Upgrade time. Not sure where to go.

So my CPU isn't cutting it with my current graphics card. I know I need to upgrade, but I'm not sure which way to go. I know I could wait for Sandy Bridge (which doesn't sound like a very good avenue), I could go with an i7 9XX, but I'm hesitant to get a CPU that is about to be replaced, I could get an AMD hexcore, again will soon be replaced or I could wait for Bulldozer.

My main reservation about going with AMD mainly that if I want to upgrade by the time I want to upgrade I'll probably have to buy a whole new socket. So, I guess I'll just pose a few questions:

1) Does Sandy Bridge sound like it's going to be a decent upgrade?
2) Is Ivy Bridge going to be on either of the current sockets (1156 and 1366)?
3) Is there going to be a big enough performance increase between Sandy and i7 to consider Sandy over i7?


I'm mainly looking at intel if Ivy is going to be on the same socket as i7. I'm not really sure about AMD.

- Sandy Bridge looks a little better than LGA1156 from leaked results. No telling how accurate they are though.
- Sandy/Ivy Bridge will be on the LGA1155 socket.
- LGA1366 will most likely still be the top platform until its successor is released.

That E8400 should be treating you well, especially if you OC it. I had mine up to 4.5GHz on air for 24/7. If you're planning an overhaul, then I'd have to say wait for at least LGA1155 to see how it does, I'm not sure when AMD's new stuff is to be released. If you want to go the LGA1366 route, I think it will be a formidable platform for a while.

It's served me very well, but it's holding back my GPU. Abit stopped making and supporting motherboards in 2009 (January), so I'm hesitant to overclock it although I just might if it'll mean increased performance in COD: Black Ops. I think the CPU is the main reason I have massive FPS drops for no apperent reason. Every other game plays fine, though. I just feel like if I'm going to stay up to date then I'm going to have to get a Quadcore. Another thing is that there's a project I'm working on with the way I've got it designed it's going to be fairly thread intensive, so I'd like more cores too. I just generally feel like it's time for an upgrade.

Your CPU is indeed holding you back in COD:BO, massively so:

http://www.techspot.com/review/336-cod-black-ops-performance/page8.html


However, I would definitely stick it out until SB is released before buying:
http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=7947&pageid=7721


Just going by these charts, your framerates in COD:BO should at least double with an upgrade to SB.

Forget LGA1366, there is no upgrade path on that platform apart from insanely expensive hex cores, and it will soon be outperformed by SB anyway. The same can be said about AMD, the Phenom X6s aren't anything to write home about when it comes to games, and AM3 will soon be EOL, replaced by the upcoming AM3+ platform which supports Bulldozer.