Is it time for me to upgrade, or just get a new video card?

[thanatovsky]

I had been planning on upgrading my computer to play the next few years of games at the highest graphics settings, particularly WoW: Legion and Warhammer Total War and whatever else comes from those series for awhile. My graphic card busted and I was looking at the Narwhal setup as a replacement. But should I just buy a new graphics card? What else should I upgrade? Or is it time to start over? I'm not sure. This is my current computer:

Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost)
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Ram: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model
Case:Corsair Graphite Series 600T CC600TM Graphite Grey Mid-Tower Gaming Case
Power:FirePower ModXStream Pro 700MXSP 700W 80Plus Semi-Modular High Performance ATX PC Power Supply
Blu-Ray: ASUS Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS

Former Graphics Card: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card (100314-3L )

Link to Narwhal: ww.mmo-champion.com/content/5413-Legion-Vol-jin-Tweets-Setup-of-the-Month-WowCraft-Ep-25-Illdone

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[DeltrusDisc]

Uh, first of all, that PSU... I've never heard of FirePower before. Plus 700 watts for a system like that? You'd be good with like a 450 watt PSU.

Anyways: new GPU? Yes. Full upgrade? It would benefit you, especially if you got a proper overclocking CPU this time around - you got an overclocking motherboard but a non-OC CPU. However, this system could probably do well for you for a few more years, but yes, it would start showing its age.

[Vurdah]

If you are mainly playing wow just just get a gtx960 or amd r9 380.

[Evildeffy]

Uh, first of all, that PSU... I've never heard of FirePower before. Plus 700 watts for a system like that? You'd be good with like a 450 watt PSU.

FirePower is the company that acquired OCZ's Power Supply branch in 2014.
Factually he just as an OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W PSU.
Nothing wrong with them... certainly not the best but they'll work.

Anyways: new GPU? Yes. Full upgrade? It would benefit you, especially if you got a proper overclocking CPU this time around - you got an overclocking motherboard but a non-OC CPU. However, this system could probably do well for you for a few more years, but yes, it would start showing its age.

He COULD check if he could find a cheap 2nd hand i5-2500K or i7-2600K and overclock the bejezus out of it, should be more efficient than upgrading.

Graphics wise I have no idea how Warhammer Total War would require but for WoW a GTX960 or R9 380 would be sufficient yeah.
If the Warhammer version of Total War is anything like it's prior predecessors though than you'll want a more powerful card.

But it all depends on how much you'd like to spend.

[thanatovsky]

Thanks all. Suppose I also wanted to do things like use a bunch of graphic mods in Skyrim and Fallout 4? I'm capable of spending up to $1000 on this.

[Evildeffy]

Thanks all. Suppose I also wanted to do things like use a bunch of graphic mods in Skyrim and Fallout 4? I'm capable of spending up to $1000 on this.

Ok so my recommendation is to find a cheap 2nd hand i5-2500K or i7-2600K.
(My personal recommendation is i7-2600K due to the fact that I keep seeing the i7 being clocked higher and with lower voltage in general than the i5)

Get a good cooler with that such as a Be Quiet or Noctua (if you don't have that already) and overclock the living daylights out of the CPU.

And then you have to decide exactly how much you WANT to spend (I assume you want to play @ 1080p?) on the GFX.
Your choices are literally varied from 250 to like 750 USD/EUR depending on desired abilities.

[thanatovsky]

Thanks again. I think I'm going to get the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1, a new heat sink, and maybe one of the cpus you suggester. I'm going to sleep on it.