2012 gaming upgrades....confused

I am setting aside money for next year with regards to PC gaming but a few things concern me. As you can see from my sig I have a decent spec machine, ideally next year I would like to throw the next greatest Nvidia graphics card in and leave it at that. However I see all this motherboard stuff at the minute banging on about PCIE3, my board the Maximus Extreme Z was £300 and I don't want to have to replace it because it isn't compatible with PCIE3. Will the new nvidia card perform any better at all on a PCIE3 board that on mine, is there something to it or is it just marketing at this point. I would also consider putting an I7-3700k in this rig when they come out but at around say 20% performance increase it might not be worth it, however if I would have to also buy another motherboard to get PCIE3 then it starts to get really pricey again and I have only recently put this machine together. Also how much longer will 1155 be around?

 

I don't think the cost to you to update is worth the performance boost, but value is obviously subjective.

I suppose this is the last thing to say to someone with the upgrade bug but... honestly it is probably only worth waiting until 2013... depending on just how amazing all the new components are.

 

The thing is that a CPU boost will not gain you anything, there is almost no difference in FPS between an i5-2500 and an i7-2600. If you are using a powerful graphics card then the high resolution and AA are fully on the GPU performance. Benchmarks have shown time and time again that CPU expenditure in terms of gaming is pointless.

If you use the system for other CPU intensive activities then it may be worthwhile, but for gaming, your CPU is already the best you will get.

Better off either seeing how the new cards stack up, or putting your GTX580 into SLI. Although that is also likely overkill. Probably also maybe worth getting a bigger SSD, so you can have more games with lower load times.

From the big games due out next year, I do not even see how they will stress your current system.

It seems that technologically is currently outstripping the Devs abilities to stress it, especially now that this is the largest gap that PC and consoles have seen. With nearly everything being multi-platform, then PC has more than enough horsepower to deal with the half assed porting.

 

Its your money and all so your call, but imo to upgrade your current rig in the next 12 months will do very little other than willy waving and running benchmarks if all you want to do is game (unless you are at some insane resolution).
I believe that BF3 will be the current benchmark in games for the next 18-24 months (basically until the next consoles ship) until then you are best getting some use out of your current rig.

That being said, upgrade away, I may buy your GTX580 off you, if you want to be the person who helps fund nvidias share holders, and constantly pay top dollar before selling at a huge loss to people like me before you even stretch your current stuff, be my guest

PS I have a far inferior processor to you, a sandybridge I5 2500K, and there is only 1 thing to come even close to taxing my cpu.............................. Dolphin the wii emulator.

No actual PC software even comes close to pushing it, and wont in the forseeable future either.

 

As above, it depends on your priorities but I think your money could be better spent or saved. BF3 and Crysis 2 is out already, I've heard of no talk of any new games that people are assuming will push the limits of rigs at all so I dont think its a worthwhile move personally...

 

Save the money and pay for up to 50% performance boost the year after

My rig is 3 years old and all I have updated is the GPU and it is still boss for the most part. Hoping to upgrade towards the end of 2012 though. Going to enjoy that jump very much.

 

Thanks to all for the replies, how much longer will 1155 be around, past these new processors

 

LOL mate you do not need to upgrade a thing

it will be a waste of money to buy anything else for your rig in terms of GPU or CPU power.

just get an over clock on the GPU and you will be flying through Bf3

I have a "lesser" rig than yours and I will not be updating till at least this time next year as I can max out every game I got at play at 50 fps+ everywhere.

 

To be honest - Wait until 2013

That is if 2012 isn't the end of the world ​

Take a close look at this:
Gaming Rig-HAF X / I7 2600K Overclocked to 4.7ghz on Corsair H100 / Asus Maximus IV Extreme Z / 8GB Corsair Vengence 1866Mhz / GTX 580 Gigabyte Super Overclock / Corsair Force GT 60GB SSD / 2TB Western Digital Caviar / 2TB Green / Corsiar HS1 headphones / RAT 5 gaming mouse / Asus Proart 24" monitor

Does that look familiar?

It should.

ITS YOURS!

Your rig is an absolulte BEAST. Actually, the vast majority of our rigs are, but that is besides the point. I'd hold tight, and just enjoy what you already have.

The next hardware cycle is going to cost an arm and a leg, and you're going to get negligible performance increases. You could spend £500+ on a new rig, with PCI-E3 and a new extortionate CPU + GPU and be disappointed when you only get 10-20FPS more than us

To clarify something else - You can run a GTX580 on PCI-E [The original] and it will still run just as good as PCI-E2. Why?

Nothing can push the boundaries of the bandwidth. It's like running a SATA hard drive on SATAII - They can only read/write so fast.

If you're impatient, wait until at least Q2-Q3 of 2012, and you'll probably get some reasonable price drops and then dump another GTX580 in there, or even better - Grab a GTX590, when they come down in price, and keep the GTX580 as the slave.

Can I hear a Booya?

This is just my humble opinion anyway. I don't see the point in flushing money down the pan like Sega Mega Dave when your (our) rigs can run everything great, and will do for some time to come.

P.S.
If you are replacing your case, I'll buy it

 

No need to upgrade at all in my opinion. This year I upgraded from my very old AMD scoket 939 system and it's a great feeling getting all the extra power from a new system. You would hardly notice anything in the real World if you upgraded so soon.