Should I upgrade my processor or graphic card?

[Suckitupnancy]

What should I upgrade to get the most FPS out of Crysis, Crysis Warhead, and Crysis 2? Need to be under $240
I was thinking of upgrading the CPU to the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition or upgrading the GPU to the XFX HD 6870 Black Edition
My pc components:

PSI CyborgX Gaming Case - Black /w Blue Light(looks cool)

Windows 7 64 bit

AMD Athlon™ II X4 635 Quad-Core CPU

Diamond HD 5830 825/1050 link:
http://www.diamondmm.com/5830PE51G.php

500GB Hard Drive 7200rpm

4 GB DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module

Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ 120mm Radiator

Motherboard ASUS M4A785-M AMD 785G

700 Watt -- Power Supply - SLI Ready. I play the my games at Full HD

 

[Herr_Koos]

I tend to agree. You will probably see more benefit from a video card upgrade, although the Athlon will bottleneck some high-end cards. A 6870 should slot nicely into your system though.

 

[jonpaul37]

GTX 650Ti 1GB gets my vote over the 6870. You can overclock the hell out of it and it runs very cool even when OC'd. I have mine @ 950/4444 and stock is 822/4008 and i have not seen the temps go past 71 celcius

 

[wolfram23]

That CPU is ok. I'd get a new GPU and maybe overclock the CPU (probably will need an aftermarket heat sink)

 

[Suckitupnancy]

Play at 1080p(Full HD whatever you want to call it)

Is the any better video cards that beat the XFX HD 6870 Black Edition(still under $240)

 

[subasteve5800]

You can probably find a 5870 for around $240

Like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150476
$239.99 with a $30 mail in rebate

 

[jimishtar]

all crysis are gpu depended. definitely get a new vga. nvidia gtx 560 ti or ati 6950 will be sweet.

no need for more than 4 cores. OC your cpu a little, and you're good to go.

 

[iceclock]

i agree, heres a decent graphic card and cpu after market cooler for cheap ,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121419

its 160 around with mail in rebate its a 6850

and 30$ for the cooler

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

its a coolermaster hyper212+ cooler, quite good for 30 $

so basically its 200$ upgrade for nice performance in games,

of course it isnt a 350$ graphic card but for crysis and new games should be good enought for u

 

[Suckitupnancy]

Subastece5800 had a good point there, the HD 5870 does better than the 6870(plus it's cheaper) but will it still be better in the future or will the HD 6870 surpass it(due to the driver updates.

Psycosaysdie I do agree that the HD 5830 is a good card but there are certain games that give me incredible lag even when set to lower settings, I found out it was due to the card

 

[iceclock]

nope. the 5830 is over overpriced, the 5770 is cheaper and does quite well, and yes the 6870 is little more price than the 6850, but honestly, the price is a bit more, and for 200$ u cant go wrong with what i suggested

 

[johnb0118]

Go for the 5870. They are cheap and run great. The 5870 runs identical with the 6950 and is much cheaper:

http://www.techspot.com/review/349-amd-radeon-6950/page8.html

Also, the Phenom II X6 actually runs crysis slower than the Phenom II X4 in every resolution:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-890fx,2613-9.html

In short, go with a 5870. Price/Performance ratio is great, especially for Crysis.

 

[saaiello]

OK if you upgrade anything it would be the processor and motherboard since really the Athlon will not handle a faster GPU than what you already have.

Can you tell us why you feel you need an upgrade and maybe we can help you better decide what you need.

 

[iceclock]

say hello has reason, even overclocked ur cpu will be ur bottlekneck, and u wont benefit fully from a new powerful graphic card if u dont upgrade ur cpu as well,

the amd 6 cores are quite fine, since u already have am3 mobo

 

[Suckitupnancy]

OK if you upgrade anything it would be the processor and motherboard since really the Athlon will not handle a faster GPU than what you already have.

Can you tell us why you feel you need an upgrade and maybe we can help you better decide what you need.

What I'm trying to do is get Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2, Battlefield bad company 2(when in an intense battle),split second to have no lag at all.
When playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 the FPS drop from 50 to 18fps. Split/Second stays at 23fps to 1FPS!!! And I'm trying to get all the Crysis games to go at least above 30 FPS>

All under $240 but if I can't what should I do first to get the most FPS. What are the list that I should upgrade first then second,third,ect...

What do you guys think is the best option.

 

[Suckitupnancy]

What I'm trying to do is get Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2, Battlefield bad company 2(when in an intense battle),split second to have no lag at all.
When playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 the FPS drop from 50 to 18fps. Split/Second stays at 23fps to 1FPS!!! And I'm trying to get all the Crysis games to go at least above 30 FPS>

All under $240 but if I can't what should I do first to get the most FPS. What are the list that I should upgrade first then second,third,ect...

What do you guys think is the best option.

 

[wolfram23]

Right now I'd start with overclocking before making any new purchases. Definitely try getting a heat sink and getting that CPU up, it would probably help to smooth out those drops. And GPU overclocking is pretty easy, definitely worth while.

 

[randomkid]

What I'm trying to do is get Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2, Battlefield bad company 2(when in an intense battle),split second to have no lag at all.
When playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 the FPS drop from 50 to 18fps. Split/Second stays at 23fps to 1FPS!!! And I'm trying to get all the Crysis games to go at least above 30 FPS>

Psycosaysdie I do agree that the HD 5830 is a good card but there are certain games that give me incredible lag even when set to lower settings, I found out it was due to the card

The card should be powerful enough to keep steady fps. The lags are not normal and probably due to driver issues or overheating. Reinstall your drivers and try to monitor the temperatures of the video card during actual game play and correlate it with any lags you experience.

But admittedly, the HD5830 will not deliver you great fps at 1920x1080. But if indeed there is driver or temperature issue that you can fix, then at least you can have a more enjoyable game play while waiting for your upgrade. After all, the HD5830 already gives ~32fps at 1920x1200 according to john's link. Considering that you only play at 1920x1080 and not 1920x1200, you should get a little more fps. A small overclock should boost it up further...

 

[Suckitupnancy]

Best answer selected by suckitupnancy.