Looking to upgrade from x2 5870s

[gorgot]

I have two 5870s that I crossfire (although I usually have to turn it off because so many games I play don't support it and/or play worse), a 955 x4 Phenom BE, a 750w PSU, and a regular old monitor (so I game with Vsync).

I've had this setup for two years and I'm thinking it might be time to upgrade. It plays everything I want to play but a lot of games (BF3, Crysis 2, even Diablo 3) struggle at times. Maybe I'm spoiled (as gamers sometimes are) but anything below my beloved butter-smooth 60fps (w./vsync) and I just get sad. So I'm considering an upgrade.

I don't have AMD brand loyalty either, so I'm considering going green.

My budget is around 3-400, maybe higher if I can get a decent price for my 2 5870s.

Also I play a LOT of WoW and I'll be playing Guild Wars 2 -- two very CPU dependent games from what I understand -- so is it time for a CPU upgrade as well? Would a CPU upgrade prevent me from needing a GPU upgrade? I'm still a noob at this stuff, this was my first build ever, so go easy on me.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dupontrocks11]

I have two 5870s that I crossfire (although I usually have to turn it off because so many games I play don't support it and/or play worse), a 955 x4 Phenom BE, a 750w PSU, and a regular old monitor (so I game with Vsync).

I've had this setup for two years and I'm thinking it might be time to upgrade. It plays everything I want to play but a lot of games (BF3, Crysis 2, even Diablo 3) struggle at times. Maybe I'm spoiled (as gamers sometimes are) but anything below my beloved butter-smooth 60fps (w./vsync) and I just get sad. So I'm considering an upgrade.

I don't have AMD brand loyalty either, so I'm considering going green.

My budget is around 3-400, maybe higher if I can get a decent price for my 2 5870s.

Also I play a LOT of WoW and I'll be playing Guild Wars 2 -- two very CPU dependent games from what I understand -- so is it time for a CPU upgrade as well? Would a CPU upgrade prevent me from needing a GPU upgrade? I'm still a noob at this stuff, this was my first build ever, so go easy on me.

Thanks in advance!

Well you could probably use an overhaul, becasue usually when someone updates the CPU and GPU, they end up building a new one completely. But you could only update the GPU and not update anything else.

If you update the CPU, you will still need a new GPU to play games like BF3.

If the budget for your GPU is 300-400, I would highly suggest the GTX 670 which can play anything you throw at it with ease.

 

[redeemer]

i second dupon grab a gtx 670

 

[gorgot]

That's the exact card I'm looking at right now. How significant of a performance leap should I expect? Rock solid 60fps @ 1080 on, say, the next year's worth of games?

 

[gorgot]

I have one more question. Since I play a lot of CPU dependent games (WoW), is the 955 going to hold me back?

In Mist of Pandaria (not out yet, but in beta) will I not see any FPS increase because of the older CPU? Right now I can only get about 30 fps on ultra in that beta, and my goal is 60. I'd hate to pay 400 for a new card and not see an improvement.

I can spend 400 on the card because I can sell my 5870s. I doubt I could sell my CPU and Mobo to replace them. (I only have AM3 socket)...

 

[gorgot]

I know it's not encouraged to bump threads, but I'm still looking for an answer to my other question and I'd rather not start another thread. I've been doing a lot of research on bottlenecks and I can't tell if if the GTX 670 will be my one-stop solution.

As I said, all I want to achieve is rock-solid ultra settings 60fps on the games I play, which include Mists of Pandaria and Guild Wars 2, both of which are around 20-40fps on ultra with my current setup of 2 5870s and a stock 3.2 955.

I am not comfortable with overclocking as my CPU seems to run a little hot as it is at stock.

This is all on a single 60hz monitor, 1080p.

Thanks in advance.

 

[guerrero]

GTX 670

 

[azeem40]

He can't afford a GTX 690 mate. Yes, OP, the GTX 670 will play the next year's worth of games at max.

 

[guerrero]

He can't afford a GTX 690 mate. Yes, OP, the GTX 670 will play the next year's worth of games at max.

WELL THEN

 

[Dupontrocks11]

Gorgot, If you are going to be playing online mmo's or the multiplayers of really any games, I would probably suggest a new cpu. At least an intel quad-core if you want to play games going into the future. The reason I suggest Intel and not AMD is because AMD uses modules but calls them cores. So really an AMD fx-8150 has 8 modules, but they really act like 4 cores. If you plan on getting a new cpu, I would buy an ivy bridge i5-3570k with an ASRock Extreme4 mobo. Cheap (ish) and will provide enough CPU performance for years.

 

[obsama1]

Off-topic, but I think that if AMD advertised the FX 8150 as a quad-core with advanced hyperthreading, and so on and so forth, BD wouldn't have been that big of a disappointment. I don't see a problem with the 5870's. They're good GPU's. I think it's the CPU. Get the 3570K and Extreme 4. You'll def. notice an improvement.