New GPU for old PC

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Hello,

I know I need to buy a new PC and will likely do so very soon, but was wondering if upgrading a Superclocked GTX 460 would be worthwhile for a 5+ year old PC.

Evga Nvidia NFORCE 680i SLI MB
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 DUO CPU E6700 @ 2.66GHz OC@ 3.2Ghz
4GB Mushkin PC2-6400 DDR2
Corsair TX750 PSU

I am thinking about upgrading my GTX 460 to a GTX 660 TI and was wondering if the CPU on my PC would be powerful enough to support it or if the CPU is going to drastically bottleneck the GPU.

Also, my PC is PCI-E 2.0 so how much will the GTX 660's PCI-E 3.0 affect its performance.

 

[DarkSable]

You're going to get a bottleneck from the CPU, sure, but what you can do is get a good graphics card, live with the bottleneck for now, and use the card in your next computer.

You won't be able to notice the bottleneck from PCIe 2.0/3.0 - cards can't really take full advantage of 3.0 yet.

 

[sam_p_lay]

You're going to get a bottleneck from the CPU, sure, but what you can do is get a good graphics card, live with the bottleneck for now, and use the card in your next computer.

You won't be able to notice the bottleneck from PCIe 2.0/3.0 - cards can't really take full advantage of 3.0 yet.

+1 to that. It's exactly what I say to the bottlenecking questions - simply means when the time comes for a CPU upgrade, you unlock the rest of your GPU potential and get a huge boost!

 

[larkspur]

PCIe 2.0 isn't a problem. Your older system is. The GTX 460 is a good GPU. The 660 ti will be bottlenecked by that CPU. Save for a new system. You could certainly buy the 660ti now, the thing will still work, but since you have a capable 460, I would wait till you have enough for a new system and end up getting something better.

 

[whooleo]

Your GTX 460 is being bottle necked right now. But you could use the GPU in a new build like others have said.

 

[jonjonjon]

+1 to that. It's exactly what I say to the bottlenecking questions - simply means when the time comes for a CPU upgrade, you unlock the rest of your GPU potential and get a huge boost!

i don't fully agree. it depends when/if you plan on updating your cpu. if you have no plans of getting a new cpu anytime soon then buying a gpu that will be bottlenecked makes no sense. by the time you actually do upgrade the cpu you will probably want to upgrade gpu anyway. save the money and get a gpu that wont be bottlenecked. unless you are going to upgrade your cpu soon.

 

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Best answer selected by Omgwtfbbqkitten.