Too many choices....

[MonsterMoshi]

Right i have battlefeild 3 coming on friday and right now my computer isnt going to do it much justice i dont think.
Current specs:
Intel core 2 6600 @ 2.4GHz (cant overclock due to poor motherboard)
Freezer 7 pro
ECS elitegroup P965T-A
4 x 1Gb DDR2
60Gb OCZ Agilty 3 (only connected on SATA-II)
PNY GT220

Bascally i have two options.
Option 1- upgrade CPU, motherboard, ram
Intel i5 2500K
Asus P67 Sabertooth
Corsair Vengence 8Gb 1600MHz

Option 2- upgrade GPU, Power supply
MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti
OCZ ZX Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular
here i would plan on upsaving up to get a IvyBridge CPU next year

So question is would my GPU cope with BF3 with a much improved CPU, RAM ssd speeds etc...
Or would my CPU cope with BF3 alongside a much improved graphics card?
Right now on the current specs i play Left 4 Dead 2 at around 25-35 fps at almost maxed settings if that give a gide to go by?

Feel free to suggest other hardware.
Thank you

 

[cmndr_andi]

Hi there,

May I ask what the model number of your existing CPU is (E6600 or Q6600)?

As for your existing graphics, the GT 220 is not really a gaming card and well below the minimum requirements of BF3 (8800GT) - so if you want to play that game (or pretty much any modern games) you will need to upgrade this. Unfortunately Left 4 Dead 2 isn't a good game to test is your graphics card is up to modern games - since it is using the source engine which came out in 2004 and isn't particularly taxing on GPUs.

Based on this analysis from the BF3 beta - the games isn't very CPU heavy. Even a relatively low-end desktop dual core CPU can provide 40FPS - so long as it is paired with a decent graphics card. Therefore, if you have a E6600 dual core then you should still be OK (if you have a Q6600 quad core then you will fine). However, looking at this page of the same analysis, the game is very Graphics card intensive and requiring a mid range HD 6850 1GB to even hit 30FPS at 1920x1200 res.

With this in mind I would suggest going for Option 2 - upgrading the graphics card and PSU. The MSI GTX 560 Ti 2GB or a HD 6950 2GB are both excellent choices for this game. The 850W PSU is a nice one, but if you want to save some money (to put towards upgrading your motherboard/CPU/RAM) this PSU will cope with either of these graphics cards perfectly fine.

 

[Doomedspeed]

Hi there,

May I ask what the model number of your existing CPU is (E6600 or Q6600)?

As for your existing graphics, the GT 220 is not really a gaming card and well below the minimum requirements of BF3 (8800GT) - so if you want to play that game (or pretty much any modern games) you will need to upgrade this. Unfortunately Left 4 Dead 2 isn't a good game to test is your graphics card is up to modern games - since it is using the source engine which came out in 2004 and isn't particularly taxing on GPUs.

Based on this analysis from the BF3 beta - the games isn't very CPU heavy. Even a relatively low-end desktop dual core CPU can provide 40FPS - so long as it is paired with a decent graphics card. Therefore, if you have a E6600 dual core then you should still be OK (if you have a Q6600 quad core then you will fine). However, looking at this page of the same analysis, the game is very Graphics card intensive and requiring a mid range HD 6850 1GB to even hit 30FPS at 1920x1200 res.

With this in mind I would suggest going for Option 2 - upgrading the graphics card and PSU. The MSI GTX 560 Ti 2GB or a HD 6950 2GB are both excellent choices for this game. The 850W PSU is a nice one, but if you want to save some money (to put towards upgrading your motherboard/CPU/RAM) this PSU will cope with either of these graphics cards perfectly fine.

No-one could have said that any better.

Like was siad, there is no need for a 850W PSU at this moment in time anyway. It will be best to invest in a new GPU and PSU now then upgrade the core of the PC when you have the money. Ivybridge is a good place in time to aim for.
The PSU cmndr-andi linked is a very good PSU at a very cheap price, well worth the money.

 

[MonsterMoshi]

Thank you very much, just the advice i needed
Im using the E6600 which i know really needs upgrading too but money really doesnt grow on trees as we know.
I think i'll be off up to OcUK tomorrow then

 

[fowler002]

why did you start a new thread? already had a few suggestions in your previous thread.