What should I do?

uncle_sam_ie

This is my current set-up
AMD Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition
MSI KA790GX MS-7551
4G DDR2
Radeon HD 5770
I have a couple of Questions,
From what I've read online my motherboard can take a socket ADM3 Phenom II X4 and all I would need to do is update the BIOS. Is this Correct?

Is it worth the bother? I have been saving for a sandybridge sytem but it wont be untile January of next year until I can buy it. I was thinking mybe I should just get the Phenom II and a better Graphics card.

The Cliffs of Dover Fight sim and games like BF3 is what I'll be using it for.
What should I do?

uncle_sam_ie

Anyone?

xtal191

If I was you I'd just wait and keep your money for a new motherboard and cpu.

Monotype

You'd get a reasonable step in performance but if you were thinking of Sandy/Ivy Bridge then you should go for it as you'll get a big boost.

I suggest that you try overclocking as a quick look shows that an extra 0.5GHz seems to be easy enough. Just follow guides, watch the temperatures and stability.

marco_polo

I'd suspect you still just about have a GPU bottleneck for most games at the moment (except probably in a few CPU bound games like Starcraft II etc), so if you are buying anything I'd upgrade the GPU and keep saving for that Sandybridge processor.

Although that AMD Phenom X4 9950 is aging rapidly and its end is nigh, at least the Frostbite 2 engine will be able to utilise all four cores and I think it will be just about able to shove enough frames at a more powerful GPU too keep it fully working (or close enough anyway). A little OCing as Monotyope suggests wouldn't hurt either just to be sure.

If you a sandybridge powerful processor now instead of a GPU, I doubt you would see any increase FPS for Battlefield 3 anyway when playing at high quality settings/resolutions.

Serephucus

I'd go with upgrading your graphics card now if you have to upgrade something. It'll be bottlenecked by your processor, but you'll still see a big jump in performance. If you are upgrading though I wouldn't buy a stop-gap card; buy the card you're planning on using in the finished machine.

Best thing though would be to wait until you have enough money for everything. Usually upgrading over a few months never works out well; things change too fast.

uncle_sam_ie

Thanks Lads, I think I'll go for the GPU upgrade and overclock my Phenom 9950 option. Whould somthing like this card work OK? http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/10_GRPCARD/11_NVIDIA/productdetails/80003214/MSI_GeForce_N570GTX_TF_III_PE_OC_1_28GB_PCI_E/N570GTX_TFIII_PE_OC/default.aspx

Serephucus

Yes, however:

http://www.dabs.ie/products/pny-geforce-gtx-570-732mhz-1280mb-pci-express-2-0-dl-dvi-i-hdmi-7934.html?q=GTX%20570