Trying to make the jump to i7..

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Also, what if i end up with a Q9550/5970 combo? Will i still be cpu limited?

If the Q9550 is a simple upgrade like just a chip drop in then by all means save the extra ~ 400$ it will take to put together an i7 9xx/8xx machine. The ram is ridiculously priced; that's not to say you can only run triple channel on a X58 platform. You can still buy a 4g kit for it. I think the only draw back is it works in a different bit mode.. can someone else chime in on this?

 

[n7]

Firstly, you should know that upgrading CPU is not going to really improve gaming for you.

GPU upgrade will do that.

At high graphics settings w/ AA, a good video card like the 5850/5870 will make a far bigger difference than a better CPU will.

You should be OCing; it's easy & will get you way over 3+ GHz on your current system.

A better video card is the best way to get better gaming performance though.

A Q9550 is nice & all, & so are i7s, but they are unlikely to improve fps much in most games for you.