Need advice on Upgrades

[Jpeterson1701]

VGC: Radeon 4890 x2
Mobo: Asus M4a78e
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 black edition 3.2 Mhz
Ram: 8GB
PSU: Corsair 750w
OS: 64 bit Vista
Tower: Cooler Master HAF 935 fulltower
Cooling: 3 - 320mm and 2 120mm fan

I avg. 18 - 25 FPS and at times it drop to 8-12 while playing wow and D3.

I looking to stay under $450 in upgrades. I need advice what really need to be upgarde to increase my FPS.

 

[Jimzz]

Is the ram DDR3?

If it is then motherboard, video card, and CPU should be all you need.
You live near microcenter? If so the the 3570k, Z77 board, and a 7850 can be had in the $450 or less range.


EDIT see you have DDR2. If so pick up a cheap 8gig(4gbx2) 1600+ kit.

Also sell your old guts. Still has some value.

 

[Jpeterson1701]

No I do not live near a Microcenter.

 

[Jimzz]

^

Newegg...

Intel i5-3350P = $170 with current promo
MSI Z77A-G45 Z77 $100 AR
XFX FX-785A-ZNL4 7850 = $160 AR (not the best 7850 but the cheapest right now)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB BLS2K4G3D1609ES2LX0 = $44

Thats $474
There are some cheaper boards but that one seems to be built well for the price and options. The quad is the cheapest quad right now.

 

[Jpeterson1701]

so Intel i5-3350P is a lot better then my AMD Phenom II x4 955 black edition 3.2 Mhz? Radeon 7850 did not get good reviews. 7870 LE, 7950, 7970 is what I had in mind but thats $400+ right there.
Can I use a Nvida with my Mobo?
because It supports Crossfire only.

 

[Jimzz]

so Intel i5-3350P is a lot better then my AMD Phenom II x4 955 black edition 3.2 Mhz? Radeon 7850 did not get good reviews. 7870 LE, 7950, 7970 is what I had in mind but thats $400+ right there.
Can I use a Nvida with my Mobo?
because It supports Crossfire only.

You can use single Nvidia cards in your current board.

Yes the Ivy i5 is much better than your current AMD chip for gaming. I am not an intel fanboy, I lean AMD. But right now Intel has the best IMO.
Also you are using the older DDR2 controller in your CPU. So that is not helping either.

And not sure where you read the 7850 is getting bad reviews. Its one of the best bang for your buck in the $150ish range. Let alone it overclocks like a champ. Maybe it was overpriced when it first came out? But not anymore.

Worse case keep the current video cards (till a better 7850 deal shows up) and run the new ram/cpu/board. Or until you sell your old board/cpu/ram.

Or get a 7850 now and upgrade the rest later. If you do that try and overclock the CPU some to make it go a little longer.

 

[Jpeterson1701]

What would you recommend for a Mobo that supports DDR3 and for AMD CPU. for about $ 450- 475

 

[Jimzz]

I use a 970 board for my HTPC.

Here is a 990 board thats not to costly and supports both SLI and Crossfire...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130620

and some good 970 boards...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130637

Add the new Ram and video card with a little overclock of your CPU and that should also help.

 

[vladicaris]

buy new graphic card ,with dx11 support

 

[Denithor]

buy new graphic card ,with dx11 support

Winner.

Upgrade your GPU first (7850/7870 or GTX 660) and see how much improvement you see. Might fix the problem right there.

I'm actually kinda surprised you're seeing low numbers with that setup. Could be a problem with crossfire or something rather than old hardware (neither of those games are intensive at all on GPU). Try something - pull out one of the video cards, just run single card and see how the games perform.

EDIT: As an afterthought - you should also try to squeeze an SSD boot drive into your budget. Makes a noticeable difference for WoW and doesn't hurt loading times for D3 at all.