Long Needed Upgrade?

[grantbrott]

I am a bit outdated on all the new hardware out there so thought I would seek some advice since this forum seems to keep popping up in doing my research. I play Battlefield 3, GW2 mainly and want to upgrade my PC. I was thinking of getting the intel i5 but was reading that other component upgrades might be better. Any input?

System:
windows 7 64-bit
AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4GHz
4 GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB
850W Cooler Master power supplly
1 TB HD
M4A79T Deluxe motherboard

 

[ChilledGrease]

That isn't terribly outdated, still a pretty solid system. Since you aren't in dire need of an immediate upgrade, I would wait until Intel's new Haswell processors come out this spring. They will be much faster and more power-efficient than anything on the market right now. Otherwise, if you absolutely must upgrade right now, the best-value gaming CPU is the i5-3570K. It has all the cores you need, and none of the expensive and unnecessary (for gaming) threads that you get with the i7-3770K. Plus, it overclocks like a beast, and stays very cool. I would pair that with a decent z77 motherboard, 8GB of RAM and a 660Ti. Once again, this is only if you must upgrade right now. Otherwise, definitely wait for Haswell.

 

[swifty_morgan]

you could upgrade the video card and have something to bring over to your next build.

 

[grantbrott]

Thanks for the input, any recommendations on a good video card that would work with my motherboard that could be pulled over into a system like Chilled mentioned?

 

[swifty_morgan]

monitor size/resolution. machine and usage. ( software )

 

[grantbrott]

22" monitor lcd 1680x1050 3000:1 LG L226WT

 

[swifty_morgan]

nvidia GTX660 or AMD 6950 2gig cards or better. don't buy 1gig video cards.

 

[mocchan]

nvidia GTX660 or AMD 6950 2gig cards or better. don't buy 1gig video cards.

+1

I would recommend the HD7870 over the HD6950, however. They're around the same price point (if you can find the HD6950 that is) and both perform roughly on-par. HD7870 seems to perform much better and has a much lower power consumption as well.

 

[grantbrott]

I was looking at the GTX 660Ti and it says its pci express 3.0, my motherboard has a 2.0 slot does that matter or will the card still run?

 

[mocchan]

Yes, you can run a PCI-E 3.0 card on a PCI-E 2.0 slot. You won't run into any major bandwidth issues until you're running massive SLI/Crossfire configurations.

Also, I would highly recommend the Radeon HD7950 if you're considering the 660 Ti.

 

[swifty_morgan]

doesn't matter.

 

[grantbrott]

Thanks for all the input everyone, it has been very helpful and looks like I am upgrading my video card now and waiting for the new Haswell processor

 

[DarkSable]

Can I just throw out there that that's backwards advice?

There's not going to be a HUGE difference between ivy bridge and Haswell, and that's waiting a fair while, whereas the 8k and 700 series of graphics cards are going to be rolling out within a few MONTHS, and will be up to 30% faster while being "priced competitively."

 

[swifty_morgan]

that's pretty much true. amd's cards are supposed to be first and nvidia later on. or you could die of old age first........ sometimes that seems to be true. how much of a difference is it really going to make in the greater scheme of things?