Difference between low and high end boards.

[mickeyfinagin]

Hi, I am starting to look at new components for my 2 year old system, I mainly play FPS like blk ops and BF3.
At present I run a Asus P67 pro board with a I2500k cpu.
16gb DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel memory.
with 2 x 7770gpu's
Then system runs well and clocks to 4.4ghz stable.

A friend has said to get a high end board as they are so much better , something like a
Asus X79 Sabertooth Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard
or
Asus Maximus V Formula/ThunderFX, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0 (x16), DP/ HDMI

Now both of these cards are nearly twice as much as I payed for my card, Im not a voltage, timmings adjusting level of person at present so leave those things alone.I can do a overclock via bios etc.

I will probably run one gpu to begin with ( gtx 670 or 7950) but may add another.

My main question is this, do these type of card give you any real advantage in game play and if so by how much or is it just for tweakers to be able to do fine adjustments.
Is it worth spending the money on the board or getting say a GTX680 with the money saved getting a lesser board.

Im sorry if this sounds a stupid question, but want some basic feedback on the advantages of above boards over cheaper .

 

[ginjaninja]

Sometimes a harder question, but if game performance is what matters put 'everything' into the gpu.
Even if the premium board supported a higher 'bios' overclock, it wont help game performance. Minimum framerate, which is the most important are v. Rarely affected by cpu and always by gpu. Just make sure the boards has the io ports, mem slots, cpu socket u want. Id go for the cheapest one from a reputable manufacturer.
Take some care to consider any announced cpu developments: some boards have more support for upcoming cpus, if upgrade is of concern. (Not sure this is an issue at the mo)

 

[Randomface74]

It's 100% not worth replacing your motherboard.

If you're having problems during games, maybe micro-stuttering, or you're running high settings on a high resolution - then you might benefit from the 680.

If you're having problems with loading times you could consider an SSD.

If you're having non-game problems maybe it's worth doing a clean windows installation.

Otherwise... save your cash and enjoy the next couple of years, your system is good for it.