Upgrading GTS250, Need help!

What case do you have? Unless you have a tiny tiny case I wouldn't worry about overheating.

If your set on nvidia you can get a GTX 570 for $10 more than your budget:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

It's called a Mate Multimedia System case. I can't seem to find a picture to the case, but it is pretty darn big.

Well if its fairly large then you can just slap on a couple case fans and i think you'll be good.

Alright thanks, would you mind linking me to some proficient fans?

holding onto a 1st gen i3 card isn't going to help much with the statement about not getting an fps dip in bf3



on a side unrelated note, avoiding ati/amd gpus when the 7850 is just a tad bit above the budget which is the best card of the 200-300 range per performance =X

Dam, well which do you think is more important right now? GPU or CPU?


edit:I'm not a computer guru so yeah pretty new @ this type of stuff.

Newegg has a large selection of case fans:
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategor...

You'll probably need 80mm, 120mm, 200mm depending on the mounting points you have in your case, just measure them with a ruler. Honestly I usually just cheap out on my fans and get cheap ones ($5 or so) that can move the most air (more CFM) as I don't really care for noise. If you care about noise just get some that are rated to have low noise (low dB)

Id definetly change your GPU now as that will give you the greatest performance. A 570 or 7850 will have a huge improvement over a gts 250 (very outdated and low end). If you get some more money in the future for upgrades a i3-2100 will do you niceless along with a h61 mobo.

Theres is nothing wrong with gaming with a first gen i3. I still game with a 1st gen i7 and its completely fine. Also first gen core processors can be overclocked you can can get more juice from your i3 if needed.

its not the fact that an i3 sucks, as i use a sandy bridge one myself, but its that battlefield is optimized to use quad cores if your planning to play on a higher resolution and higher graphic level. BF2BC2 amazingly had good scaling with hyperthreading which BF3 lacks, making the i3 a not so great performer in ultra and high settings (i wouldn't know about medium). BF3 is one of the very few games that the i3 will struggle on even with its architecture.

Are youy referring to this mobo, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If so, i could prolly get the GPU and than the mobo but if i do would it be compatible w/ my current i3? (Planning on getting that i3 you mentioned)


edit: I think the i3 i have is a quad core

The i3 is actually a dual core with hyperthreading so windows will pick it up as it has 4 cores.

i think at his resolution though the i3 will be fine

Alright, so what im getting so far is new gpu,cpu and mobo.
Thanks guys, you were very informative!

windows picks it up as 4 cores, but like i stated earlier, BF3 is not optimized to hyperthread as of yet. hyperthreading actually decreases some of the fps to some people. BF3 is a really odd game because of it, since its so different from bf2bc2

Yeah i have Bad Company 2 and the game play is smooth. I saw that bav mentioned that i should get an i3, but why not the i5/7?

if its specifically for BF3, than get an i5/i7 on the intel side of the computers, if and only if you want to play bf3 on higher resolutions. the i3 will probably be okay on low resolution

Guess il go w/ an i5, that should last me quite a while. Well i have to go now. Feel free to leave any posts, il come back tomorrow to check.

With out wanting to get my head cut off, I would argue that a 2500k, z68, gtx 480 combo would yield the cheapest way to get BF3 on ultra max AA. The trade off is heat and power of the gtx 480. It does well under heat... price around $500ish for the package.

You could bump up to i5 IB, z77, and just stick with a 7850 as a safe mainstream view of a good upgrade tho. But you will pay more for not a whole lot of extra in game performance but have a cooler rig that has less power needs. (it has to be around 70 bucks extra or so) If your case has poor airflow then skip the 480.