Ok this is a interesting situation, i've got $600 to spend on a upgrade, current system specs in sig. I have already bought a GTX 460 1GB to replace my 4890(coil whine issue, will RMA).
Goal of upgrade: Want more 3D gaming performance, especially minimum FPS, I game at 1080P with 4 or 8 times AA and play with highest settings and feel my CPU and GPU are starting to hold me back with some newer titles(and even older titles, crysis is brutal, far cry 2 is bad as well). Being faster encoding would be a bonus too i do alot of ripping of DVD's and blue rays.
Options as i see them, feel free to suggest any i missed:
1. Stay AMD, My current board supports 1055's so buy a 1055T and top tier air cooler for $250 and hope for 4Ghz and then grab a Blazing fast and large SSD with the remaining cash. Only problem with this option is i will be screwed if i decide to go SLI later, i would be forced to sell the 460 and go with faster single card solution, or dual card crossfire solution. Also AMD single threaded performance is lacking compared to the i5/i7's so 6 cores might not mean crap in games over my current CPU, this will improve over time though as games get better coded for more cores.
2. Make the switch to the darkside, spend the $600 on a 1156 P55 mobo a i7 860 and 4GB DDR3 ram and again hope for 4Ghz, if i come in under 600 then put extra into savings for 2nd 460. This will then leave my GPU options open as i would get a board that supports both SLI and crossfire. I could then save up $200 grab another 460 and have a fast system for years to come with up to date features if i get USB3 and SATA3 on the new mobo.
3. Sell the 460 and buy a 1055 and a 480 or 5870
4. Sell the 460 and buy 2 5870's
And before anyone asks me why i didnt just buy a faster GPU to begin with i was not planning on spending 600 on a upgrade but recently came into some cash, after i bought the 460. Also didnt find out my current mobo supports new AM3 CPU's till yesterday so that opened up some options.
Thanks guys.
Goal of upgrade: Want more 3D gaming performance, especially minimum FPS, I game at 1080P with 4 or 8 times AA and play with highest settings and feel my CPU and GPU are starting to hold me back with some newer titles(and even older titles, crysis is brutal, far cry 2 is bad as well). Being faster encoding would be a bonus too i do alot of ripping of DVD's and blue rays.
Options as i see them, feel free to suggest any i missed:
1. Stay AMD, My current board supports 1055's so buy a 1055T and top tier air cooler for $250 and hope for 4Ghz and then grab a Blazing fast and large SSD with the remaining cash. Only problem with this option is i will be screwed if i decide to go SLI later, i would be forced to sell the 460 and go with faster single card solution, or dual card crossfire solution. Also AMD single threaded performance is lacking compared to the i5/i7's so 6 cores might not mean crap in games over my current CPU, this will improve over time though as games get better coded for more cores.
2. Make the switch to the darkside, spend the $600 on a 1156 P55 mobo a i7 860 and 4GB DDR3 ram and again hope for 4Ghz, if i come in under 600 then put extra into savings for 2nd 460. This will then leave my GPU options open as i would get a board that supports both SLI and crossfire. I could then save up $200 grab another 460 and have a fast system for years to come with up to date features if i get USB3 and SATA3 on the new mobo.
3. Sell the 460 and buy a 1055 and a 480 or 5870
4. Sell the 460 and buy 2 5870's
And before anyone asks me why i didnt just buy a faster GPU to begin with i was not planning on spending 600 on a upgrade but recently came into some cash, after i bought the 460. Also didnt find out my current mobo supports new AM3 CPU's till yesterday so that opened up some options.
Thanks guys.