Folks,
Well, its time for me to upgrade my video card in my 3 year old system. I currently have a Nvidea Geforce 8800 GTS 512 card and am looking to upgrade to either a Radeon HD 6870 or a Geforce 560 Ti card. My question is will it be worth it for me to upgrade to a more modern video card (i.e. the HD 6870/Geforce 560 Ti) given my slightly older mobo (P35 mobo) and CPU (E8400).
From what I have found so far, I have mixed messages. While its a given that the PCI-Ex16 1.0/1.0a slot will limit a PCI-Ex16 2.0/2.1 card i've also read that the difference is negligible given the actual performance difference. I've also read some posts that say the E8400 wont limit a new video card that much, and some posts that say it will. Confusing to say the least.
I would hope I could hear from someone in my own predicament, and find out what they did and what the results of their upgrade was and if they were satisfied with it.
My current system set up:
Gigabyte GA-P35-S3G LGA 775 mobo
Intel Core Duo E8400 CPU
2 gig ram (2x1 DDR2 800) memory
500 gig Western Digital HD
Geforce 8800 GTS 512 video card
Win XP
Generic DVD drive
Planning on making the following upgrades:
Win 7 Premium Home Edition
additional 4 gig ram (2x2 DDR2 800) for a total of 6 gig
Either a Radeon HD 6870 or Geforce 560 Ti video card.
My main concern is my mobo has a PCI Express x 16 slot and not a PCI E Express 2.0/2.1 x 16 slot. What kind of performance hit will I experience (if any) in putting a PCI E 2.0/2.1 card into a backwards compatible slot? Any concerns that it might not work at all?
Secondly, how badly (if at all) will I bottleneck myself with those modern video cards and my Intel Core Duo E8400 CPU? For what its worth, I typical game at lower resolution levels anyway, and prefer a decent combination of graphic detail vs playability...usually at 1280x1024 and sometimes at 1680x1050.
Basic reasons for upgrade is the entry of games like Battlefield 3 and others (SWTOR) that flat out require Win 7 and a better video card to run decently.
Thanks in advance for your comments!!!
Well, its time for me to upgrade my video card in my 3 year old system. I currently have a Nvidea Geforce 8800 GTS 512 card and am looking to upgrade to either a Radeon HD 6870 or a Geforce 560 Ti card. My question is will it be worth it for me to upgrade to a more modern video card (i.e. the HD 6870/Geforce 560 Ti) given my slightly older mobo (P35 mobo) and CPU (E8400).
From what I have found so far, I have mixed messages. While its a given that the PCI-Ex16 1.0/1.0a slot will limit a PCI-Ex16 2.0/2.1 card i've also read that the difference is negligible given the actual performance difference. I've also read some posts that say the E8400 wont limit a new video card that much, and some posts that say it will. Confusing to say the least.
I would hope I could hear from someone in my own predicament, and find out what they did and what the results of their upgrade was and if they were satisfied with it.
My current system set up:
Gigabyte GA-P35-S3G LGA 775 mobo
Intel Core Duo E8400 CPU
2 gig ram (2x1 DDR2 800) memory
500 gig Western Digital HD
Geforce 8800 GTS 512 video card
Win XP
Generic DVD drive
Planning on making the following upgrades:
Win 7 Premium Home Edition
additional 4 gig ram (2x2 DDR2 800) for a total of 6 gig
Either a Radeon HD 6870 or Geforce 560 Ti video card.
My main concern is my mobo has a PCI Express x 16 slot and not a PCI E Express 2.0/2.1 x 16 slot. What kind of performance hit will I experience (if any) in putting a PCI E 2.0/2.1 card into a backwards compatible slot? Any concerns that it might not work at all?
Secondly, how badly (if at all) will I bottleneck myself with those modern video cards and my Intel Core Duo E8400 CPU? For what its worth, I typical game at lower resolution levels anyway, and prefer a decent combination of graphic detail vs playability...usually at 1280x1024 and sometimes at 1680x1050.
Basic reasons for upgrade is the entry of games like Battlefield 3 and others (SWTOR) that flat out require Win 7 and a better video card to run decently.
Thanks in advance for your comments!!!