Possible upgrade from a phenom ii 965

[Vinylscratchgamer]

i currently have a phenom ii 965 black edition @3.4 ghz
i am interested in playing higher end games such as need for speed most wanted 2 batman arkham city skyrim metro 2033 and crysis 2 & 3
is my current cpu sufficient for this or should i upgrade to an fx?
i have been looking into the fx6300 and 4300. what do you guys think?
currently i am only playing steam games and the like.

 

[corbeau]

The phenom ii 965 should be good for those games, what sort of graphics card do you have?

 

[Vinylscratchgamer]

currently i have an xfx radeon hd 5450 1gb card i got it since it was cheap and sufficient for most steam games, although i am upgrading to either an nvidia gtx 650ti or an radeon hd 7770

 

[corbeau]

You'll definitely see a substantial improvement with either of those graphics cards. You won't bottleneck your processor. If you have the money, upgrading to a 7870 or 660ti would give you more bang for buck than upgrading the CPU.

 

[clutchc]

Your gfx card is definitely the bottle neck. That processor is strong enough to handle some pretty hi end cards. But that card is quite weak. Assuming your PSU is adequate, any of the aforementioned cards will be a major improvement. What resolution do you game at?