Upgrade card or... ?

[Bond007]

hd 6950 (1gb is fine, but 2 gb will cover you better if you intend to go to a higher resolution monitor anytime in the near future), unless you find a good deal on a 560Ti first (either will do fine). Your current GPU is your bottleneck in most games. SSD are great, but will do little to nothing for running games faster (other than load time). Windows 7 will get you DirectX11 and that would be my next recommendation for you IF you play or plan to play DX11 games. After the GPU your rig should run fine for a while, but the CPU will be your new limiting factor.

[Matty D]

Thanks all for the replies. I have taken the SSD off the table for now, maybe next summer if the prices continue to fall?

I didn't think my system was at a point of needing a complet rebuild and that the GPU could keep me going, thanks for backing that up. Heck that 4870 is still a solid card for most titles, not great but good.

Cheers

[On2wheels]

If all you're concerned about is BF3, you've got plenty of time to sniff out a deal. I'm in the same boat: using an 8800gt that works fine, upgrade itch still there however. Your 4870 is probly just a tick above my 8800 performance wise too. (looking at the 560ti myself).

This is an interesting page, shows power usage for our old cards vs new ones.
Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics processor - The Tech Report - Page 13