VGA upgrade from GTX 260 first, or CPU+mobo upgrade first?

[panzerfan]

I am thinking about upgrading from my GTX 260... I run stuff on a 1920x1080 primary and 1920x1200 secondary.


here's the thing though, I am pretty sure that my AM2 5000+ (ocd to 3GHz) is bottlenecking the card (I am trying to game at 1920x1080), and some games such at GTA4 is going to the very edge of the RAM size on the video card at high detail, which all adds up to me wanting to step up.

What I don't know is whether or not if I should jump at HD 5850/5870 single card or I should wait for another generation of cards to come out and focus on moving to DDR3 AM3 architecture. This I would like to hear opinions on if you guys would like to share. Thank you.

[jcmaz]

Either get a 720BE or 965 Quad. You won't regret it. I had a nearly 10-20 fps jump in Singleplayer of BFBC2 from AMD 5200+ 2.9GHZ to a 720BE 2.8GHZ with my 4850.
Around 20 fps in Insurgency (Source mod).

[boggtrotter59]

I would focus on upgrading your cpu/mobo/ram... then get a faster videocard. Getting a faster card now would only bottleneck things further...

[gingerbee]

keep the gpu and upgrade the mb/cpu

[jcmaz]

I think it depends on his budget... sell the CPU for $50. A Phenom II 955 is 175$ at NCIX or Athlon II 630 is $110 @ NCIX.

[jcmaz]

You should fill out the System Specs portion of the Control Panel so we know what hardware you have...

[belgolas]

Well from the limited amount we know about your system I would say upgrade to a new mobo, cpu and ram first. Your whole system will feel faster not just in games. But we need things like the PSU to know if you need a new one or not. Both upgrading the GPU or the mobo,cpu,ram will give you a performance boost but the latter should give you more. Plus the newer GPU's just came out and the price wars have yet to start so it might be best to wait for a new GPU anyways. So I recommend upgrading the rest of the system first.

[panzerfan]

Ok, there we go.

(I had a 4980 for 30 minutes. That's it, and she went dead btw...)

Thanks for the input. I was thinking of sinking about 300 buck perhaps. Basically, I am ruling out even considering going SLI due to power consumption and efficiency reason.
I guess this becomes more and more of a new build. In that case, would I benefit from getting a hexacore phenom II or the X4 would do just fine to not bottleneck 58xx card?

[Silvgearx]

You just need to slap on a Phenom II X4 955 and your set. Hell you don't even need overclocking, PH II are just that good

And those gtx 260 truly comes alive at 700mhz core.

[_dangtx_]

if your mobo takest he newer chips go for it, altough at 3 gigs its not that bad...got enough ram for todays games(now).


id say gpu? :)