Graphics Card upgrade limited by Mobo?

[YorkshirePadd26]

So currently running a C2D 8400 @ 4Ghz on a Asus P5E that has PCIE 2.0 if I upgrade to a new GPU maybe say ATI 7xxx series if they come out will it run fine on my Mobo ?

I game at 1680 x 1050 and am running a Corsair Hx620 psu,

I'm currently only really playing BF3

 

[Bramill]

the new 7*** series are are PCIE 3.0 so you'll need a new motherboard and a new CPU if you don't want to bottleneck your beautifully powerful new GPU =)

 

[Bramill]

Also if your only gaming at that res you could just wait for the current graphics card to drop in price when the 7*** series come out. a GTX 560 or 570 or ATI 6950 would be a solid choice which will allow you to upgrade your monitor to 1080p and still play on max settings.

You don't need to worry too much about your new graphics card going out of date as the consoles aren't being replaced for another 2 years, which means very few games are going to be released that will cripple the graphics cards i suggested.

 

[TheMorningStar]

PCI-E should be backwards compatible with 2.0 I would be surprised if you saw a notable difference between 2.0 and 3.0, you would however benefit from a quad core upgrade so maybe consider that also.

 

[rolypolyman]

You can put a new Pci-e 3.0 graphics card in your motherboard and it will run with no problems. Pci-e 3.0 is backwards compatable and as far as I know the Pci-e 2.0 bus is not saturated never mind 3.0. A quad core cpu is preferable but not necessary for BF3, see this cpu performance graph.