Advice on best graphics card for my system

[Alejandro Vizcarra]

Hello guys,
I'm trying to figure out if the card amd r7 265 I'm planning on buying will give me the performance I want or will it be restricted by my motherboard.

I have an ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 (AM3) mobo, and the r7 265 is just what I want out of a graphics card. I'm looking for a medium range card, with a 256 bit bus, 2 gb gddr5, and a core clock exceeding 850 Mhz.
This card seems to fit the bill, but my main concern is whether installing a pcie 3.0 x16 will take a performance hit when installing it in a pcie 2.0 x16 slot.
Should I invest in this card when it comes out?

I mostly want to play at 1920*1080 as the highest resolution. I would like to apply high settings on most games as well.

My system:
Operating System
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom II X6 1070T
Thuban 45nm Technology
RAM
12.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 669MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 (AM3) 41 °C
Graphics
S211HL (1920x1080@60Hz)
S211HL (1920x1080@60Hz)
1024MB ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (ATI AIB) 64 °C

PSU
corsair 750 watts

 

[CraigN]

Single-card solutions on PCIE 3.0 do not saturate the PCIE2.0 lanes. The performance hit on a PCIE 3.0 card running in a PCIE 2.0 lane is like, 1-3 frames per second tops, that most other sites have shown. It's when you drop into SLI/Crossfire setups that the PCIE3.0 lanes are nice to have.

However, I think you are setting your expectations a bit high if you expect to run most game on High with the R7 265. That card is not designed for that kind of performance. You'd want to look at a R9 270X, 280, or 280X (or a GTX 760 or GTX 770 on the NVIDIA side) for All settings High at 1080p in most games, but I suppose that depends on the games you're looking to play. It will play lesser demanding/older games at those settings just fine.