Intel i7 920 work with what?

[Squirrel Fungus]

I have a old 2009 Alienware 51 computer running a Intel i7 920 quad core 2.67 ghz with an intel x58 express chipset, and am currently looking to upgrade my single ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics card (the other one doesnt work properly, it originally came with two) to something better, and am currently wondering what is the best graphics card i can get with my current processor without being bottlenecked, or if i'll have to totally replace my motherboard and CPU. I was hoping to upgrade to maybe a GTX 970 or 980 (i would like to run ArmA III with good FPS on good graphics settings)

 

[cdrkf]

I have a old 2009 Alienware 51 computer running a Intel i7 920 quad core 2.67 ghz with an intel x58 express chipset, and am currently looking to upgrade my single ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics card (the other one doesnt work properly, it originally came with two) to something better, and am currently wondering what is the best graphics card i can get with my current processor without being bottlenecked, or if i'll have to totally replace my motherboard and CPU. I was hoping to upgrade to maybe a GTX 970 or 980 (i would like to run ArmA III with good FPS on good graphics settings)

An i7 920 isn't a bad CPU. If it holds a graphics card back it won't be by much, and that's only going to be a problem in a few cpu limited games.

I personally think with that machine you should be able to put in pretty much any single card you like. I don't think a 970 or 980 would be a problem, although with current prices I'd personally look at the R9 390 / R9 390X cards instead as they are faster than the 970 / 980 respectively and offer twice the graphics memory.