Would this be a worthy upgrade? Any bottlenecks?

[Drake5]

The basics of my current system is i3 3220, 8GB DDR3, 560GTX-Ti 1GB, 550W OCZ PSU gaming at 1920x1080.

I'm considering getting a 7850 2GB just to add a bit more performance in games, would it be a worthy upgrade from the 560GTX and am I likely to see a performance increase?

Many thanks.

 

[teppic]

You'd be better off upgrading to a 2nd hand 3570K if you want good performance in recent and upcoming games, as the i3 is a growing limitation in these. If it's more for older games, there's no real problem there. e.g. techspot's Crysis 3 review concludes, "For starters, you'll definitely want a quad-core processor, preferably a recent Core i5/i7 or the FX-8350."

The 7870 would be more of an upgrade. The 7850 at stock clocks isn't a large upgrade over the 560ti, while an overclocked 7870 is a very significant one.

 

[LtMatt]

Long time no see Tom. Last time we spoke you had a 7850 and it was bottlenecking in sleeping dogs, remember? Sleeping dogs is not very heavy on the cpu either so this should be a good indication.

 

[Doomedspeed]

Its an upgrade but i think a 7870LE (7950 chip) would be a much better choice.

 

[Drake5]

Long time no see Tom. Last time we spoke you had a 7850 and it was bottlenecking in sleeping dogs, remember? Sleeping dogs is not very heavy on the cpu either so this should be a good indication.

Ah yes, ofcourse. Since then I have obviously downgraded - I knew there was something holding me back last time.

What would you guys recommend instead then? A new CPU as the first priority?

 

[LtMatt]

Ah yes, ofcourse. Since then I have obviously downgraded - I knew there was something holding me back last time.

What would you guys recommend instead then? A new CPU as the first priority?

2500k/3570k/4650k Minimum. Then stick a 7950 in there. Bang and the dirt is gone.

 

[Drake5]

It sure is much easier said than done. PC upgrading is so expensive.

My current motherboard is H61M-P25 - Would an i5 3570k work with it fine? (I do understand it wouldn't be possible to get an OC but for the moment that doesn't bother me).

EDIT - I should add it's not very recent games that I'll be playing. The main game I play at the moment is League Of Legends, the game runs fine at high settings but I want it to run perfect on very high settings. Once next gen consoles come out I'll switch over to them for all other games besides LoL ofcourse.

 

[LtMatt]

It sure is much easier said than done. PC upgrading is so expensive.

My current motherboard is H61M-P25 - Would an i5 3570k work with it fine? (I do understand it wouldn't be possible to get an OC but for the moment that doesn't bother me).

EDIT - I should add it's not very recent games that I'll be playing. The main game I play at the moment is League Of Legends, the game runs fine at high settings but I want it to run perfect on very high settings. Once next gen consoles come out I'll switch over to them for all other games besides LoL ofcourse.

Any i5 sandybridge or ivybridge will be fine. If you plan to upgrade your mobo later down the line get a K i5 processor. If you don't plan to upgrade the mobo you may aswell get the cheapest non k i5 processor you can.

 

[Drake5]

Thanks - I guess I just need to decide which route to take now.

I don't know if I can justify spending cash on a new CPU and a GFX card just to play League of Legends on max and a few other oldies. Hmm.

So there is a non-k version of the 3570?

 

[teppic]

You should be able to pick up a 2nd hand 2500k/3570k for not very much at all.

 

[Marine-RX179]

I don't know if I can justify spending cash on a new CPU and a GFX card just to play League of Legends on max and a few other oldies. Hmm.

IMO just keep what you current got if those are the games you play. The i3 3220 is a good balance with the GTX560Ti/6950 level card (my friend's i3 2120 was bottlenecking his overclocked GTX560Ti 2GB when playing BF3 multiplayer when playing on High).

If you not already done so, just overclock your GTX560Ti...with some bump to the voltage, core clock should be able to reach 950MHz and memory clock should be able to reach 2250MHz (effectively 4500MHz).

If you are going to upgrade in the future, definitely CPU before graphic card.