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Planning on upgrading my rig during the course of the summer. Here are the current specs:

Case: Antec 300 Illusion
CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 455 @ 3.93 Ghz
CPU Cooler: CM 212+
Motherboard: MSI 870-G45
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 5670 1GB DDR3 @ 800/950
RAMM: 4 GB G.Skill F3-16000CL9D-4GBRH
PSU: Antec BP550
HD: #1 WD Caviar Blue, #2,3,4 WD Caviar Green
OS: Windows 7 64 bit home
Drive: Samsung SH-B123

I play @ 1680x1050 and do not plan on upgrading monitor until this one dies out.

What I plan to upgrade to:
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K -- $224.99
Motherboard/Psu: CORSAIR TX650 V2 , ASRock Z77 Pro4 -- $231.98
GPU: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7850 2GB -- $259.99

Total: $833.43 with tax and shipping

Just some more info:
Live in Canada, so everything in Canadian Currency/Websites. Prefer to order from newegg just so I can get everything from 1 website unless SIGNIFICANT savings. I want the build to be able to play on at least high with playable fps (40+) at my resolution for at least 2 years, ultra if possible on the latest games like battlefield 3, batman arkham city (I know these aren't the latest but always used at benchmarks). I will make full use of those SATA ports as I plan on buying more 3TB Green Drives for storage purpose (video/photo editing/others). Since I want this build to last for awhile, I don't think I will need to crossfire because by then a new graphics card would be better buying I think. I will OC the I5 as I need the extra speed. Will upgrading to 8 GB of RAMM be good as well? I will most likely be buying the GPU last as I might want to see what Nvidia will have to compete against the 7850. I'm actually partial towards Nvidia because they perform better on the games like battlefield 3 and batman AA. How does this look?
 
Solution
Hi, in my opinion a factory overclocked model will do everything a GTX 570 will do.

This one for example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125419

Its overclocked 115mhz over the stock 7850, its cheaper than the GTX 570 you're looking at, although with the mail-in-rebate they would work out to the same price, the difference being with the 7850 I linked, you'd save the money up front.

This is a stock to stock comparrison of a 570 vs a 7850, the 7850 stock comes pretty close to 570, now I don't have benchmarks to prove it, but my educated guess would be that with the overclocking Gigagbyte gave to that model, it would end up giving the GTX 570 a pretty good run for its money. But the choice is up to you. Its...
Pretty worthwhile upgrades. 7850s are about the equivalent of GTX 570s (not quite but close). I don't know about Nvidia performing better that AMD for graphics cards. At least from what I've seen for all the trouble AMD is having getting their CPUs to sell, they're doing just fine beating out Nvidia at the price points for graphics cards.

Nvidias new GTX 680 beats out the 7970 but.. Nvidia seems to be having supply issues with the 680s, they're sold out almost everywhere for some reason or another.
 

Unknownvirus

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I looked up prices for gtx 570's and the lowest I found was this, it will come out the same as the 7850 I'm buying now, would that be a better deal? I don't really care about the free game that comes with the radeon card but If I can get a better card for the same price, I'll go for the better card.
 
Hi, in my opinion a factory overclocked model will do everything a GTX 570 will do.

This one for example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125419

Its overclocked 115mhz over the stock 7850, its cheaper than the GTX 570 you're looking at, although with the mail-in-rebate they would work out to the same price, the difference being with the 7850 I linked, you'd save the money up front.

This is a stock to stock comparrison of a 570 vs a 7850, the 7850 stock comes pretty close to 570, now I don't have benchmarks to prove it, but my educated guess would be that with the overclocking Gigagbyte gave to that model, it would end up giving the GTX 570 a pretty good run for its money. But the choice is up to you. Its your computer and you're the one that ultimately has to be happy with your purchase.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/518?vs=549
 
Solution

Unknownvirus

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Thanks for your help and pointing me to the benchmarks.