Need some upgrade advice.

[Shroomhead]

Hi all,

My current rig is now a little over 4 years old so it's clearly time for an upgrade, I'm running an E8400 @3.6Ghz, 4Gb 800Mhz RAM and an HD4850 512Mb running on a 550W Corsair. Gaming at 1920x1080 is obviously becoming a struggle for my system now so I'm looking for a new build eventually but am thinking about an incremental upgrade to hold me over until I can afford a whole new system. My choice comes down to new GFX card or a new mobo (processor and ram too).

I've been eying the i5 2500k or the 3550 and an nVidia 660Ti for my system, but at the moment I have to choose between the two. So what would be the better upgrade choice at the moment?

I'm leaning towards the 660Ti as it will give me some improvements straight away as well as giving the choice to build a SLI rig down the line when I can afford a new motherboard etc, and obviously an HD4850 will be a massive bottleneck in an i5 system.

But is my E8400 going to bottleneck a 660Ti too much that I might as well save my money for an upgrade all in one go?
As you can see I'm stuck, thanks for any suggestions.

 

[mickyflinn]

Personally i would upgrade your gpu, you should also consider the 7950 as a contender against the 660ti.

 

[honosuseri]

If you remember that the nvidia GPU adds cuda support it makes for a better all round upgrade as it assists your CPU for other tasks

 

[Shroomhead]

Thanks, yeah I think a graphics card is the best bet.

Once question about the 660Ti, the 192-bit memory bus isn't going to be a problem for 1080p gaming right? Read a lot of "complaints" about it, but I'm not so sure myself.

Perhaps an HD7950 would be better if I want to throw on some AA and if I want to keep the card in my rig for a few years?

 

[CyberCrow]

I would go for the card first.