhaps you built a desktop PC for light computing and are now needing a machine for video editing, which requires additional performance. This is what makes a desktop PC an excellent device as it can be upgraded at any time with new parts. The question is: which part do you upgrade first? The correct answer is … it depends! If you need better gaming performance, it will likely be the GPU. For running more apps, I would recommend upgrading the RAM.
There’s no wrong answer when it comes to upgrading your PC. So long as the new part is better than what it’s replacing, you’ll notice a difference.
Storage
If you still rely on SATA storage, I recommend an NVMe SSD for your operating system. This will exponentially improve loading times. Install a few games and apps on this primary drive and you’ll be able to enjoy snappier performance across the board. SATA mechanical drives and SSDs are generally cheaper than PCIe NVMe SSDs, but their performance tops at 500 MB/s. This isn’t slow by itself, but the latest PCIe 5.0 drives can support speeds of 12,000 MB/s. You don’t have to go for the latest PCIe 5.0 drives either — PCIe 4.0 can go up to 7,000 MB/s.
Storage upgrade is the first place I’d look for improving system performance.
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RAM
Random accessory memory (RAM) is used by the PC to store data for quicker access. Your storage drive may be fast but RAM is seriously quick. A good rule of thumb is to run at least 16GB on your main desktop PC, pushing up to 32GB if you play many more demanding games or run resource-intensive apps. You’ll know when you’re running low on system memory through the operating system’s resource monitor, which can show how much is available and used by the OS.
Increasing the speeds of the RAM by choosing faster modules can also help provide a small performance boost. You’ll need to check your motherboard manual as to how fast the DIMM slots can run RAM at. Your processor will also have recommended RAM speeds, though I’d recommend 6400 MT/s for both AMD (Ryzen 7000 and above) and Intel (12th-gen and above). Getting RAM running at marketed speeds can be a tiresome process fine-tuning the available XMP/EXPO overclock through the UEFI BIOS.
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CPU
The processor is the heart of your PC and handles all the instructions sent by the operating system and all connected hardware. The faster your CPU, the more performance will be available for running intensive tasks and games. It’s usually only recommended to upgrade your CPU if you find yourself hitting 100% load often enough and have a clear upgrade path available for your motherboard. If you’re already using one of the best previous-gen chips supported by your motherboard, the motherboard will also need to be replaced to unlock access to newer processors.
Newer generation CPUs aren’t simply faster than older chips but they’re often times considerably more efficient and allow you to enjoy similar or better performance at a reduced power draw. Always check your motherboard manual for CPU support. And remember: an Intel chip will not work on an AMD motherboard and vice versa.
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GPU
This is a vital component for playing games on a PC. The GPU is what sends output to the connected monitor. The better the GPU, the more frames can be rendered each second. Upgrading to a more powerful graphics card will also allow you to move up in resolution, which can prove useful when replacing a 1080p display with a 1440p one. I put the GPU last here since it’s likely to be the most expensive upgrade on this list and it can cause issues if your power supply isn’t capable of providing enough power.
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How to work out which part to upgrade first
Start by checking the available resources unused by your system. If you’re encountering sluggish performance, I would see whether it’s related to your storage, CPU, GPU, or RAM. This can usually be worked out by visiting the activity monitor to see if a bottleneck is present. If your drive, RAM, CPU, or GPU are at 100%, that will be the component that could be upgraded to allow your system to run the current task with better results.