What upgrade should I get (details inside)

[PP Mguire]

What exact cooler do you have?

 

[cwuarre]

What exact cooler do you have?

My bad I linked to it in my last post, Newegg.com - Rosewill RCX-ZAIO-92 92mm Sleeve Bearing Fan CPU Cooler

 

[PP Mguire]

How in the hell did I not see that lol. Eh, you can OC but not very far.

 

[Graham]

I'm not so positive that a HD6950 can run BF3 with Ultra settings. It "could," but I don't think the frame rate would be very tolerable.

I have an HD 5970 and it can only run Ultra at a decent frame rate...

I'd say get a new card if you want... I really don't think the CPU is the culprit here.

 

[PP Mguire]

I'm not so positive that a HD6950 can run BF3 with Ultra settings. It "could," but I don't think the frame rate would be very tolerable.

I have an HD 5970 and it can only run Ultra at a decent frame rate...

I'd say get a new card if you want... I really don't think the CPU is the culprit here.

My 580 ran BF3 at 2048x1152 with max AA perfectly with my whole system stock. You shouldn't have any problems with a 5970.

 

[Graham]

By perfectly, what frame rate you talking? I'm pretty picky and want 60+ at all times or it's a loss in my mind.

 

[PP Mguire]

60+. BF3 doesn't really take all that much once you reach a certain area of graphics horsepower.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Scratch that... sorry..

 

[cwuarre]

Well, do not know how I failed to follow through with this during the summer. But I am back with essentially the same question.
Like Graham said I am basically looking for ultra settings in bf3/farcry 3 type games, 60+ fps all times 1920x1080. Dont know whether my cpu/mobo are the culprit or my GPU. Everything is the same in my comp as it was during the time the thread began.
Im planning on getting this memory upgrade, simply because I currently have G.Skill and have not had a problem, This SSD, simply because they have a more-convincing front page ad than Samsung.
Would the DDR5 ram I am looking at be effective/compatible in my current motherboard (replacing my 2x2gb DDR3)?

My current rig is
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2 Hz 125w
XFX Radeon HD 6950 1 gb 256 bit
ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s ATX AMD Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws series 2x2gb DDR3
Antec 550w power supply

So on top of the Memory and SSD upgrade I linked above, I am willing to spend around $400 for cpu/mobo or a nice gpu that I could crossfire or standalone (do not know which choice would be better)

Sorry for all the questions, and thank y'all for the help. This community is awesome.

P.S. I think it is awesome that I have gone from knowing squat about computers to building my own and somewhat comprehending specifications just based off my experiences here.

 

[PP Mguire]

Do not buy an OCZ SSD. Horrible reliability and quality. Also, get 1600MHz RAM, cheaper and there is no difference. When you get the extra 8GB I suggest taking and leaving the current 4 out. AMD has a weak IMC and 4 sticks have a high possibility of giving off BSOD or random crashes.

With 400 dollars your best bet would be a GTX 670.