CPU or Video card upgrade for 1080P @ medium BF3?

[Lyfer]

Upgrading an old rig that I got from one of those Fry's hotdeals for BF3.

Current specs:

Athlon II X4 2.9ghz
some biostar amd 785g mobo
4gb skill ddr1333
seagate 320gb hd 7200rpm
sapphire radeon HD 4850 512mb
Corsair 650w PSU
display: Samsung 20.1 LED 1920x1080 (want to try to get atleast medium settings with no lag)


My budget is $200-300 (before tax/sh), so I'm thinking an I5 2500k+cheap asrock board combo or a Radeon 6950 2gb card. Which would be better? And the budget is pretty firm since I already ordered a Sapphire 6950 2gb for my main rig.

 

[lehtv]

2500K vs. AII X4 635: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/122?vs=288
4870 vs. 6950 (4850 not available): http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/304?vs=293

Either way, you'd see a sizeable increase in FPS. The video card is cheaper to upgrade, and since your current one only has 512mb VRAM (right?), I would recommend you to overclock the CPU if you can (buy a cheap cooler for it if you're using the stock cooler), and upgrade the graphics to 6870, 6950 or 560 ti.

 

[aphelion02]

Mmm, why are you not playing it with your main rig? If this were your main rig, I'd recommend upgrading the CPU. But since its not its hard to say. If its just a dedicated gaming rig I'd say upgrade the 6950, but I don't understand upgrading it at all in that case.

 

[mfenn]

Since you're interested in BF3 and have already got a quad, I'd recommend the video card. However, I'd probably stick to the lower end of your budget with a 6870 or GTX 560 Ti. That's this is a secondary rig and any better GPU would be somewhat wasted due to the CPU.

 

[Lyfer]

I'll prolly end up upgrading the cpu some time later to maybe a microcenter bargain bin I5 or something. But just need something to hold my brother over until then.