# cpu or gpu upgrade?



## evildead789 (Aug 27, 2009)

Hi, 

I have an i3 530/4gb ddr3 ram/hd 5770 512mb. It supports no crossfire. I'm planning on spending some money, from 200-300$ . I would like to upgrade my cpu or my gpu. I mainly use my system for games. My monitor is 17 inch and only supports 1280 x 1024 and I kinda like it this way. 

Some games chug a litlle on max settings, some go under 30fps, most run fine on max settings. I was thinking of buying an i5-760 or i7-860 or a gpu upgrade like a hd 6950 or gtx 560. I will need a quad core anyway later for some games i think , on the other hand games could become more gpu intensive also. What should i upgrade?

I can't overclock and i won't. I have Antec 650W psu. The price of the parts in my current system don't matter because i will use them to build another system later on or maybe spare parts. So don't say sell this and buy that. 200-300$ is my max spending money either way.

So what do i buy gpu or cpu and which one.

Greetz


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## hhnq04 (Mar 19, 2008)

If you're going to upgrade your CPU and stay with the 1156 socket, the 760 is the way to go without a doubt.

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised that your system struggles on a 17" at 1280 x 1024. What games are you trying to run at max settings?


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## evildead789 (Aug 27, 2009)

The hard games off course. Crysis i have to set the textures and shadows to high. Aa is off (that doesn't matter because crysis has built in aa for the foliage which is auto disabled when you put msaa on). It runs quite well allthough here and there especially with the end boss i'm getting framerate drops, warhead same story.
Besides there are mods for crysis i want to run also
Metro 2033 i have postponed because i want it to run at max settings. 
Crysis 2 i'm postponing right now because if i buy it i want to make sure i can max it out.
Bulletstorm doesn't seem to run quite well too but i don't know for sure if that's because of a bad port or my system hardware (i seem to have some mouse lag that i had with dead space, i solved that with locking it on rivatuner on 60fps, so i'll still have to look into that)
Bad company 2 doesn't really run that smooth either, at least not on max settings, well i still have to look into that
I have avoided gta IV because i heard it's such a system hog, i will buy that soon though.
Arma II i have to lower the settings to high and still doesn't run ideally (some minor framrate drops)
Just cause 2 is something i will play also , i don't know when but pretty soon and i've heard that's asking for some big performance too.

I'm sure there will be other soon, skyrim the end of the year, deus ex, rage, brink. 

Off course most games i simply max out without any problem like dead space 2 , mass effect 2, fallout new vegas, oblivion modded.

Besides crysis i use 4 x AA

At the moment i'm playing stalker shadow of chernobyl with complete mod, that doesn't really give a problem (allthough sometimes i have the feeling i don't have enough ram for it, so maybe a ram upgrade too?)

Greetz


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Ok in most of the games you mentioned you shouldn't be getting lag. Even my cheapo rig with the 5770 can play most of those games without a problem.

You may wanna do some basic troubleshooting with your current setup before simply buying faster hardware, wouldn't hurt.


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