Upgrade, please help!

[skate9345]

Hello, I'm thinking of to upgrade my system a little, my current system is :

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 2.5ghz @ 3.25ghz(oc)
2gb ddr2 ram
hd4850 512mb
22"(resolution : 1680x1050)
asus p5kpl/1600 motherboard(pci express 1.1 x16)

im on a budget and the options ive chosen is these :
either upgrade to Intel core 2 quad 2.83ghz Q9550
or
upgrade the graphics card to hd4890 and get 2gb more ram(using xp so it can only see 3.5gb)
i mostly do lots of stuff at the same time and the oc of my current cpu did a huge improvement, 8 fps extra in far cry 2 and better response time,
i mainly do heavy tasks like coding and extracting huge files but i also play lots of games, the games i play is far cry 2, crysis, need for speed shift, grid, also source based games like css and tf2,

i need your advice, please tell me what upgrade i should do, thanks is advance

 

[shadow187]

That CPU is OC'd enough so bottlenecking will be a minimum; why don't you go ahead and nab a 4890 for $170, or maybe a 5770 $160? If you want performance, go with the 4890. If you want features, go with the 5770.

 

[kohd]

Meh, i'd upgrade the CPU and add another 2GB of memory tbh. For the games/resolution he's playing at the 4850 is still very decent and he seems to be using his machine for a lot more than gaming anyway. By the time he actually needs a newer GPU they should be cheaper and more DirectX11 options should be available.

The improvements he'd gain by upgrading to a solid quad core and more memory definitely outweighs going from a 4850 to a 4890 or 57xx.

 

[skate9345]

Meh, i'd upgrade the CPU and add another 2GB of memory tbh. For the games/resolution he's playing at the 4850 is still very decent and he seems to be using his machine for a lot more than gaming anyway. By the time he actually needs a newer GPU they should be cheaper and more DirectX11 options should be available.

The improvements he'd gain by upgrading to a solid quad core and more memory definitely outweighs going from a 4850 to a 4890 or 57xx.

ok, thanks for your advice kohd, but what improvements will i gain by upgrading to a quad? i know it wont boot faster, wont start programs faster and install stuff faster because that's the hard drive's job, well, i've just managed to overclock my cpu to 3.75ghz, and i did notice a huge improvement while encoding and extracting, but i didn't notice anything at all when ive got lots of stuff running, but how will the quad perform compared to my current dual core? i know that the ram will improve a lot and a 4890 will make my gaming to become "awesome" out of "decent", please respond

 

[skate9345]

That CPU is OC'd enough so bottlenecking will be a minimum; why don't you go ahead and nab a 4890 for $170, or maybe a 5770 $160? If you want performance, go with the 4890. If you want features, go with the 5770.

but wont the 4890 be bottlenecked by my motherboards pci express 1.1 x16? if it does, by how much? and will the 4890 give enough improvements of the cost? please respond