What should I do to improve my current computer

[antonsoukhan]

Ok everyone I have
4 gb ram,
1200 watt psu
Cooler Master HAF 912
120gb ssd drive
windows 7 64bit
2 5870 ati radeon cards at 512vram each in crossfire
AMD Phenom II X2 550 3.1 GHz Black Edition OEM CPU dual core
40 inch 1080p tv about 5 feet from my face
The mobo I am not sure but it is the older style that doesnt support the new intel cpu's.


anyways I feel pretty stupid....I bought my first 5870 and it was a great experience until that damn Battlefield 3 came out...anyways couldnt play it maxed out and so i bought another 5870 about a year ago....still cant play maxed out.....i feel pretty dumb im not sure if my 512 vram is laggin me or the dual core...anyways what should I do.....
option number 1
Dump the 2 5870's and get a card like a 7970 with 3gb vram around 400 dollar expense
option number 2
dump my cpu and mobo and upgrade to intel i5 3570 and z77 mobo for around 250 dollars
option number 3
whatever you think is a smarter decision.

Also forgot to say that my goal is to play BF3 absolutely maxed out on my 1080p tv, that means aa and all the other eye candy

 

[moomoomage]

what are you planning on doing? just gaming? get the 7970, cpu doesn't really change that much performance wise in games.

 

[antonsoukhan]

what are you planning on doing? just gaming? get the 7970, cpu doesn't really change that much performance wise in games.

I want to absolutely max out bf3 with no lag

 

[moomoomage]

I'd recomend the 7970, a new processor wont do anything

 

[Adsuki]

Why not options one and two? It's recommended to have a quad core CPU on the back of the game case and I truly would recommend a quad core for that game. Also, upgrading your RAM to 8GB would also help, since I've seen it use physical RAM past 4GB before. Hope this helps. And I don't see a 7970 having a problem with this game, even if you overclock it by 10%, you should be able to play the game without lag with everything maxed out at 1080p. =)

 

[DarkSable]

I'd recomend the 7970, a new processor wont do anything

WRONG. In most cases you'd be right, but... this is BF3 we're talking about. It's almost as CPU bound as WoW... there's a reason it can use 8 core CPUS, even if they're hyperthreaded.


I'd recommend upgrading to a good quad-core.

 

[unksol]

Your 512MB Vram is killing you if you are t 1080p, and so is your CPU.

Bad news, need a new GPU.

Good news. I have your CPU and if your board supports ACC you can most likely unlock it to a quad core. I've been running my 550 as a quad at 3.7GHz for 3 years. No issues. Plays BF3 multiplayer just fine.

 

[antonsoukhan]

Your 512MB Vram is killing you if you are t 1080p, and so is your CPU.

Bad news, need a new GPU.

Good news. I have your CPU and if your board supports ACC you can most likely unlock it to a quad core. I've been running my 550 as a quad at 3.7GHz for 3 years. No issues. Plays BF3 multiplayer just fine.

I have a GA-MA790XT-UD4P

 

[unksol]

Your board should allow it. You can read up on overclocking, but you'd want an aftermarket cooler to that. Unlocking the cores should be fine on the stock heatsink. Prime 95 is a.good way to make sure your cores are stable but you have to watch your temp.

There's LOTS of info on unlocking them and overclocking them with a little googling. Both are pretty easy.

Http://forum.raymond.cc/tutorials/16974-how-to-unlock-4-cores-on-amd-phenom-ii-550-be-710-720-be.html