Ideas for Upgrading My Gaming PC?

[hensc]

As the title suggests, my PC is mostly dedicated to gaming and I don't do any photo or video editing at all. My current rig is about 2.5 years old and the main gaming components are as follow,

AMD Phenom II X4 945
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO (supports crossfire, but not SLI)
Crucial DDR3 PC12800 16GB
Sapphire HD6870 1GB
Windows 7 Home 64 bit

I play Diablo 3, Tera, LFD2, Skyrim, etc. I'll most likely give FF14 another chance when 2.0 comes out at the end of this year. After reading various articles and posts on Tom's, I'm leaning toward upgrading to a GTX 670 4GB once the 700s come out and I'm hoping to catch a break on the pricing.

Any other suggestion? With my gaming needs, is it necessary to upgrade my cpu to a i7 or FX 8000 series?

 

[hizodge]

I don't think your motherboard supports FX line of processors, so you'd need to replace that as well in which case I'd recommend you wait a month or two and get a Z87 motherboard and Intel 4th gen Core i5 4570K.

Right now your best bet would be to possibly overclock that CPU and get a new graphics card, but that depends on your budget so it wouldn't hurt to know how much are you willing to spend for upgrades.

Also, what power supply and CPU cooler are you using?

 

[hensc]

I'm hoping the CPU will last me another couple years and just upgrade the video card for under $400.

My PSU is Corsair 750TX v2.3 and my heat sink is Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2

 

[supersonic977]

Can you please tell us the model of your video card?

 

[hensc]

Can you please tell us the model of your video card?

Sure.

SAPPHIRE 100314SR Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

It handles most games just fine with 55-60 fps. But whenever we do a raid where there's hundreds of players, my fps tanked to single digits and I have to turn my settings to the lowest to get about 20 fps. Is this inevitable when there's too many people on?

 

[supersonic977]

In raid the CPU is the most important factor here, so you need to upgrade your CPU. And if you want your CPU to last for years get an intel core i5 3xxx/4xxx but you have to get a new motherboard

 

[hensc]

In raid the CPU is the most important factor here, so you need to upgrade your CPU. And if you want your CPU to last for years get an intel core i5 3xxx/4xxx but you have to get a new motherboard

Bummer... that's essentially building a new pc to me and not feasible right now (baby on the way)... is it worth getting the GTX 670 still? Or should I wait a couple more years and build a new pc altogether?

What do you guys think?

 

[hizodge]

I think you should just upgrade your graphics card and get an OC going on the CPU. That processor is pretty good once you raise the clocks up a tad and you can keep it for another year or two.

Also wouldn't recommend you get the GTX 670 4GB version of an "added VRAM version" of any Nvidia card. The only thing you'll be adding is cost. They're essentially made for triple monitor gaming and the added 2GB VRAM is only beneficial in a few select games above 1920x1200 resolutions. For 1080p and 1200p, 2GB of VRAM is easily enough.

For the GPU I think you'd do fine with a 660 Ti, the higher in the ladder you start to go, the more your CPU will start to hold you back. Grab something like Asus GTX 660 Ti DCUII or MSI GTX 660 Ti Power Edition and OC the card as well.

Worth a mention that GTX 760 Ti is rumoured to hit the market halfway next month priced 300 bucks. Might be worth the wait.

 

[hensc]

I think you should just upgrade your graphics card and get an OC going on the CPU. That processor is pretty good once you raise the clocks up a tad and you can keep it for another year or two.

Also wouldn't recommend you get the GTX 670 4GB version of an "added VRAM version" of any Nvidia card. The only thing you'll be adding is cost. They're essentially made for triple monitor gaming and the added 2GB VRAM is only beneficial in a few select games above 1920x1200 resolutions. For 1080p and 1200p, 2GB of VRAM is easily enough.

For the GPU I think you'd do fine with a 660 Ti, the higher in the ladder you start to go, the more your CPU will start to hold you back. Grab something like Asus GTX 660 Ti DCUII or MSI GTX 660 Ti Power Edition and OC the card as well.

Worth a mention that GTX 760 Ti is rumoured to hit the market halfway next month priced 300 bucks. Might be worth the wait.

Appreciate the feedback. I think I will play the waiting game afterall and keep an eye on the pricing once GTX 700s hit the market

 

[supersonic977]

Don't get a new GPU just OC your CPU as you can because new GPU won't make your desired difference in raids