Based on my budget, those are my two options (I've read multiple times that AMD CPUs are subpar). I need to buy a CPU, GPU, Mobo, and PSU for no more $400 including taxes and before mail in rebates. Both of the cards are EVGA 2GB versions. The i5 combination would put me back $250 before taxes, whereas the i3 combination would be $326 before taxes, but that includes the mobo, so I would only need to buy a PSU afterwards. Would the i3 or the GTX 550 Ti be a bottleneck for my machine? According to gaming benchmarks, the 550 Ti gets about half the FPS as the GTX 650 Ti, but would the jump to i5 be worth the drop/make up for it? Games I wanna play include Borderlands 2, Skyrim, Arkham City/Asylum, Assassin's Creed 3, and a bunch of other stuff.
(sorry if this is a nobrainer question, but I'm still new to components)