Graphics Card Upgrade Questions

[MUFC4ever]

Am looking to upgrade my existing PCI-E x16 graphics card in my home built system and want to verify you can put a PCI-E x16 2.0 graphics card in a PCI-E x16 slot.

If so, what are the advantages / disadvantages of doing so.

Current setup

XFX GeForce 7900GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3

GIGABYTE GA-M59SLI-S5 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 Motherboard

CORSAIR HX 620W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 Power Supply

Proposed Graphics card

XFX Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5

Alternative

Or am I better off spending less on the graphics card and putting $68 in net cost into a new motherboard with a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot:

ASUS M4A77D AM3/AM2+/AM2 770 Motherboard

and get one of the two following cards:

XFX GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit DDR3

or

XFX Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit DDR3

Any advice will be greatly appreciated - thanks.

 

[wolfram23]

Well from what I've read, PCIe 16x is about the same as PCIe 2.0 at 8x. The difference between the two in terms of performance is fairly minimal. I'd say go with a 5770 or if you can afford it the GTX460

Reference about PCIe lanes: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-2.0,1915-9.html

 

[MUFC4ever]

Thanks for the feedback.

It looks like if bump up my budget by $30 to $200, I have a selection of GTX460 cards to choose from.

 

[wa1]

Stay with your current motherboard and get GTX460 if you could, you will be great with that card...

 

[MUFC4ever]

Best answer selected by MUFC4ever.