Should I upgrade my 3-4 year old rig? core i7

[hackerballs]

Yes, and my answer is still the same

1: 4gigs more RAM
2: 7950 is rated as best bang for the buck
3: Beer
4: A SSD will only help in boot and transfer times and NOT FPS in games, buy if you have extra money as they are fast. Buy Sata6 and take it with you too your next build

ps......all four stages of marriage will last longer with "yes Dear, I'm sorry"

 

[jacktesterson]

Maybe 920 @3.8 is for most games 'fine' but some games could use a bit more than 'fine'. I'm upgrading to 4930k in Sept (shooting for 4.6ghz) as I need more than fine or acceptable or tolerable frame rates for Arma 3. Unless you have practical experience of every game on the market today then you really don't know do you?

You are running 2 x 6990's on a 920

OP is running 1 x 5870.

I think your not anywhere near the norm.

 

[voodoo7817]

I am in almost the same position as the OP. I too have an i7 860 with 4GBs of RAM that was originally purchased in November 2009. I also have a 2713HM as a monitor (with a 2408 in a dual monitor setup). However, I have not been overclocking the 860, my GPU is a 560ti, and my SSD is a 128gb C3. I've been thinking hard about a whole system upgrade to Haslem but I've decided against it. I will be sitting tight for now, other than buying another 4GB of RAM to take me to 8. My next upgrade will probably be a new GPU sometime in 2014.

If I were the OP, I'd upgrade the RAM and the GPU and then wait it out also, but I completely understand deciding now is the time to upgrade. One of my 'concerns' about not upgrading now is that it appears it might be 2 more years before we get a new desktop enthusiast platform (Skylake, right?). That seems like an eternity right now.

 

[Zorander]

I am in almost the same position as the OP. I too have an i7 860 with 4GBs of RAM that was originally purchased in November 2009. I also have a 2713HM as a monitor (with a 2408 in a dual monitor setup). However, I have not been overclocking the 860, my GPU is a 560ti, and my SSD is a 128gb C3. I've been thinking hard about a whole system upgrade to Haslem but I've decided against it. I will be sitting tight for now, other than buying another 4GB of RAM to take me to 8. My next upgrade will probably be a new GPU sometime in 2014.

If I were the OP, I'd upgrade the RAM and the GPU and then wait it out also, but I completely understand deciding now is the time to upgrade. One of my 'concerns' about not upgrading now is that it appears it might be 2 more years before we get a new desktop enthusiast platform (Skylake, right?). That seems like an eternity right now.

I too have a similar setup (i7-860, 2x4GB RAM, HD7950, SSD, 30in monitor, etc), which still manages current games just fine. The only thing I have been progressively upgrading is the GPU (5850 -> 6970 -> 7950) and so I know OP stands to gain a lot of gaming performance by doing likewise.

I'm tempted to upgrade to a Haswell but have not the pressing need to do so. Perhaps one day once CPU-bound applications bring the system to a stuttering halt (like 1080p videos did to my old A64 system).

Regards.

 

[hackerballs]

Well, one could just wait like "forever" if you wanted too. If one looks at it as waiting for something better on the horizon. How long does one "wait"?

More important I find is too have a Balanced PC. No bottleneck over one part from another. When the whole PC is bottlenecked, then it's time for sure. OP just needs RAM and a GPU card for now, like Zorander says, a 7950 will gain lots