New Gen Vid Card in a P35 Mobo?

[recon1337]

Hi all,

Question/Situation - I need to upgrade my video card!
I did a few searches and haven't found exactly what i am looking for yet, so....

Specs and stuff...
I am currently running
MB - Gigabyte P35 (GA-EP35-DS3L)
CPU - Xeon e3110 (e8400 core 2 duo) @ 3Ghz (stock).
RAM - Corsair 4GB DDR2 800
Video - MSI 8800GT OC 512 (PCIe 2.0x16)
SSD - OS Drive = 90GB OCZ Vertex II
OS - Win7 Ultimate 64

There has been several generations of Video Cards since I put this box together and as such the data throughput rates have increased massively. I want to upgrade to a 6XXX or 5XX series card for obvious reasons. Have these new cards exceeded the PCIe 1.0 x16 data x-fer rates? My CPU is plenty powerful and my RAM speed (albiet old and slow) is very adequate. I have a Win7 WEI score in the 7s. If I join a multiplayer game I am typically the first or second player to enter the game after a map/level change.

Bottom line would you put a new gen video card in a P35 mobo? More importantly (see above) will my P35 mobo bottleneck a new gen vid card (i.e. am I wasting my money on a new card)? I really don't want to build a new machine (even though the wife gave me the go-ahead)!!!!

Thanks for your response
-recon

 

[COLGeek]

Sure, an HD58XX /HD68XX (or higher) would do quite nicely in your rig assuming you have a sufficient PSU installed. What is your budget?

 

[recon1337]

Around $250. Im open to either an HD or GT/GTX... where ever I can get the best bang for my buck.