Sandy Bridge, Graphics card or wait

[simon12]

I am thinking of upgrading to sandy bridge i5 2500K my system is 99% for gaming would the money be better spent on graphics or since I can play everything OK shall I wait and see what bulldozer can offer or until I can do a full new system. Current specs are:

Phenom 550Be unlocked to 4 core and overclocked to 3.7GHz
4Gb (2x2Gb) 1333MHz RAM
2 x Radeon 4870 512Mb in crossfire

for £280 I could get a 2500K and a board that supports crossfire at 8X/8X for around the same price I could get 2 x 6850s or a single 6970 do you think either of these would give me a worth while improvement or shall I just wait?

I am gaming at 1920x1080

 

[sadams04]

First... Use the period key!

Your quad core Phenom @ 3.7GHz is just fine for gaming. Your best spend might be for new GPUs since they can benefit you now, and in that future build.

 

[teh_tourist]

Yeah, since your CPU is fine for gaming your main bottleneck are your GPU's. I would recommend getting a new SLI/Crossfire setup and save your money for later on in the year when enthusiast parts from AMD & Intel get refreshed. You can use that extra time to save up for a powerful CPU upgrade and a quality motherboard.

 

[beanoslim]

I'd say wait for the dust to settle before making any moves, keep saving and who knows what you'll end up with.

 

[jaguarskx]

Your CPU is fine. The best way to boost performance is to replace your GPUs.

Your HD 4870s still provides good performance even though they only have 512MB. I would wait though for prices to fall a bit.

 

[simon12]

Thank you for all the replies, I don't think its worth spending £280 on graphics for what I don't think will be a huge improvement in Fps and DX11 so I will leave it until my system starts to struggle.
Thanks again

 

[littlehawk]

"Struggle" ? Time "spent on graphics" ?

TechSpot Review

How to leave your struggle and expense behind.

 

[bilalwaseem]

Your CPU is fine. The best way to boost performance is to replace your GPUs.

Your HD 4870s still provides good performance even though they only have 512MB. I would wait though for prices to fall a bit.

hello everyone help me
i want to buy a new sandy bridge processor core i3 540
someone has told me that we will not need EXTRA GPU for it and also that the technology of grapics is fixed in sandy bridge 2nd generation.......do i still need another graphics card to play games like nfs ot pursuit ,crysis 2 ,fifa 11????? on med setting
or will integrated gpu of sandy bridge goes fine for me to play these games on med setting????
plz reply

 

[mdd1963]

Integrated graphics might be fine for low res/low detail settings for some games, but, few would purchase SB intending to use the integrated graphics for gaming...

usually, almost any discrete graphics card built this year costing at least $80 is always better.....

And some $100 cards are MUCH better....

 

[bilalwaseem]

oh thanks for helping me out.........this information helped...