After a bit of play with Planetside 2, I've decided to do some upgrading. Before i go, here's what I have now 4gb ram Phenom II x4 965 3.4GHz 2gb 6750 I will certainly hit up another 8gb ram or so, but if i had to choose between cpu or gpu, which would I get more out of?
Personal opinion: New Motherboard and Intel CPU - preferably something of the Ivy Bridge generation (3750K being the top model for games) and a Z77 Motherboard to go along with it. Your current RAM should fit on the new motherboard as well as any new RAM you buy if your current motherboard uses DDR3 RAM
CPU/Mainboard. You can always add a new GPU later and with more games needing MORE CPU, the focus is shifting back to it.
The 3750K does not exist. Closest real thing is the i5 3570K or the i7 3770K . 35xx is 3rd gen i5 37xx is 3rd gen i7. 25xx is 2nd gen i5 27xx is 2nd gen i7. It makes sens. Furthermore a Z77 motherboard is not required. Only if you want to use Intel SRT you need to get Z77. Otherwise go for Z75 if you want to do overclocking. If you are not interested in overclocking just buy (an affordable) H77 chipset and a non K i5 cpu. Cheapest H77 are about 65 euro, Z77 starts at 80. Chipset comparison table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1155 If you are interested in overclocking try to find an i5 2500k (sandybridge). Intel changed from soldering to thermalpaste on the cpu heatspreader. The result is that the 3770K gets hotter. Therefore it reaches a lower maximum clockrate and is therefore effecitvely slower when overclocked. See: Intel counters the smaller die by dropping Ivy Bridge's thermal ceiling. Overclocked, though, Ivy Bridge must dissipate close to the same heat as a Sandy Bridge-based CPU, but across less surface area. It is pretty clear that Intel's decision to use thermal paste instead of thermally-conductive solder puts a vice on the frequencies this CPU can stably achieve. The end result is a more pronounced and rapid thermal ramp-up that can only be effectively addressed using more aggressive cooling solutions. In a nutshell, for an average system builder, there are clear limits to overclocking Ivy Bridge. We will have to wait and see if future products from Intel employ better material between the processor die and heat spreader. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-overclocking-core-i7-3770k,3198.html Ps If you want to overclock I would recommend sticking with 2x1 memory modules. If you go for 4 this usually results in less stability and more time spend on memory settings (voltage, timings).
Seriously i played beta and the first week with a Intel Core™ 2 Quad Q9550 4 gig ddr3 Nvidia GTX 280 I had a decent 20-40 FPS and it work pretty good, but i decide, because i had some opportunities to upgrade my RAM and GPU. So now i Have Intel Core™ 2 Quad Q9550 8 gig ddr3 Nvidia GTX 560 TI and i run it with UlTRA setting !!! with 40-50 FPS. So I know PS2 is CPU intensitive but with a great GPU you can run it pretty good also. Must definetly go with a INTEL - NVIDIA combination.
Yeah I had a derp moment there - not enough coffee to be writing model numbers of CPU's this early in the day. Good point with the Z77 versus Z75 - I disagree with your heat argument however. The features you lose by going back a generation just isn't worth the few hertz you can squeeze out of a 2500K in comparison (I should know - I have one)
