Bottlenecking computer?

It will bottleneck... just overclock

What motherboard do u have? certain am2+ boards can take am3, if u can going to a phenom ii x4 965 wouldnt be a bad choice. I ran a 9650 x4 @2.3 it ran great with a 9800gt like they were meant to run together lol but if u can reach 3.0ghz running a 7850/70 wouldnt be bad, but i still think it'll still def hold u back along with ddr2, but it will still be better than the 5770.

Don't upgrade to a 7850 or 7870 unless you get a new processor. The fps will not increase much if any going from a 5770 to a 7850 or 7870 unless the game is not cpu intensive. Its like putting in a formula 1 car engine in a truck, it won't go anywhere fast lol. Thats what putting a 7870 will do. Heck games will be less playable if you try to play it on higher detail as cpu can't cope and it will rely on 100% cpu usage. Also that ram is ddr2 so this system is quite an old rig. I would just get the latest stuff as there is no point having an oldish rig with new gpu that cannot be used.

My motherboard is Asus M4A785-M which is compatible with AM3 cpu. So if I were to upgrade to a AMD phenom II 965, would it improve the system more compared to getting the graphics cards or should I get a new cpu and video card?

Best answer selected by Brianbrain.