Upgrade worth it?

[conquer7]

I was wondering if it is worth it to upgrade from my i3-540 to a i7-870 while i can still find socket 1156 i7s, i don't want to upgrade motherboards because i have the OEM version of windows i dont want to start over again or go trough the trouble of backing up files. I mainly use my PC for gaming and get 30 fps max on ultra on 1080p on bf3 with my geforce 460 gtx se, and no my cpu nor my gpu are overclocked. Also, is it worth it upgrade over 4gb of ram?

 

[terryd75]

The questions I would ask myself are: What do I expect to gain from this upgrade, and...does my computer do what need it to do now, without the upgrade?

All said and done, even with all the up-grade, your gaming experience may not change much....... I was gaming a few months ago with an I5-760, and loved it! I upgraded too.......and in fact, wasted my money. I saw no improvement at up-grading to an I7 cpu, even with hyper threading, etc, etc..... My system is no better than it was. the speed increase wasn't even enough to notice without a benchmark. My advice......If your computer deos ok now, then just up-grade to 8gb of ram. I do believe that will do you some good. If your computer simply doesn't do what you want with your exisitng cpu, then sure.....up-grade. But, do your homework. There are a lot of great pu s out there that dont have to cost so much. When you compare the speed increases witht he cost involved.....it's just a huge waste of money. good luck

 

[jessterman21]

No, sorry. BF3 doesn't care what CPU you use - it's very much a GPU-bound game.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html

 

[esrever]

Get the i5 7XX if you can, no need for the i7.

The i5s are just i7s without hyperthreading and will perform better in bf3.

Also bf3 does care about CPU in multiplayer but you should still get a better gpu if you upgrade your cpu.

 

[HEXiT]

you can swap the motherboard with an oem copy of windows. you just have to phone em and tell em its an upgrade... they will then issue you a new authentication code.
i have done it 3 times now. 1s for xp and 2 times for windows 7.
also your only ever gonna get high settings on that card... any more and your just throwing away gpu horsepower...
se in this case doesnt mean special edition. it means reduced spec... and to be brutally honest its a pants card even compared to its gtx460 brother.

 

[diellur]

I'd sooner recommend upgrading your GPU. A dual-core CPU is still sufficient for gaming...a GPU upgrade will net you more benefit. A RAM upgrade can't hurt, but probably isn't 100% necessary.

 

[a_tractor]

upgrade your gnu

 

[a_tractor]

gpu

 

[Tab54o]

Even in games where the gpu is taking most of the load its still always dependent on the cpu. So upgrade them both but do the gpu first.

 

[conquer7]

ahh, alright thanks for all posts

 

[conquer7]

Best answer selected by conquer7.