Crysis 3 and my rig - a bit of guidance needed

[#1]

Looking at the specs for Crysis 3 - my rig won't run it as my graphics card is DX10 only  
http://www.examiner.com/article/crysis-3-system-requirements-revealed-direct-x-11-required
So an upgrade is needed.
The obvious GPU is the Nvidia 650Ti but - and it is big BUT - will I be severely CPU limited as I have an Core 2 duo E6750 and getting any sensible improvement will mean a new motherboard and processor and memory - not even remotely feasible

[#2]

I would try and download a trial when it comes out to see how it goes, you seem to meet minimum requirements so if you got another GFX card it should run with everything on low.
Another thing you might have to upgrade is your power supply, I got a 560 Ti and my PSU was not adequate, so I had to fork out another £80 for a PSU with 38 amp rails, as my original PSU only had 20 amp rails. It really is a nightmare upgrading.

[#3]

Hi Jim,
I suspect it'll run fine, that isn't a bad CPU by any means and I think memory will be a bigger drag than cpu so if you've got 4 or 8gb in there you'll be able to run it at better than minimum settings.

[#4]

4GB but could be expanded to 8GB if needed
Power supply should be OK as it is a Corsair vx550w with a single 41amp 12v rail bought for that reason among others

[#5]

Don't know if this is any help to you Jim, but you can get a q6600 quad for around £50 on ebay, socket 775.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Core-2-Quad-Q6600-2-4-GHz-Quad-Core-CPU-/281030765876?pt=UK_Computin...

Intel CPU benchmarks
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

[#6]

That is certainly an option - although I would normally avoid second hand - if I hit a CPU bottleneck.
Fortunately I won't need to do anything until Crysis 3 comes out next year

[#7]

As a matter of interest Jim what are your full specs now , MB & gfx card .
reason i ask is there are plenty of offers around for bundles , so it may work out better to buy a bundle rather than just a few odd bits 

[#8]

Not really as the upgrade would only be a graphics card + CPU (if needed) but a motherboard replacement would mean also throwing away the present 4GB RAM
I have just checked memory prices - they are cheap at present - worth considering a complete replacement at the time
My present rig is
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4
CPU E6750
GPU Nvidia 8800GT
The motherboard will take up to a Core 2 quad Q9650 (very expensive) but a Q8000 series would be definitely worth looking at as even looking at new they are about £120 OEM
However looking at the I3 prices that would be very interesting should I decide that the CPU is struggling
The one thing which is clear is that after replacing the GPU the next step would definitely be a new motherboard and CPU either as a package or as bits so that I can get the quality I want - must check the compatibility of the CPU cooler which wasn't cheap and must fit the new motherboard because it it doesn't that will screw up the whole thing Aargh! it will only support the Q6600 CPU (not sure why it won't support the Q8000 series - perhaps it just wasn't available when it was marketed) but I am not sure that is correct - it depends on the mounting pins so much more investigation needed

[#9]

Unless I am missing something (which I normally do), the Q8000 series should be OK. The specs look similar to the Q9000 series.

http://ark.intel.com/products/42112/Intel-Core2-Quad-Processor-Q8400S-4M-Cache-2_66-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB

[#10]

Wait and save up for a new build. The card will be cheaper by that point and your have the rest of the build to back it up. or you could just buy a cheaper dx11 card but make sure its top of it's series. I don't know much about Nvidia cards so I cant suggest one sorry.
You could always think about hardware accelerated sound and network cards to help reduce the load on your cpu?

[#11]

Installed 650Ti GPU no problems other than the computer wouldn't boot into Win 7 but would into Vista (different hard drive)
Reason - these new hard drive connectors are too easy to dislodge  - pushed it in again and all is well 
The bit which surprised me is that although the change was from one Nvidia card to another it needed to reinstall the drivers and then needed a reboot