isa23 wrote:Upgrading the GPU seems like a big deal. From what I can tell they don't sell PCIE 2.0 cards that are as good as the one I have, so I guess I'm looking at a motherboard upgrade in order to get into a better graphics card, which would also trigger a new CPU purchase. If I'm wrong about the graphics card I'd be happy to hear it.
Unless you're looking at older cards, I don't think manufacturers make PCIe 2.0 GPUs anymore and it's been a few years since they have. Any PCIe 3.0 card is backwards compatible though, you just won't be able get the full amount of performance out of it (assuming you can even saturate the PCIe lanes anyway).
isa23 wrote:I don't want to rebuild or spend $1000 in upgrades right now. This box still does work stuff fine. I can get 12GB of triple channel ram for ~$135, which would be no problem.
It really comes down to whether you want the machine to just be able to handle 'work stuff' or if you want it to be able to handle 'work stuff' and be able to multibox? There's not really a way to upgrade such old hardware without it being 'not worth it' in the long run.
CPU - Your only viable upgrade would be to a six-core 980X/990X CPU which is still going to run you
at least $300 on eBay (likely the only place to buy one used), but it still won't keep up with today's quad-core CPUs -- Especially those with hyper-threading.
RAM - You could buy some RAM to help put a band-aid on part of the wound, but 18GB (assuming 3x2GB + 3x4GB) isn't going to carry over to a new build nicely because...
1) If you make the move to X79, which utilizes quad-channel RAM, you'll want to populate either four or eight DIMM slots with the same amount and type of RAM.
2) If you make the move to Z87/Z97, which utilizes dual-channel RAM, you'll want to populate either two or four DIMM slots with the same amount and type of RAM.
3) If you make the move to X99, which hasn't even been released yet, you won't even be able to use the same RAM because that chipset will utilize quad-channel DDR4 (which also hasn't been released yet).
GPU - You mention you're sitting around 70%-80% (and higher) in Outland/Northrend areas/instances/cities -- Both of which are old content with older, less-detailed textures. Once you hit Cataclysm stuff you're likely going to be feeling the heat, and when you make it to Pandaria I imagine the performance overall is going to be incredibly low. Now, I could be totally incorrect about Cataclysm/Pandaria since I don't have any multiboxing teams in those areas, but with each expansion Blizzard has only added more "stuff" to the game and increased the level of detail. Pandaria itself is a very beautiful and very detailed continent (IMO), and Draenor (the next expansion's world) is incredibly detailed from what I've seen, first-hand, so far.
On top of that, if your PSU is on the low-end side it may not be able to sufficiently power a modern day system, so there's also that to keep in mind. However, you didn't mention what level of video settings, which graphics API, or FPS you play at, so if you have room to turn stuff down then I'd recommend that over upgrading 4+ year old hardware with 4+ year old hardware just to gain a teeny bit of performance. I realize an entire new machine isn't always in the budget, but if you can hang on with shitty performance and start saving, then that's really the thing to do.