Is it time to upgrade?

[RunAwaySlave]

I've been running with two 550 tis in SLI since day one, and I wanted to know if you guys think it's time? I can normally max out most games and maintain a solid 35-40 fps at the most demanding parts of some games I play. Then, I tried Minecraft and noticed I was getting 60 fps but then when loading new regions it would drop all the way to 20 fps for no reason. Then I noticed a chugging in COD: Ghosts.
I'm afraid to play BF3 (might notice a chugging). Skyrim at High/ultra with ENB's still going strong.

I play on a 20" 1440x900 monitor and I don't see an upgrade to new 1080p monitor worth it.
I go Bestbuy and Ebby's all the time and check the new monitors all the time. I and don't see a difference at all.

I have a 700w psu
The GPUs i'm looking at right now are:

770($320 @Ebby's)
280X(have to custom order)
270 OC ($130 @Ebby's)
(Any 500 or 600 series under 660 have to custom order)
(Same for any ATI gpu uner 78-- series/R7-R9 series)

Could it be my CPU?

 

[freeracercolin]

It might be time to upgrade, as I know I would of by now. In minecraft, I have a 280x (similar performance to 770), and it will sometimes drop to ~20 fps. If you are going to upgrade, I would get the 770, because you don't have to custom order it and it will have the run games at suitable levels for the longest time.

 

[cball1311]

What CPU do you have?

 

[RunAwaySlave]

Amd 5400K

 

[saint19]

770 or R270x are very good options, but you will also need change the CPU (Intel if you can) or something different to an APU.

 

[RunAwaySlave]

Like a 6400k?

 

[cball1311]

Not really, you will probably have bottleneck issues with any APU and such a high end card. You might be ok with an A10-7xxx series APU. You really should look into at least an FX 8320/8350 or intel i5 or greater. You can get the GPU if you want but to get the full potential out of it, you need a CPU upgrade (which will required a motherboard upgrade as well) to anything other than an APU.

 

[RunAwaySlave]

Not really, you will probably have bottleneck issues with any APU and such a high end card. You might be ok with an A10-7xxx series APU. You really should look into at least an FX 8320/8350 or intel i5 or greater. You can get the GPU if you want but to get the full potential out of it, you need a CPU upgrade (which will required a motherboard upgrade as well) to anything other than an APU.

I've decided to just get the 270 OC Since its better than my 550 ti's in in SLI (which is saying a lot to me IMO) and just overclock it, and get even more power, but what would be a CPU that wouldn't bottleneck it? I'm looking at these processors:

AMD Athlon X4 750K $79.99
AMD 760K $89.99
AMD FX-6300 $118.99
AMD FX-6350 $119.99

Not sure if you can already tell or not, but I'm not looking to spend extra money for a .9 bump in performance that I'll never really notice.

 

[cball1311]

Well, the 270 would be fine on an FX-6350 but you will need a motherboard replacement to support it.

CPU: AMD FX-6350 3.9GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($74.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $194.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

So, for $200, you would have a pretty good build with the 6350. Then you can upgrade to an 8320/8350 down the road.

 

[RunAwaySlave]

Well, the 270 would be fine on an FX-6350 but you will need a motherboard replacement to support it.

CPU: AMD FX-6350 3.9GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($74.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $194.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

So, for $200, you would have a pretty good build with the 6350. Then you can upgrade to an 8320/8350 down the road.

Damn, I just remembered I recently got a sweet FM2+ mobo.. Is the performance worth it? Do you think I'll if I just get the 760K and OC it (My mobo auto OCs cpu to safe levels), I'll get performance comparable to the 6350/8320?

 

[RunAwaySlave]

hello?

 

[cball1311]

Well, probably not. You would see a slight increase in performance since you are adding two more cores (on gaming titles that utilize 4 cores). If you are thinking about getting all of this at the same time, I would just get the GPU first and see if you get any performance increase (you may or may not). If you are satisfied, save your cash to get an FX CPU and motherboard. If you don't see any performance gain from just the GPU, you could get an A8 or A10 gpu which would give you some performance gain.

 

[RunAwaySlave]

Well, probably not. You would see a slight increase in performance since you are adding two more cores (on gaming titles that utilize 4 cores). If you are thinking about getting all of this at the same time, I would just get the GPU first and see if you get any performance increase (you may or may not). If you are satisfied, save your cash to get an FX CPU and motherboard. If you don't see any performance gain from just the GPU, you could get an A8 or A10 gpu which would give you some performance gain.

Thanks, man.