Upgrade help

[Gagetx]

My first post hope you like :)

About a year ago i built my first computer. Now that i have saved up some money i wish to make a upgrade.

Current specs:

Intel Core i7 2600k @ 4.3 Gh

Corsair H60 Liquid CPU Cooler

Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 Socket 1155

2x Asus Gtx 560ti 1Gb in SLI

Red Corsair 16GB 1600MHz Vengeance Memory

Ocz Agility 3 60Gb - Boot drive

WD 1TB Black - Storage drive

Cooler Master HAF 922 Case

I have noticed some Vram bottlenecks when it comes to play games like BF3 on ultra or Far Cry 3 on maxed out

settings all on 1920x1080. I'm planing to buy a 3rd monitor so I can use nvidia surround, so I guess the question is

should I get a current generation GPU with more Vram and then get the 3rd monitor or should I get the monitor now

and wait for a next generation GPU.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your guys comments below :)

[SpaceRaptor]

How much are you willing to spend on these upgrades? how much have you saved?

My current thoughts right now as this seems to be a primarily gaming PC.

A i5 3570k, you'll be looking at a 5-10% upgrade at stock and it overclocks beautifully.

I hear that the 560ti's are great for Nvidia surround but you might want to jump for the 2GB versions (This could be expensive even if you sell your current cards.)

Also, you might want to go for a nice cooler! Ivy bridge processors get really hot after overclocking.

[ryanshimia]

do not upgrade your processor, if you want nvidia, get one or two 660ti's, if you want amd, get two 7870's or 1 7950 or 7970

[Gagetx]

How much are you willing to spend on these upgrades? how much have you saved?

My current thoughts right now as this seems to be a primarily gaming PC.

A i5 3570k, you'll be looking at a 5-10% upgrade at stock and it overclocks beautifully.

I hear that the 560ti's are great for Nvidia surround but you might want to jump for the 2GB versions (This could be expensive even if you sell your current cards.)

Also, you might want to go for a nice cooler! Ivy bridge processors get really hot after overclocking.

Thanks for the quick response. I'm looking to keep the current CPU because its not the thing holding me back but the 2 Gb versions sound great. I will try to find a good deal on the 2Gb version if i can't I will just wait for a next Gen card. As for the cooler i might jump up to a H100 eventually.

[kght22]

next time list your psu with your specs, anyway i have to say for multi-monitor setups amd/ati works much better than nvidia. and as the guy above me pointed to (ryanshimia) a single 7970 would be acceptable for triple monitor gaming, although if you want to go that extreme and really must have a multi monitor setup i would go for at least a dual 7950 setup. that should have a good edge over a single 7970. but the real issue will be the ammount of memory on the card or cards that you choose to use. for good triple monitor gaming you will want at least 2gb per card (whether nvidia or ati) but the more the merrier. i think a 7970 with 3 gig of vram like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125413 would be good for triple monitor, and keep in mind that the card i showed is by far not the best deal, just an example. but you can likely do triple monitor fine with your current setup if you want to get the third monitor first. ultra settings won't be all that likely if you do, but it should work quite fine with pretty high settings. but if you are after multi-monitor gaming you should look at ati for your next video card upgrade. i love nvidia, and use it myself, but ati is better at multi-monitor gaming.

[killerx525]

I suggest upgrading your graphics card to a 7970 or a pair of 7970 for triple monitor gaming as that is very intensive. Second upgrade would be getting a beefier cooler and then if you wanted to, get a larger SSD.

[Fraser Cow]

A single AMD 6950 will run BF3 at 5760x1920 on medium at 35-45 fps, dual 6950s will run BF3 at 5760x1920 on high at 45-60 fps. I would imagine a signal AMD 7970 would be somewhere in the middle, so I think that's your best bet as you'll be able to get a second 7970 when one won't do anymore. The only other upgrades I would recommend would be An H100 and a bigger SSD.

Hope this helps.

[Gagetx]

next time list your psu with your specs, anyway i have to say for multi-monitor setups amd/ati works much better than nvidia. and as the guy above me pointed to (ryanshimia) a single 7970 would be acceptable for triple monitor gaming, although if you want to go that extreme and really must have a multi monitor setup i would go for at least a dual 7950 setup. that should have a good edge over a single 7970. but the real issue will be the ammount of memory on the card or cards that you choose to use. for good triple monitor gaming you will want at least 2gb per card (whether nvidia or ati) but the more the merrier. i think a 7970 with 3 gig of vram like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125413 would be good for triple monitor, and keep in mind that the card i showed is by far not the best deal, just an example. but you can likely do triple monitor fine with your current setup if you want to get the third monitor first. ultra settings won't be all that likely if you do, but it should work quite fine with pretty high settings. but if you are after multi-monitor gaming you should look at ati for your next video card upgrade. i love nvidia, and use it myself, but ati is better at multi-monitor gaming.

Thanks for the tip :)

[Electronics Wizardy]

sell the 560ti's for a 680 or 7970 3gb for tri monitor if you want more peformace get one more of them. Upgrade the ssd to 256 or 128 for more games on ssds.