Upgrade Suggestion

[cameronmc88]

Hello All,

Looking at a new upgrade for my current rig.
My current CPU is i5 3570k (Stock HSF and Clocks)
My current GPU is HD 6870
and I play at 1080p Resolution

Pretty much I have a choice between two upgrades:

1. HD 7950 or GTX 660 TI video card

or

2. New Power Supply & Aftermarket CPU Cooling solution for my i5 3570k so I can hit hopefully 4.4ghz at least

Now what upgrade would give me more FPS in games and overall better gaming performance? the new video card or the CPU Cooler, so I can overclock this puppy and score some FPS that way.

Games I play are..

Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft, Battlefield 3 etc.

 

[cameronmc88]

I read that NVIDIA rules on BF3, so FPS will be better with 660 Ti and also I can run Guild Wars 2 max.. but I want close to 60 fps or higher all the time and not dip to the 40's sometimes in bigger fights! and do you use super sampling rather than native? if so and you don't lag please tell me how :/

 

[mikerockett]

GW2 and wow you should be maxing already, i have an i5 2500k and the 6870 and its maxed.

BF3 would take some more. I would upgrade the graphics card as thats going to give you a much bigger fps boost than an OC cpu.

Personally id take the 7950 but i'm a fan of AMD gpu's.

Could also look at another 6870 in x-fire, just read into the microstuttering first.

 

[mikerockett]

If i'm honest i've only started playing GW2 very recently, i just set the slider to best look, i haven't changed any individual settings yet. I have been in several large fights and not had any issues as of yet. A slightly dipped frame rate but nothing i'd call close to lag.

I play BF3 on the xbox and haven't used an Nvidia card in years so i couldnt tell you if it will run BF3 better.

 

[jay2tall]

A better graphics card will always give you better frames as long as you have a somewhat adequate CPU. (which you do) The 660Ti outperforms the 7950 by a slight margin on BF3. However, in most other games the 7950 prevails. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-benchmark-review,3279-4.html

It also has to do whether you like the Green or Red Kool-Aid.

Also, what power supply do you currently have? You can also find a half way decent CPU cooler pretty cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099