Need to game....old Biostar and 870 work?

[SantaAna12]

Haven't had a desktop running in awhile and would like to game some. I have a old Biostar: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138162 that I ran an i5-750 quad @4GHz., 12gb ripjaws, DH14, Asus Xonar Essence, 750W Silverstone p.s., Kingston 96gb v100+, a couple samsung F3s, and a 5850 2GB (single), Win7 pro, Sniper Lan case with some decent fans. So I ended up getting busy....gave the 750 to someone who needed it more than me....put the remains on the shelf. My budget is limited, and was considering this:

1. Get a 870 off Ebay and get the best clock I can using the Noctua: around 150$
2. Sell 5850 and buy 7970: will transfer and drop another in for Haswell hopefully.

I seem to remember the BIOS for this MB as mature (not sure is this is right word....no more supported BIOS coming out?), but it shows the 870 as supported. The Kingston SSD has a legit copy of Win7...so if I can just drop in the 870...while not optimal...might be the best way to get gaming. I would like to run through a few of the newer shooters: Far Cry, Borderlands2, etc. @1920 with best eye candy possible.
Thoughts? I have been out of the loop so flame if need be. TIA!

 

[Sleepingforest]

Buying a 7970 is probably a good idea, but if you're planning on getting Haswell, you can probably go for a more mid-range CPU, since the bottleneck is far more likely occur on the GPU. The 760 seems to perform reasonably well, only about 10% fewer frames per second (especially since it's only a hold-over to Haswell), while the 860 will more-or-less match a modern i5-3570K (stats from Anandtech's Bench). When you get the new motherboard, consider upgrading your SSD to a higher capacity as well. Buy something like the Crucial M4, OCZ Vertex 4, or Samsung 830.

You will probably not need a crazy strong CPU unless you desperately want to play huge Battlefield 3 multiplayer maps with full effects (and even then, you'd have to spend tons extra on cooling for overclocking or a top-of-the-line CPU.) It's generally best just to admit defeat on that front and drop to high or medium with less AA. At 1080x1920, you will not need more than a single 7970 for most games. Only crazy games like Crysis and Metro will need the Crossfire to reach graphical nirvana.