Upgrading CPU, need advice between two choices and the memory to go with it

[JC100047]

I honestly feel like you made the wrong choice by trying to upgrade your CPU. If it was my money, I'd be looking to sell the 960 and upgrade to a 970. The performance gain from 960 to 970 would be greater than replacing the 965 BE. There might be slight bottlenecking but it'll still be superior to the 8350+960 combo.

I don't know how much money you're working with at this point but if you sell the 960 for around $150, which is reasonable, and you have $300 then you could get both the 970 and the 8350 that you originally wanted.

 

[JCE3000GT]

I honestly feel like you made the wrong choice by trying to upgrade your CPU. If it was my money, I'd be looking to sell the 960 and upgrade to a 970. The performance gain from 960 to 970 would be greater than replacing the 965 BE. There might be slight bottlenecking but it'll still be superior to the 8350+960 combo.

I don't know how much money you're working with at this point but if you sell the 960 for around $150, which is reasonable, and you have $300 then you could get both the 970 and the 8350 that you originally wanted.

Thanks for the thoughts bro, much appreciated. I think the mistake primarily was keeping my old motherboard and not having the money to get a new mobo + CPU regardless if the 6300 was DOA. I like my super-super clocked 960, it does everything I need to play a modded Skyrim, Fallout 4, and No Man's Sky when it comes out. I don't play anything else modern so I don't need a better GPU. That's what my XBOX One is for, modern gaming.

We just did our taxes and I've got some $$$ to spend but I'm leaning towards picking up a semi-auto rifle and leaving my PC as-is for another year. However if I decide to spend $$$ on computer upgrades it'll only be a new AM3+ mobo + CPU.