Best upgrade from i3 2120

[gary irvine1]

Hi looking for advice on an upgrade i have an i3 2120 3.2 ghz want an i5 have around £160. Also do alot of gaming running an amd hd 6870

 

[Brillis Wuce]

Any i5 you can get will be a great upgrade. The 2400 and 3470 are still pretty easy to find, but the model doesn't really matter, as long as its an LGA1155.

 

[gary irvine1]

Am i better upgrading the processor 1st instead of the gpu?

 

[CTurbo]

What motherboard and psu do you have?

 

[Brillis Wuce]

i3's aren't actually that bad for gaming. The Hyperthreading helps. Upgrade your GPU first.

 

[gary irvine1]

My motherboard is gigabyte z77 d3h. Do you have any recomendations on the gpu? Was looking at a 7970 3gb.

 

[Brillis Wuce]

That's where we need the info that CTurbo asked for earlier.

 

[gary irvine1]

Also my psu is 700w am sure

 

[Brillis Wuce]

What resolution and refresh rate are you playing at?

 

[Vici0us]

My motherboard is gigabyte z77 d3h. Do you have any recomendations on the gpu? Was looking at a 7970 3gb.

If it's strictly for gaming then go for i5-3570K. If you plan on doing video editing/rendering, etc then go for i7-3770K.
Also, why are you looking at an older GPU? You can currently get a brand new R9 290 for $240 - MSI Radeon R9 290 GAMING 4GB.
You might want to wait on a GPU upgrade. AMD 3XX series is just around the corner. It's rumored to be out next month.

 

[gary irvine1]

Playing on my tv 60hz 1080p

 

[Vici0us]

Playing on my tv 60hz 1080p

My bad, I noticed you're not in US but still you can get an R9 290 for cheap.
PowerColor Radeon R9 290 4GB PCS+ £199.99

 

[gary irvine1]

Slightly out of my price range 🙁 is the r9 280 alot diffrent as i could afford this ? Also is it the best desicion to upgrade gpu first its just for gaming?

 

[Brillis Wuce]

If you're just playing at 1080p, you'll be happy with the 280. The i3 won't give you maximum performance, but it'll still be playable, definitely.

Buy your 280 first, then upgrade your CPU when you can.

 

[gary irvine1]

Thanks guys

 

[Brillis Wuce]

No problem. Happy gaming.

 

[CTurbo]

I think I would go for a cpu first. The Haswell i3s are pretty strong but the Sandy Bridge i3 weren't quite there yet. Either way you look at it, you need to upgrade both. It almost doesn't matter what you go for first.

 

[Vici0us]

Slightly out of my price range 🙁 is the r9 280 alot diffrent as i could afford this ? Also is it the best desicion to upgrade gpu first its just for gaming?

If you're playing @ 1080P then yes R9 280 will do just fine. Your current CPU should hold you off a little w/ R9 280 until you can afford an i5.