graphics card/processor help!

[neorei]

AMD = more bang for buck
NVIDIA = Best highend cards therefore alot more expensive

what other games do you play other then ff14? cause if its just for ff14 go with AMD6950 or a Nvidia GTX560TI both perform about the same.
If you go with the 560 make sure its the TI version the non TI is alot weaker, also if you can wait a month AMD 7xxx series are being released in january.

I play DC online universe and wow (though you can play wow at ultra with my gcard) but FFXIV is my main game on computer for sure I play FPS on consoles.

i'm also interested in Rift and the new starwars game.

but again thank you all for the suggestions, i am getting alot of knowledge (esp from the 2 guys arguing lol)

[neorei]

yeah i've been hearing alot of praises for the 6850, online sources saying it's more bang to your buck.

[Lucifer]

This game relies heavily on the processor.
If you have the cash to switch to intel, the i5 will do you some justice.

You can make the switch for as little as 300 dollars. I would spend possibly 400-500; for an SSD and 8 gigs of ram.
8 gigs is overkill but it's so cheap today; why the hell not?

[Coldfire]

This game relies heavily on the processor.
If you have the cash to switch to intel, the i5 will do you some justice.

You can make the switch for as little as 300 dollars. I would spend possibly 400-500; for an SSD and 8 gigs of ram.
8 gigs is overkill but it's so cheap today; why the hell not?

This game is NOT heavily relying on the processor and AMD is fine. Especially a highend quadcore.

And I don't recommend a HD6850 as it is far inferior to the HD6950 :P

[Davern]

This game is NOT heavily relying on the processor and AMD is fine. Especially a highend quadcore.

And I don't recommend a HD6850 as it is far inferior to the HD6950 :P

I disagree, my score doubled in the bench by merely swapping to a faster cpu and beat out the score of a 5850 compared my 6770. I'm in town right now and lagging, my cpu is at 80%+ and gpu only at 40%. Outside of town I don't drop below 38fps.

[Zorlin]

any quad core can play this game maxed with a decent gfx but for solid 60fps anywhere yea you do need an high end cpu.

[Davern]

That I can agree with. Hoping that won't be the case come 2.0 as it's just ridiculous that an 2600k can't get 60fps maxed out anywhere without OC'n.

[Lucifer]

This game is NOT heavily relying on the processor and AMD is fine. Especially a highend quadcore.

And I don't recommend a HD6850 as it is far inferior to the HD6950 :P

Sorry but you're wrong.
Phenom 2 is garbage compared to the i5.
I upgraded not too long ago myself and now I can safely say that the i5 2500 is a monster.

[Zorlin]

Atm there really is no question sandy bridge trounces amd even the new bulldozers get easily pwn. But for gaming phenoms are just fine. My brother has a phenom X4 965 we both do alot of video editing you have no idea how fast the 2600k is against his phenom specialy if you OC. Sometimes he even asks me to render video for him so it doesnt take all day. The 2500k are just like the 2600k without HT, actualy its easier to get higher OCs on the 2500k since HT is vcore hungry i always end up disabling it to achieve max OC.

[Coldfire]

Sorry but you're wrong.
Phenom 2 is garbage compared to the i5.
I upgraded not too long ago myself and now I can safely say that the i5 2500 is a monster.

You totally didn't get the topic it seems. The op is looking for a way to make the game run smoother on his machine and a new CPU won't help at all. And I doubt you switched from Phenom II to i5 as the difference in games is almost none(I have both in my house with the same GPUs).
About SLI/Crossfire: causes too much trouble, never scales well, almost never works in windowed mode, requires a strong PSU and produces too much heat for normal gamers. Better go with a single card if you're not sure about it.