What should I upgrade?

[track1044]

Hey guys.
I feel like my Gaming PC could use a little more ompf if you know what I mean =)

I'm currently sitting on this build

Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65 2.0
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 2500k OC'ed @ 4.2GHz
Memory: Kingston HyperX 8GB DDR3-1600 PnP DualChannel RAM
Hard Drive: 3x128GB SSD and 1TB HDD.
Graphic Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660Ti 2GB PhysX CUDA
Power Supply: Seasonic 750W 80 Silver certified

I play in 1080p on a BenQ 24" LED XL2420T but I got my old monitor hooked up as well for some more screen estate during Music making and having a browser and game up at the same time =)

The GFX is not mine. It's a card I've borrowed from a friend, so I'm wondering if I should get a 670, 680 or 690, or just borrow this card while waiting for new releases.
I don't really have any limit on budget but it would be great if it wasn't to expensive, only exchanging what could use an upgrade. I am normally happy about keeping my FPS in the 80+ range. It just feels so much more fluid, and I've recently started playing skyrim (heavily modded) again and ENB and SSAO kills my FPS down to about 40-50 in a static scene with few actors. I really want to get that up. I'm also gonna play the new hitman and I play BF3 as well.

Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks =D

 

[Hazle]

if you're playing around with a lot of mods, then unfortunately, the 660ti isn't going to help much, due to the lower memory bandwidth.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-memory-bandwidth-anti-aliasing,3283.html

a 7950 should compliment you quite well with the higher memory bandwidth for your mods, as well performing slightly better if not close to the 660ti with the recent driver. though, that's if you're willing to see a minor performance boost (major in quite few, to be fair) for ~$300

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Catalyst_12.11_Performance/

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr795wf33gd

there's also cheaper 2GB variants if you prefer that.

everything else is quite ok. you do have room to run that 660ti in SLI if you want to, but that's not going to improve Skyrim+mods a lot. if you do decide to grab a 7950, i guess you could use that 660ti as a dedicated PhysX card if you're not selling it.

 

[lt_dan_zsu]

there is no real difference between 60 and 80 fps. Also, with the card you have it might not be a bad idea to just wait for the next series to come out. Also, if you are going to get a card now, look at the 7970 and 7950.

 

[swifty_morgan]

i think a 670 would round out that system without being too lavish.

 

[lt_dan_zsu]

The problem with a 670 is, it is overpriced. You can get a better card for the same price.

 

[swifty_morgan]

That depends on what you want. maybe he wants physx ? maybe he wants nvidia ? I could have suggested any other card, even a 680. He did say money wasn't an issue. Not wise to wait until the cows come home.

 

[lt_dan_zsu]

If he really wants physx, he could get a physx card. But, I have one and I honestly barely notice a difference, the only game I don is BL2 and it gets to the point of being annoying. Also he never mentioned it so I try to get the best value.

 

[track1044]

Thanks for all the suggestions thus far.

Since I'm not really into all these graphics cards and their release, when is the new series expected? As I understand the 600 series is quite new.

I was checking out a lot of reviews last night and it seemed like 670, 680 and 690 almost always were ahead of the 7950, so if anything I would likely go for a 7970 IF I go ATI. I've had better experiences with Nvidia drivers and card in the past, so in that regard I'm kinda biased.

And yes, if possible I would definitely go for a 4gb version.

I most say, I had actually anticipated an upgrade to CPU since I've heard skyrim is quite CPU intensive and the i5 2500k is a bit old =)

So, as it is right now, I'm actually looking into a 680 4gb. That could last for a while? and if needed I guess I could set up SLI in the future?

Thanks once again =)