My goal: upgrade my computer such that I don't drop below 30fps doing 25 man raids
Right now, I get between 15~25 fps during most fights. The graphics settings don't seem to impact my framerate very much so I'm thinking my system is cpu-bound.
My computer
AMD Athlon II X3 445
GeForce GTX 460 768MB
ASUS M4A785-M Motherboard
4GB DDR2 800 (clocked at 333, I get instability running it at 400)
My system seems to be limited by its CPU right now, but I don't have many upgrade choices for that seeing as I can only use a Socket AM3 processor. The only one I'm seeing that's better than mine on Newegg is an AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition for $99. Assuming I don't mind the dead-end upgrade, would that do it?
Assuming that's not powerful enough, what about an upgrade of the mobo/ram/cpu? I know Intel processors tend to give better performance in WoW, would a cheap ~150 chip like the Intel Core i3-3240 get me where I needed to be (or for that matter, an AMD of similar price)?
Or is it that my old GPU just won't handle the load with any chip and I'm looking at tossing most everything except my storage?