Should I upgrade now or wait?

[SLTodd]

Hi,

I'm currently running:

MSI AM2+ 770-C45 (ddr2, single GPU)
AMD x2 5600
4gb DDR2-800
Radeon 4870 512mb

I've upgraded everything apart from the CPU over the past 2 years, which is now 4 years old.

I think I'm due for a full new system, and would not be constrained by budget if I did. However I'd rather not throw cash away, so I think maybe I'll just buy a phenom II 955 and see how it goes-probably picking up a new GPU when new ATIs come out.

Would that be sufficient to play games such as arma 2 and bad company 2 (I notice civ5 plays like poo too) smoothly on highish settings (1440x900), or would I benefit from ddr3 and a multi-GPU setup?

Are next gen AMD CPUs coming out soon, or will the phenom II still be going strong for a while longer? And if the phenom will be outdated, would the AM3 boards be obsolete too?

Really just wait to gauge if I should bother with an upgrade or just fork out for a shiny new rig!

Cheers

 

[stulid]

X2 5000 vs 955be - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/33?vs=88 looks good to me.

the next AMD socket is AM3+, the 955be will work (forward compatible) in the new motherboards, so there is some upgrade ability there.

so when a new AM3+ motherboard is released, buy it, put the 955be into it, and then later down the line buy a Bulldozer cpu to keep you current.

 

[Vidar]

So many people would advise you to wait a little while as Sandybridge and a whole load of new GPU's etc are just around the corner! If you can afford to buy now and don't want to wait then go for it... Performance wise I don't think there would be much of a noticable difference from going I7 as opposed to Sandybridge...

 

[Monster ninja]

wait there is a AM3+ socket???? lucky i saw this! was going to buy my new rig tomorrow think i will wait till AM3+ or hope the prices come down for AM3