i3 bottlenecking GTX 970? And 960 vs 970

[erer1243]

Hey, I built my computer a couple years ago and recently have been considering upgrading to a GTX 960 vs a 970. Money is not the issue for a graphics card, but I'd rather not buy a new CPU along with it. I have an i3 2125 currently and was wondering with a 970 (and 960, though I assume it won't be nearly as bad if existent at all) how bad bottlenecking would be. Also, I was considering a 960 vs 970 because of this and also because I will likely be building a completely new pc pretty soon (within the next 6 months at most) and am not too sure about the longevity of either card.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Use of the 960 should probably be entirely fine, and using the 970 will probably result in bottleneck issues on some titles, depending on resolution and settings. The 970 WILL work though, and you can somewhat minimize the bottleneck by using higher settings. The 960 or an R9 280X would probably be the optimal choices.