4 clear signs it’s time to upgrade your CPU

The CPU is one of, if not the most critical components in a PC — whether you use it for gaming or not. If your CPU has integrated graphics, you can even boot and use your computer without a graphics card. Most users don’t upgrade their CPUs as often as they swap their graphics cards because they would likely need to purchase a new motherboard as well.

However, waiting too long to upgrade your CPU can lead to performance issues, especially if you use it for gaming. And if you upgrade it every year or two as you change your smartphone, you will only get marginal performance gains for the price you paid. So, how do you know when it’s time to get a newer, more powerful CPU? By closely monitoring your PC’s performance and looking out for these signs.

4

Your PC freezes frequently

Because the CPU is struggling to keep up

If you notice that your PC momentarily freezes when you have multiple programs running in the background, there’s a high chance that the CPU is overworked and unable to keep up with the processing demand. Besides freezes, you may also encounter crashes when running demanding apps or games on your PC. While this may be a sign of unoptimized software or incompatible hardware, an aging CPU can also be the culprit in some cases.

Your PC can also freeze when your CPU overheats. If your CPU’s temperature is over 90C, it will thermal throttle and reduce the clock speeds to lower the core temperature. If you feel that might be the case, you can install MSI Afterburner and monitor your PC’s hardware, including your CPU clock speed and temperature. However, if the issue persists after you replace the thermal paste on your CPU or change the cooler, then be prepared to shell out for a new CPU.

3

Low GPU usage

Your CPU is holding your GPU back

Low GPU usage is a clear sign of a CPU bottleneck, which means your CPU can’t process instructions as fast as your GPU. This results in your graphics card not reaching its maximum potential. When you use a tool like MSI Afterburner and monitor the GPU usage, you’ll see that it’s nowhere close to 100%. Ideally, your GPU usage should be above 80% while gaming.

In some unoptimized games, though, this number may occasionally fall below 80%, even on modern CPUs. However, if you notice that the GPU usage is around 40 or 50%, and it fluctuates heavily, you need a faster CPU to keep up with your GPU’s performance. In these cases, getting a more powerful GPU won’t improve the frame rate; you’ll end up wasting money if you do so.

I made a mistake upgrading from an RTX 3090 to an RTX 4090 without changing my processor — the Ryzen 5900X. While I did notice performance gains in GPU-intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Call of Duty: Warzone, the frame rate barely improved in CPU-intensive competitive titles like Valorant and Fortnite. Now, it makes more sense to upgrade my processor before buying an RTX 50-series graphics card. If you’re eyeing the RTX 5090 like me, you’ll need the Ryzen 9800X3D.

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AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

The Ryzen 9800X3D is the fastest gaming CPU you can buy today. If you don’t want to worry about CPU bottlenecks with NVIDIA’s high-end RTX 50-series cards, this is your best bet until AMD releases the 9950X3D and 9900X3D processors in March 2025.

2

Your PC feels slow overall

Because the CPU can’t handle basic tasks well

Is your PC too slow to boot up or launch less demanding apps? For example, you tend to wait for Photoshop to load patiently, or Chrome slows down once you have a few tabs open. If so, your aging CPU might just be the culprit, especially if your system has adequate RAM.

Sometimes, when you try to run multiple programs, your processor may even fail on you and cause a system reboot or a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). This is often a sign of a faulty, unstable, or degraded CPU (as a result of wear and tear).

Since older CPUs have lower clock speeds and fewer cores, they aren’t as well-equipped to handle multitasking as modern processors. And if your PC generally feels so slow or laggy that you’d rather use your phone or tablet for certain tasks, it’s about time you invested in a modern CPU.

1

You still have a quad-core CPU in 2025

Four cores aren’t adequate for demanding workloads

A few years ago, quad-core CPUs were more than adequate, even for gaming. However, today, that’s not quite the case. People nowadays consume high-resolution content on their 1440p and 4K monitors, which require more processing power. Higher refresh rates like 144Hz and 240Hz are also getting more popular in the PC gaming space. For your PC to handle all that, you need at least a six-core CPU with support for multithreading in 2025.

I want to clarify that a quad-core CPU is still good enough for light workloads like browsing, media consumption, and office-related tasks. However, you need more cores and higher clock speeds if you want a smooth experience while editing videos with Premiere Pro, rendering 3D scenes using Blender, or playing the latest games.

A modern CPU can make a world of difference

It’s easy to overlook your processor if you primarily use your PC for gaming. But remember that your aging CPU might be crippling your graphics card and the rest of the hardware in your system. So, before you decide to shell out on a shiny new NVIDIA or AMD GPU, take a look at the CPU you currently have and find out if it’s powerful enough to handle it.

Today, AMD and Intel offer fast CPUs with high core counts at varying price points. While they both have pros and cons, you can’t really go wrong with either of them, especially if your current processor is a few generations old.

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