Upgrade for Planetside 2

[stat30fbliss]

Hey there folks,

I am curious what I should upgrade to in order to get the best performance out of Planetside 2. Also BF3, Borderlands 2, Skyrim, etc. Thinking about Crysis 3...

My current build is

ASRock z75 pro3
Gigabyte Radeon 6850
i5 2320 3Ghz
500w Cooler Master
8GB Corsair Vengeance
120GB OCZ Vertex 4

I have heard that Planetside 2 is a very CPU heavy game, so until recently I was only shopping for a new graphics card. Now I am not so sure what my first upgrade should be...

I have been focused on the Gigabyte 7950 3GB, Gigabyte 670, or Gigabyte 660ti for video card options. I like the price of the 7950 and 660ti, but I have heard some great things about the 670 in regards to PhysX, which I believe Planetside 2 takes advantage of.

If I were to upgrade my CPU, I would go with an Intel Core i7-3770K. The catch being I can only do one now, and the other a few months down the road when I save up more money. So, for right now, which option do you suppose would give my system the biggest boost in performance?

 

[bigshootr8]

Well, I would say it really depends on how much you really enjoy physx with planetside 2. You also get Physx with Borderlands 2. And before people go and say well you can run Physx on a AMD card yes I know in most cases you can but its not GPU handled which normally means running Physx on High with a CPU will not cut the mustard for the frames people are after. Furthermore I have a GTX670 and I play all those games with the exception of Planetside 2 and its pretty awesome. Borderlands 2 turned up all the way no lag amazing visually, BF3 same thing maxed out no issues what so ever this is on 1920x1080 on every game. And Skyrim as well no issues at all although if you start to add in mods I would go with the AMD option but it really truly depends on how heavy you mod.

Updated computer
Intel Core i5 2500k @ 4.2 ghz
Asrock Z68 EXTREME4 Gen 3
Gigabyte Geforce GTX670oc Windforce3
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 8GB (2x4)
Samsung 830 256 GB SSD
OCZ Vertex 2 90GB SSD (scratch drive)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III
LG 12x Super Multi Blue WH12LS38
ASUS XONAR DX 7.1 Sound Card
CM Storm Sniper
Corsair AX850 PSU
Corsair Hydro H100

 

[stat30fbliss]

Well, I would say it really depends on how much you really enjoy physx with planetside 2. You also get Physx with Borderlands 2. And before people go and say well you can run Physx on a AMD card yes I know in most cases you can but its not GPU handled which normally means running Physx on High with a CPU will not cut the mustard for the frames people are after. Furthermore I have a GTX670 and I play all those games with the exception of Planetside 2 and its pretty awesome. Borderlands 2 turned up all the way no lag amazing visually, BF3 same thing maxed out no issues what so ever this is on 1920x1080 on every game. And Skyrim as well no issues at all although if you start to add in mods I would go with the AMD option but it really truly depends on how heavy you mod.

Great points. The only other thing holding me back from Nvidia is that my board isn't SLI ready. It is Crossfire ready. So I would have to accept being stuck with one card for a while if I went with the 670. Bad planning on my part....

I should have mentioned I am running a single 24" Samsung at 1080p at the moment.

Also, I do not MOD much, yet

Finally, is PhysX really all that great? I have never seen it in person, and have been AMD for the last few cards, so I don't really know what I am missing...

 

[bigshootr8]

Well if you really come to think on it its normally better to have one card anyway you get one solid card and by the time you normally need a 2nd card you would end up purchasing the next latest and greatest. And worse comes to worse you could always purchase a new motherboard the ASROCK extreme 4 is pretty cheap and the one that most would recommend and it comes with 3 way SLi if I'm not mistaken.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

 

[darth pravus]

I agree with the one card approach. Just sell and upgrade when you need.

A new GPU would help out massively and a new CPU only slightly.

To be honest it wouldn't be worth an i7 upgrade for gaming alone that leaves you with an i5 3570k which you would oc to get more gains.

TLDR version

Graphics is the bigger gain. Gtx 670 good option

(I personally love Physx but i know some people don't)

 

[stat30fbliss]

Great answers guys, and thanks for the pointers. Unfortunately I cannot upgrade my Mobo, given as this one is relatively new, and I just installed Windows 8 on it, so its not worth it to me to buy a new Mobo and another copy of Win 8/Blue/whatever for another year at least.

I am not opposed to the one great card approach at all. I would liker quality over quantity, and price to performance ratio of the 670 seems reasonable enough, and should stave off upgrades for a while.

Looking to purchase in just over a week, so I may report back then.

Thanks a lot guys!

 

[stat30fbliss]

Best answer selected by stat30fbliss.

 

[bigshootr8]

Yea I would say a 670 should keep you gaming at a high level of detail for a while. What a while is it hard to say but yes the price to performance is pretty strong with the 670 And yea of course report back with your experience and since they will close this thread since you selected a best answer send me a private message with the thread you opened or just tell me how its going with the card.

 

[stat30fbliss]

Yea I would say a 670 should keep you gaming at a high level of detail for a while. What a while is it hard to say but yes the price to performance is pretty strong with the 670 And yea of course report back with your experience and since they will close this thread since you selected a best answer send me a private message with the thread you opened or just tell me how its going with the card.

Will do, thanks for checking in!

 

[bigshootr8]

Not a problem man. happy gaming sir!