AMD AM3 upgrade or Ivey Bridge

[djslingshot]

In the market for upgrading my system currently but I wanted to know which would be a smarter thing to do right now. I have the AMD athlon II X4 640, ASUS 785TDv EVO along with 8GB DDR3 RAM and a radeon 6870. I use my system for mainly gaming and some video editing. I noticed that even on my 19inch monitor @ 1400x900 I'm not happy with some of the FPS i get in some newer games. I'm pretty sure it's the my athlon's fault as it's not a gaming CPU.

So my question is would an AMD phenom II X4 965BE or an Intel i5 3550/3570k and a new mobo be more helpful in games.




A little side note- another reason why it's hard for me to pick is because If I just go with the phenom upgrade I'll have enough $ left over to upgrade my monitor asap. Which would be a full 1080p monitor @ 1920x1080.

 

[clutchc]

Wow. Low frame rates at 1400x900 w/HD 6870? The old quad core Athlon should be able to keep up enough to provide good FPS with that low of resolution. I have a 2nd machine with a Phenom II X4 965BE and HD 6870 running a 1920x1080 monitor that pulls down excellent frame rates on the games I've tested. Have you cleaned your system of resource wasting garbage and registry errors lately?
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

To answer your other question, the Intel platform will be the better choice.

 

[dudewitbow]

intel would be the better long term choice, but its more pricey since you have to go buy a cpu+mobo.

Basically your comparing like

965 be ~110$ vs i5-3550 ~210$ + mobo in which b75 ~75$ h77 ~85$ z75/77 100$+

 

[djslingshot]

Thanks for the replies guys. Well currently I have enough money to get either a 965 and a monitor or a i5 3550 and a mobo. I will most likely pick the i5 for future proof though and get a new monitor down the road.

@dudewitbow is there any good mobo you would recommend for the new ivy bridge? I have little experience with intel because I've used AMD my whole life.

What do you think of this one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128543

 

[dudewitbow]

Thanks for the replies guys. Well currently I have enough money to get either a 965 and a monitor or a i5 3550 and a mobo. I will most likely pick the i5 for future proof though and get a new monitor down the road.

@dudewitbow is there any good mobo you would recommend for the new ivy bridge? I have little experience with intel because I've used AMD my whole life.

What do you think of this one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128543

really first you categorize by what you want.

for ivy boards, h77 and b75 are budget boards, b75 aimed at businesses and h77 is just a budget board in general. in which wasn't really meant for overclocking, but to have access to ivy bridge in the first place. z77 is when you have all the features, but the more money you put into it, the more features you get. specifically look down each mobo and look at their features. common choices that a lot of people lean towards are asus, gigabyte, and asrock usually.

 

[djslingshot]

Best answer selected by djslingshot.