Needing to upgrade!

here's the thing:  if you move up to an I5 Haswell processor it's going to cost you the same as the current generation Skylake I5 proc.  if you decide to jump on the newest platform you'll need a new motherboard and new system memory as well.  in essence you should probably choose a new build if you want to do that.  if you decide to upgrade to the Haswell I5, it will be compatible with your DDR3 system memory and motherboard.  you'll save money on the platform, but actually settle for a lesser proc for the same price. 

in your situation, i would just look at upgrading your gpu (and possibly power supply if you dont have enough juice to power the upgrade) until you're ready for a completely new system build.  that's where you'll see the most bang for your buck in any case.  the dual core shouldn't be that big of a bottleneck with a gpu upgrade.  if you're playing on 1080p you won't need more than a GTX 970.  i'd normally recommend a quad core I5 just to be sure paired with that gpu.  if you aren't intending on upgrading that far you should be good with a lesser vid card paired with your I3-4K series dual core cpu.

for around $200 you can a significant upgrade with a 4GB GTX 960 or R9 380X.  that should handle most games at 1080p with high-ultra settings.  the GTX 970 will insure that; however, it's a $350 card.  not worth it imo. 


Edited by db188 - 03 Apr 2016 at 11:52pm