Which upgrade would give biggest performance increase?

spiki · 30 Sep 2011 at 13:48

I bought my system in 2008 & even today it remains good, solid rig. However, it is beginning to struggle a bit with more recent games. I tried the BF3 beta and the gfx card is doing a very good impression of a hairdryer on medium heat & is struggling when adding any high settings on the Metro level let alone Caspian. I can play it but it looks ugly.

Anyway, I have a limited budget, prob around £250-275 and an unused copy of Win7.

What could/should I change from this:

Q5995 Quad [email protected]
Asus P5Q-E MB
Artic Cooler fan
GTX 260 @ stock
4gb Corsair ram
2 Samsung F1 HDD
750W Corsair PSU
Samsung 226BW 1650x1080
Vista 64HP
Antec 1200 case

I was thinking new gfx card such as 560Ti and maybe a Crucial 60g SSD.

Would that make sense in my rig? Cheers.

spiki · 30 Sep 2011 at 14:22

Thanks very much for the replies everyone.

I think the gfx card is def a must; never realised the requirements of an SSD so maybe put that on hold for the minute.

What about a new HDD with a fresh install of Win7 or should I install it on one of my exisiting drives? One of the Samsungs I use for basically everything - OS, music, photos, work stuff etc; the other is just for backing up those, so could move them onto DVD or external if need be.

spiki · 30 Sep 2011 at 14:26

Cheers Stulid

Although a friend has given me a copy of Win7 so can save a few quid there.

What about a bit more RAM? Any benefit in adding that?

spiki · 30 Sep 2011 at 14:51

Is that overkill for the resolution I'm playing at - would the 560Ti do the trick for another couple of years?

spiki · 30 Sep 2011 at 15:01

What about an ATI 6950? Is it better value for money than a 570?

Like this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-036-HS&tool=3

I have had good & bad experiences with ATI, most recently a 4870 I think which died within a week, whereas always had good experiences with Nvidia. Price is crucial now though.

spiki · 30 Sep 2011 at 16:04

I know what you mean

Couldn't care less as long as it works & does the job

Just had a few rounds there of BF3...getting between 30-45 fps on custom settings, so not great but predictable