Battlefield 3, what to upgrade?

[xpeterpiex]

I was wondering if I could get some advice as to what I should upgrade on my system to get Battlefield 3 to run better. I currently get anywhere to 25-45 FPS @ 720p on high settings my current setup is

Intel E5200 OC@ 3.06GHz
4gb ddr2 ram
EVGA 550ti gpu
400 watt power supply
Biostar T41 HD mobo

I personally want to upgrade to a q8300 or q6600 because of how cheap they are right now and upgrading my power supply to 600 watts.

 

[Sunius]

Power supply upgrade without upgrading graphics card seems illogical, but opting for faster CPU will definitely increase multiplayer performance. However, if you want to increase FPS even more, you'll have to upgrade your graphics card.

 

[xpeterpiex]

thanks for the quick response, much appreciated, I was under the impression that the geforce gtx 550ti was a pretty good gpu, I mean I've heard a lot of people claim to get over 40 fps on ultra but they had core 2 quads or icores. So basically you suggest getting a better gpu and/or cpu but no need for a better power supply?

 

[Sunius]

Many people claim many things. Most of that is lies. GTX 550 Ti will not handle higher than high settings at 720p. You should have 40-50 fps stable though. Upgrading CPU will help stabilizing the framerate, and that should be your priority upgrade.

If you're upgrading the graphics card, you'll probably need new power supply too, however, if you're not, upgrading power supply is useless.

 

[xpeterpiex]

Ok great, yea cpu was what I was thinking and I will stay away from a new power supply as well. My last question was on the the q8300. I know the q6600 is known for its tremendous ocing ability but I've read that the q8300 oced to 3.0ghz is good and will run cooler. I'm not trying to go crazy with ocing and I think the q8300 would be a better choice for me since I'm trying to stay under a 150$ budget for a new cpu. Do you think either the q6600 or q8300 would be a significant enough of an upgrade to see a difference in battlefield 3's performance?

Thanks again so much, this forum is great as I've done a lot a research for my build from this site.

 

[Sunius]

They would be great upgrades, but again, for $150, I really do not think it's worth it. For that price, you could get yourself a low end sandy bridge i5. If you're not up for upgrading motherboard and RAM too, well, then I suppose going for Core 2 Quad is a good idea, however, if you cannot afford motherboard and RAM now, you may want to hold your purchase till you get some more money and upgrade the whole platform (CPU + Motherboard + RAM).