gvfc2 :
I have a m2n-sli deluxe motherboard phoenix technologies bios revision 1302(going to flash to new version) with a amd athlon 64 x2 6400+ cpu speed at 3.21GHz and a nvidia geforce 8500GT gpu. with 6gb of ddr2 ram.
what are my options for cpu and gpu upgrades? games are starting to run alittle slow. just downloaded warframe and it lags and is choppy on the lowest of the lowest graphic settings.
ASUS says your motherboard is AM2+ compatible:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M2NSLI/
So, if you don't want to change motherboard/RAM, your best course of upgrade for the CPU is something Phenom II (AM3/AM2+), although you won't be getting the full performance on DDR2/AM2+, it'll be faster than what you have now.
ASUS doesn't specify how many watts the VRM on the motherboard is designed for, and the top of the line Phenom IIs are all 125 watts. If you can find a nice Phenom II 955, that's the fastest you can get on a 95 watt diet. Otherwise, the Phenom II 965BE is just 90 bucks or less.
HOWEVER, you might as well invest in a motherboard/RAM/CPU combo at this point. AM3+ boards are cheap, AM3+ CPUs are cheap (comparatively), and you might be able to get some money for your parts by selling them second hand. This is the best course of action, for eventual upgrades, or anticipating motherboard issues (happens as they age) for just a bit more money, depending on your financials.
As for GPU, whether you upgrade or don't, a GTX660 is a rather nice card for not a lot of money. For a bit less money and nearly equal performance, the GTX650Ti Boost edition is a good choice. These cards are on sale right now at a lot of places because the GTX760 just launched. If you want to try AMD, depending on your budget you can go from a HD7790 (faster than a non-Boost 650Ti) to a HD7850/HD7870 depending on your budget. But if you have the money, I'd throw it on the CPU/motherboard/RAM first.
EDIT: Your motherboard doesn't have PCI-E 2.0, so I'd look into the Nvidia solutions first for GPU, the HD7000 series (depending on the maker and the motherboard/BIOS) has troubles with PCI-E 1.1 and below boards.
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