Upgrading Graphics Card

farna_boy

I've been thinking of upgrading my graphics card recently, but I'm not sure will be current setup bottleneck its performance or will I be able to install a newer PCI-Express 2.0 card into it.

My setup is:

Asus A8N-E mobo
AMD 3200+ 2.0GHz (socket 939)
2GB Ram
OCZ 600W PSU
X800GT GFX card

The card I was looking at was the HD3850, which is PCI-Express 2.0, whereas my mobo is only PCI-Express 1.0, so will it support this card? From other forums I gather that the card supports PCI-Express 1.0a, but I can't seem to get a definitive answer with respect to PCI-Express 1.0.
Does anyone know for definite?
Also will my system bottleneck this cards performance? If so, would upgrading the CPU to a 3800+ X2 improve matters?

Any help appreciated!

uberpixie

farna_boy wrote: »

I've been thinking of upgrading my graphics card recently, but I'm not sure will be current setup bottleneck its performance or will I be able to install a newer PCI-Express 2.0 card into it.

My setup is:

Asus A8N-E mobo
AMD 3200+ 2.0GHz (socket 939)
2GB Ram
OCZ 600W PSU
X800GT GFX card

The card I was looking at was the HD3850, which is PCI-Express 2.0, whereas my mobo is only PCI-Express 1.0, so will it support this card? From other forums I gather that the card supports PCI-Express 1.0a, but I can't seem to get a definitive answer with respect to PCI-Express 1.0.
Does anyone know for definite?
Also will my system bottleneck this cards performance? If so, would upgrading the CPU to a 3800+ X2 improve matters?

Any help appreciated!

PCI express 2.0 is backwards compatible with pci express 1.0.

I.e the card will work for you.

I would def get a dual core cpu, that and a new card will tie you over nicely for the next year or so.
(most new games are dual core optimised at this stage)