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[Netcode Bro]

I'm currently looking at a predicament. I RMA'd my GTX 970 because of some underperforming issues and now I'm looking at a store credit of $330. Now, I'm a huge gaming enthusiast and have always cared about maxing out the latest games at 60+ FPS at 1080p resolution. My question is...I also have an aging i7 950 Bloomfield cpu that needs an upgrade as well. I can either upgrade my cpu (i5 devil canyon) and mother board with a lower quality Gpu like a R9 280x or simply get a gtx 980 and stick with my i7 950. The problem with the 980...is that I'm afraid of my aging cpu bottle necking my video card. Any thoughts? My budget is about $550 with the store credit.

Build:
i7 950 Bloomfield 3.06 ghz (~3.8 ghz)
Undecided on GPU
8gb DDR3 1600 ram
1TB WD 7200 rpm HD
Corsair 750w PSU
Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

 

[WildCard999]

Get the 980, then if you feel like the 950 is bottlenecking the gpu then oc the 950.

 

[Yoshihiro Shimokawa]

Get the 980, then if you feel like the 950 is bottlenecking the gpu then oc the 950.

Seconded. I know some MB's have trouble OC'ing AMD cpus, and I'd assume it's the same for Intel as well, so you might want to make sure your MB can handle that. That being said, I would also go for the 980 and deal with the CPU later. (although if you can wait for a few months, which it doesn't sound like you can, I'd wait for AMD to release their 3xx series so prices drop)

 

[andy_Man]

I also Agree, get the 980. Most games don't need too much from the cpu, specially newer titles.

 

[LucoTF]

Err, his CPU is already overclocked guys...

 

[Netcode Bro]

Thank you guys for the input. Looks like I'm going for the GTX 980 then.

 

[WildCard999]

Err, his CPU is already overclocked guys...

The point (more or less) is that if he suspects that the gpu is being bottlenecked by the cpu to OC the cpu, which it shouldn't with his 3.8 OC. My bad for not explaining that before.