In one of the systems i have, would it be worth keeping the 2120 to be playing triple a titles like bf3 and get a beefy gpu or upgrade that to and i5(bearing in mind i have no money) with my current gtx 550 ti?
Im still learning alot so please give me some advice aswell please
You can upgrade piece-meal, there is nothing wrong with that.
If you want to grab an i5, then grab an up-to-date graphics card, that could be the easiest way of not having your parts throttle. If you had a high-end graphics card, the i3 would hold it back, essentially. It could depend on the time scale where you could complete your new, proposed specification.
There could be second-hand parts on Ebay that are worth considering.
You should maybe post your current system specifications. There are other things to consider, like the power supply. The power supply has to be sufficient for any future GPU you wish to upgrade to.
i3 are entry level gaming processors. I would go for a 6300 but considering you've alread got an i3 i would go with the i5 and later upgrade the gpu. My brother is rocking a i3 3220 and plays most new games on high-ultra. He is using a gtx660 along side with it but when i used the 660 and i have a i5 i was getting 10-15 more frames.
With that said the i3 it will bottleneck most cards quite a bit. It depends on what card your going for like a Hd7xxx series or one of the new gtx7xx cards. So give us a rough idea of what card your heading for and it would be easier to say what to upgrade.
Strictly from a gaming and budget view, without knowing your PC specs. Get a new graphics card.
If you go with a new cpu you can either spend a lot of money and some time on an Intel chip, spend a lot of money and a lot of time on a cheaper AMD chip (because you'll need a new AM3+ Motherboard), or spend a lot of money and virtually no time on a graphics card. There is just no getting around spending a lot of money when you want new computer parts. Sell your old parts to make a quick buck, maybe?
Cheers !!! :D
get a graphics card in most games the i3 can handle up to a 7870 or gtx 660ti before it becomes a bottle neck. So I would get a new gpu and then later get an i5 or maybe the new steamroller am3 chip when it comes out.
Hello there! The i3 2120, should still be good enough for most games at med-high settings. Most games these days are more GPU intensive than CPU intensive, so it would make more sense to upgrade the GPU before the CPU.
I used to have a 550Ti and honestly, it was not really a good GPU, my dual core CPU was getting bottlenecked pretty hard by it in Metro 2033 and BF3. I recommend that you purchase a 7870 or 7950 depending on your budget. I have a 660Ti myself, but if you are looking for raw power and you do not use any programs that can implement CUDA(Adobe,etc.), the red team is the way to go. If you do use CUDA, a GTX 760 and 660 are two of the best bang for the buck GPUs on the green team. 650 Ti Boost isn't bad either!
The CPU will become a bottle neck after you upgrade the GPU. You can save up money and get a i5-3570 or 3570K. Get the K edition if you have a motherboard which allows overclocking(Not covered by warranty). If you have an older motherboard with a 6th series chipset(P67,P67,etc.), you might have to update the BIOS to make the newer Ivy Bridge CPUs work with it!
If you look around online you might be able to find a i5-2500K which is still a great CPU and you might be able to get it cheaper. I personally have a 2700K, but there is no need for the i7 range if you will only be gaming.
Good Luck and let me know if you have any questions!
-fishymamba, member of the LTT Intel Response Team.