Question Upgraded GPU but middling-to-no performance increase

[emmaballs]

So I recently traded out my current GPU for one that I believed to better match my more powerful CPU and a new PSU to match the increased power demand. I traded an AMD RX 470 and EVGA 100-w1-0430 430w PSU for a GeForce 3060 and a Thermaltake Smart BM2 550w.
I expected to see much improved performance but I have found it roughly the same, lots of hitching and fps drops in games I used to get consistently better performance on with my 470 several years before (My 470 has been in use for over half a decade now and has been seriously degrading in performance the past few months, hence the upgrade).
Other threads I have found with similar symptoms originated from CPU bottlenecking, but according to the resources I used before purchasing the 3060, it should be at almost 0% bottlenecking. When I am getting undesirable performance in games neither the CPU or the GPU is reaching 100% usage, they stay pretty consistently matched.
I am much more experienced on the software end of things rather than hardware and parts selection so I am assuming I have bungled my build somehow with the new parts. I would massively appreciate if there is a solution that doesn't involve pumping more money into this relatively budget PC. Thank you guys so much for any help you can offer 🙏🙏🙏

Things I have already tried:
Enabling XMP on my RAM, not available in BIOS, I don't think my sticks support it but I am not sure
GeForce Experience drivers fresh install
Using Display Driver Uninstaller to clear out any old AMD drivers causing issues
Making sure I am using my 3060 and not my integrated card

Specs
MSI Ventus 2x GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 (formerly AMD RX 470)
Intel i5-7600k
Gigabyte Z170-HD3P-CF
Thermaltake Smart BM2 550w PSU (formerly EVGA 100-w1-0430 430w)
Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 KHX2666C16/16G 2133mHz, Crucial DDR4 CT4G4DFS8213/8G 2133mHz (two 4G sticks)

UserBenchmark run (I have no idea if this is even useful): https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/59852672

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

Looking at the bench think it could be your CPU and ram thats letting it down abit also Gigabyte Z170-HD3P-CF says

1. Support for DDR4 3466(O.C.) /3400(O.C.) /3333(O.C.) /3300(O.C.) /3200(O.C.) /3000(O.C.) /2800(O.C.) /2666(O.C.) /2400(O.C.) /2133 MHz memory modules

But your CPU Supports DDR4-2133/2400, DDR3L-1333/1600 @ 1.35V

Also in near future would suggest getting SSD drives more faster at loading times then normal hardrives!

 

[emmaballs]

Thank you for the suggestions. So, just for clarification, if I were to upgrade my RAM without upgrading the CPU, should I be looking at DDR4-2400? I am also going to try removing the Crucial sticks and seeing if I get better performance out of just the Kingston, and maybe vice-versa.

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

Thank you for the suggestions. So, just for clarification, if I were to upgrade my RAM without upgrading the CPU, should I be looking at DDR4-2400? I am also going to try removing the Crucial sticks and seeing if I get better performance out of just the Kingston, and maybe vice-versa.

Are you mixing ram together because that’s not recommended because they might not work together and has to be the same ram kit because on test says 24 gb. If you placed mix ram and brand together remove one brand set and just use other brand

 

[Gam3r01]

In addition to the RAM issue, which is caused by mixing kits (already a bad idea) causing all your ram to run at 2133MHz, your processor also appears to be overheating.
Your base clock speed is 3.8GHz, but your average turbo speed was 3.75GHz, meaning over the duration of the test you failed to reach base speed.

 

[emmaballs]

Ok so I removed the two 4G sticks of Crucial and now I just have the one 16G of Kingston, thanks again for the advice I had no idea about the mixing kits thing. With only the one stick I am now reaching 2666mhz so I assume that is a notable improvement.
I noticed the turbo speed thing but to be honest I'm not sure what to make of it. I also only got 2.8GHz in my most recent UserBenchmark (below). Should I be looking at a new CPU cooling system? Right now I have an Intel e97379 heatsink and fan.

Updated UserBenchmark (with only 16G Kingston HyperX): https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/59854505

 

[Gam3r01]

How long as it been since you cleaned out the fans/heatsinks in your system? Fan layout?
What are your temps under load?
That most recent test tends to reinforce the idea its temperature related, so a new cooler might be a solid investment, though I would suggest trying to clean the system first.

 

[emmaballs]

I cleaned out the fans and my CPU heatsink and noticed that my thermal paste had completely dried up and eroded so I checked my CPU temps and I was running easily at 100c under no load, maybe 82c-100c 🤦‍♀️ Replaced the thermal paste with whatever brand they sell at Best Buy and now I'm running 40c under no load, somewhere around 65c under load. Of course I am also now seeing the missing performance I was looking for in the first place, so it seems like my issue was caused by something totally unrelated to the new hardware. Really appreciate the help it probably would have taken me an embarrassingly long amount of time to figure that out on my own haha