Upgrade Path

[yournamehere485]

My current build is as follows:

AMD FX 8320 at 4.9Ghz (water cooled with Seidon 240m)
Sabertooh 990FX
8Gb DDR3 1600Mhz
XFX R9 290 DD
Intel 180Gb 520 SSD (and other mechanical drives)
Antec 850 Gamer PSU
Corsair Carbide 400R Case

Anyways, I've got the itch to upgrade, and am very tempted to try to pick up another R9 290. Yet, part of me wants to hold off and pickup an R9 390 when it is released.

However, I am concerned that my FX 8320 may bottleneck either GPU upgrade option. If I were to switch to the blue team, I think I'd aim for a 6 core Haswell. So I guess, I need help. Do I get a second R9 290? Wait for the next AMD release? Or switch to intel and hold off for a while on a gpu upgrade?

 

[Ken g6]

Please answer [thread=80121]these questions[/thread] before doing anything rash.

Also, what games are you having trouble with? Or do you just expect to have trouble with a future game?

 

[daveybrat]

Your setup seems pretty solid already. I'd just wait it out for the new 390 card.

 

[lehtv]

Your setup seems pretty solid already. I'd just wait it out for the new 390 card.

I would also make the switch to Intel, partly to improve CPU performance, but also to push down the power consumption. In performance per thread, the current CPU is equal to an Intel at 3GHz, which is completely fine for a 290 but will probably limit next gen cards a bit. I'd like at least a 4GHz Intel i5 for a 390, which would only less than half the power of an FX at 4.9GHz.

 

[RainStryke]

I would suggest looking into a i7 4790K and Z97. If you are willing to spend a decent amount on your motherboard, i'd suggest checking out the Z97 MSI MPOWER. Gigabyte has some good deals on their Z97 Gaming 7 boards as well. I have tired out the Asus Z97-AR and it was a pretty solid board, but really stripped down on the features compared to others.