Well i upgraded most of my rig at the new year, i got an i5 760, gtx 580, + 8gb ddr3 RAM. I'd like an i7 before BF3 release but i'm very happy with what i got right now, playing C2 right now i got 800MB VRAM to spare and my GPU with slight overclock runs at 80%.

So i was looking at something like a gaming keyboard but didn't like them much so i dunno ..i'd sure like something to mark the occasion, ..an SSD would be sweet, 90-120GB about ￡150 still so they ain't cheap ...

I can't imagine DX11 will be THAT demanding, but you're set and ready if so. I got a GTX 480, personally, just this last week to replace my old HD 5830.

I can't imagine DX11 will be THAT demanding, but you're set and ready if so. I got a GTX 480, personally, just this last week to replace my old HD 5830.

Nice card, i had a 470 and it was as loud as hell,
I'd love to try a 480 out though for sure, i lowered my GPU temps considerably when i installed a fan two inches above it blasting air over it.
The 580 has an exhaust that blows the warm air out the case so blowing cool air onto it is fine, dunno if the 480 is like that.

What kinda fps you get with the 580? I just bought a second 570 for SLI and its pretty sweet ( i know a little overkill) but hey i'm hoping to push BF3 to the limits with my two 570's and i7 2600k.

The newest generation of AMD and NVIDIA cards improve tessellation performance by quet a lot. A GTX560 Ti or a 6950 would be a good buy.

I got an i5 750 quad core with 8 gbs of
Ram and a gtx 560 ti ( not oc) can anybody
Tell me if i will be ok when the dx11 patch
Comes, or should i upgrade ???

If you want to see how your card will perform with Directx11 try running 3DMark 11.

i7 will only help in SLI system (no pun intended). U can burn some cash on a mechanical gaming keyboard

What kinda fps you get with the 580? I just bought a second 570 for SLI and its pretty sweet ( i know a little overkill) but hey i'm hoping to push BF3 to the limits with my two 570's and i7 2600k.
Personally i don't monitor fps, i did before with other cards a while ago, see i only got a 23" monitor so the 580 works fine with it no problem, i guess around 60 fps.

I don't want to upgrade CPU to a 2500k or 2600k how do you call thems cause i got a nice SLI motherboard and i'd have to upgrade it too.
If we ever get crazy graphics i'd like another 580 and i'd go like you with the 3d tele, but only for the mega FPS i wouldn't like to game in 3D i don't suppose.


i7 will only help in SLI system (no pun intended). U can burn some cash on a mechanical gaming keyboard
Interesting, ...but the i5 restricts RAM speed, i'd like to have my RAM at full capacity, using an i5 RAM can't have voltages above 1.65 which svcks(mine's @ 1.7 - if the CPU fries, fine!), i wanna i7 to up the voltage and get the better speed, my RAM is downclocked right now.

I got an i5 750 quad core with 8 gbs of
Ram and a gtx 560 ti ( not oc) can anybody
Tell me if i will be ok when the dx11 patch
Comes, or should i upgrade ???
I'd at least OC the GPU, 'MSI Afterburner' is a very good program for this.
If it were me i'd overclock the CPU and tinker with the RAM too.

and i5 Core is enough for running everything on highest settings, and maybe even BF3

Try getting a SSD, i got one some weeks ago and it's awesome

I installed Windows in it, and it boots twice as fast

also Crysis 2, it loads level extremely fast, most of the time MP i always get into the game before anyone else

you can also get some heavy applications, like Photoshop, sony vegas, etc on it

60GB should be a minimum, 90-120GB would be ok

i got a 60GB one, since they are decreasing in price so fast (last year a 30GB could cost up to $200)

im waiting for a 120GB one to go from like $150-$200

I'd at least OC the GPU, 'MSI Afterburner' is a very good program for this.
If it were me i'd overclock the CPU and tinker with the RAM too.

Yes i can oc my gpu , and i want to do the
Same for my cpu but i think i can't cause
It is locked . My current speed is 2.67 ghz ...

..im waiting for a 120GB one to go from like $150-$200
Yeah, i've been lookin' at them for a while now, sounds good, redeem the wait for dx11 with a SSD, nice.

The newest generation of AMD and NVIDIA cards improve tessellation performance by quet a lot. A GTX560 Ti or a 6950 would be a good buy.

Very true.

Being an AMD power user, I can tell you that any 6800 series or better AMD GPU will handle BF3 on a single 1080P display very well, as well as Crysis 2 in DX11.

The 6950/70 2GB models, especailly the flashable dual-BIOS reference models, will rip both BF3 and Crysis 2 DX11 apart. I am currently running a single XFX 6950 that I have flashed to full on 6970 specifications. I have a second sitting on the shelf waiting for the need to use it. Such as running an Eyefinity setup.

At the moment I am running 2 displays, however only one for gaming, the other is for work. Since I am only running a single 1080P display, there is no need what so ever to Crossfire since the 6950/70 will not even break a sweat under any gaming load available today.

So the Nvidia counterparts to these cards would also indeed be a good buy to get the best possible gaming experience out of DX11.

On a side note, I am also quite thrilled with my hexa-core 1090T. Six cores running at 4.1GHz is no joke, it will not slow down under any gaming load, period. However I am quite excited about the Bulldozer series FX Zambezi processors and will be upgrading them sometime late this year. I may wait for the second generation eight core processors to hit the shelves before I buy. Not real sure as of yet. All I know is they can hit 4.2GHz stock turbo out of the box, the overclocking potential there is something I am really interested in.

So even though I am already running an AM3 motherboard that can run the initial Bulldozer AM3+ processors (ASUS Crosshair IV Formula), I think my next upgrade long before the Bulldozers hit the shelves, will be a new motherboard. Either the ASUS Sabretooth or Crosshair V Formula. Not sure what one yet.

I am not in a hurry for SSD, for gaming, the real improvement you see over platter drives is load times. There is no other real noticeable gameplay benefit. The last SSD I purchased to play around with, I gave to a family member to use in their laptop. I may pick up a 60/64GB or two the next time a good one shows up on sale on Newegg. One for Windows 7, and one for a few of the most common games I play all the time. Just for fun.

U can burn some cash on a mechanical gaming keyboard

If there's anything that I regret about my rig, which I love, it's the fact that I didn't get mechanical keyboard. I love that palpable CLACK when I punch my TURBOBASS (armor mode).

I can't imagine DX11 will be THAT demanding, but you're set and ready if so. I got a GTX 480, personally, just this last week to replace my old HD 5830.

Nice card, i had a 470 and it was as loud as hell,
I'd love to try a 480 out though for sure, i lowered my GPU temps considerably when i installed a fan two inches above it blasting air over it.
The 580 has an exhaust that blows the warm air out the case so blowing cool air onto it is fine, dunno if the 480 is like that.

I just went from a 470 to a 580 myself. Lordy that 470 was loud, but the 580 runs quiter and 10c-15c degree's cooler on load. Bring on dx11!

Save your money and don't bother

When I decided to buy 6TGB DDR3 ram a friend of mine told me that it was completely unnecessary and that I'd never come close to using all of it. Today the highest I have gotten used at one point is like 40% of ram via having alot of web pages and programs open at one point. What made you decide to get 8GB of RAM. Are you going to use it all?

When I decided to buy 6TGB DDR3 ram a friend of mine told me that it was completely unnecessary and that I'd never come close to using all of it. Today the highest I have gotten used at one point is like 40% of ram via having alot of web pages and programs open at one point. What made you decide to get 8GB of RAM. Are you going to use it all?

I do use it all, or i should say windows 7 does, it can use that much no problem with none left over, it uses 2GB usually, with 2GB in standby, but sometimes it puts in everything on standby that's not being used, but i dunno, it was either four or eight due to dual channel being used with the i5, i7s can take triple chanel RAM so 6GB may be better in that case, that's what i'd use anyways.
6GB would be the minimum i'd feel comfortable with.

The newest generation of AMD and NVIDIA cards improve tessellation performance by quet a lot. A GTX560 Ti or a 6950 would be a good buy.

Very true.

Being an AMD power user, I can tell you that any 6800 series or better AMD GPU will handle BF3 on a single 1080P display very well, as well as Crysis 2 in DX11.

The 6950/70 2GB models, especailly the flashable dual-BIOS reference models, will rip both BF3 and Crysis 2 DX11 apart. I am currently running a single XFX 6950 that I have flashed to full on 6970 specifications. I have a second sitting on the shelf waiting for the need to use it. Such as running an Eyefinity setup.

At the moment I am running 2 displays, however only one for gaming, the other is for work. Since I am only running a single 1080P display, there is no need what so ever to Crossfire since the 6950/70 will not even break a sweat under any gaming load available today.

So the Nvidia counterparts to these cards would also indeed be a good buy to get the best possible gaming experience out of DX11.

On a side note, I am also quite thrilled with my hexa-core 1090T. Six cores running at 4.1GHz is no joke, it will not slow down under any gaming load, period. However I am quite excited about the Bulldozer series FX Zambezi processors and will be upgrading them sometime late this year. I may wait for the second generation eight core processors to hit the shelves before I buy. Not real sure as of yet. All I know is they can hit 4.2GHz stock turbo out of the box, the overclocking potential there is something I am really interested in.

So even though I am already running an AM3 motherboard that can run the initial Bulldozer AM3+ processors (ASUS Crosshair IV Formula), I think my next upgrade long before the Bulldozers hit the shelves, will be a new motherboard. Either the ASUS Sabretooth or Crosshair V Formula. Not sure what one yet.

I am not in a hurry for SSD, for gaming, the real improvement you see over platter drives is load times. There is no other real noticeable gameplay benefit. The last SSD I purchased to play around with, I gave to a family member to use in their laptop. I may pick up a 60/64GB or two the next time a good one shows up on sale on Newegg. One for Windows 7, and one for a few of the most common games I play all the time. Just for fun.
The 1090T's are sweet. Had mine to 4.5Ghz . 24/7 runs @ 4Ghz with 1.34vcore. Teamed up to 2 6870's, 4Gb RAM and all water cooled it runs games easy. (Photo in profile)
Looking at a dozer setup myself when it comes out.

6GB RAM is overkill. I never use more than 1GB, unless I'm playing a game but it never goes above 2GB
Besides, most people only have 32 bit windows, which only utilizes around 3.2gb

To the OP:

As you stated you are pleased with your current motherboard, then I think in your situation you should hold out on upgrading anything (save maybe the SSD) realistically if gaming is your #1 priority on your current system. I currently have a I7 875k which runs on socket 1156 motherboards (like the one you have) and the only major difference between it and your processor is hyperthreading. Hyperthreading makes almost no difference in gaming (same can be said for ram speed also) so I would hold out to what you have until maybe Ivy Bridge is released. There are plenty of tests done on the net showing both the effects of Hyperthreading and ram speed on gaming in general. At most they are about 2-3 fps, nothing extremely drastic. Also the I7 that would run on your board has the same limitation on ram voltage as your processor does so you will not be able to run anything like the old ddr3 1.9v long term without potentially compromising your processors memory controller life (since the memory controller voltage needs to be within .5v of the dram voltage to stay within intel spec) I would try instead to tighten the timings on your memory if at all possible and add a SSD, you may also try overclocking the processor somewhat by keeping the vcore within sane limits and see what type of speed increase you get there. More than likely moving your processor from the 3ghz range to 4ghz will have alot more effect than moving up a notch in memory speed.

wow.. reading this i feel terribly outdated with the pc upgrade scene...

i last upgraded my pc a few years back and was satisfied with it being able to play all the games at the highest resolution without lag..

im only using a GTX 480 (no SLI)...and i love MSI and Gigabyte brands of graphics card cos of their OC programs..

i cant even remember my AMD processor... whether its a AMD 64 X2, or a quad core... although i remember seeing 4 temperatures in my CPU temp sidebar gadget...

im also using only 2 gb ddr3 RAM.. with 64bit windows 7

--------------------------
so im quite lazy to catch up with the trend...i'll just ask here..

what's SSD?
Is SLI really necessary now, with the newer GTX series? nowadays it seems single graphics card are powerful enough
For those who play with 3d mode... i suppose SLI would be necessary?

wow.. reading this i feel terribly outdated with the pc upgrade scene...

i last upgraded my pc a few years back and was satisfied with it being able to play all the games at the highest resolution without lag..

im only using a GTX 480 (no SLI)...and i love MSI and Gigabyte brands of graphics card cos of their OC programs..

i cant even remember my AMD processor... whether its a AMD 64 X2, or a quad core... although i remember seeing 4 temperatures in my CPU temp sidebar gadget...

im also using only 2 gb ddr3 RAM.. with 64bit windows 7

--------------------------
so im quite lazy to catch up with the trend...i'll just ask here..

what's SSD?
Is SLI really necessary now, with the newer GTX series? nowadays it seems single graphics card are powerful enough
For those who play with 3d mode... i suppose SLI would be necessary?

SSD= Solid State Disk. They are hard drives that use high speed memory modules in place of physical spinning platters to store data. They are much faster than the standard platter based mechanical drives we all still use. So they are very well suited for high performance tasks, such as an OS drive (a hard drive dedicated to your operating system) or as a gaming drive (can dramatically reduce load times).

However they are not well suited for data storage since they are very expensive per gigabyte of space and are highly limited in their capacity when compared to standard mechanical platter drives. The most commonly purchased SSD drives are often 60GB, 64GB, and 128GB models. They are not necessary in any way for high-end gaming performance.

SLI/Crossfire is not necessary. It is still more of an "enthusiast" level configuration. Modern high-end single GPU video cards can handle any games on the market today very easily. Unless you are gaming on multiple displays and/or at HD+ resolutions (above 1080P), there is no need from a playability or performance level to run SLI/Crossfire.

If you intend on running multiple displays in HD+ resolutions, then running a dual GPU option in SLI or Crossfire would be something to look into. Beyond that, unless you just want push your system above and beyond whats needed for the fun of doing it, it is not necessary no.

2GB of RAM is often considered a "bare minimum" these days, especailly for gaming. 4GB is more standard. Since you are on a 64-bit OS, you can go over 4GB. I myself run 8GB DDR3 1600, that's my personal minimum, but I also do a lot of high-end gaming. 4GB is good enough in most all cases.

Your processor would depend on the model you are running. If you are running DDR3, then I assume its an AM3 motherboard. If you ever think your processor is having trouble running something, you can easily upgrade to a high-end Phenom II X4 Quad and get a nice performance boost.

That GTX 480 was (still is) a fantastic video card. However, for the current asking price of a last generation GTX 480, you can buy a current generation Radeon HD 6950 and get superior performance and longevity with upcoming games designed to take advantage of current generation GPU advances. Though to be honest, your GTX 480 still has a lot of life left in it, I would not upgrade it (unless you want too) until it gives you a reason with performance loss.

DX11 needs less GPU Power and a little bit more CPU power than DX9. That means you get more performance overall.

Updating the rig for something like that would be a waste of money.