Graphics card upgrade help?

Ok, so I am thinking of upgrading my 4 year old (almost 5) Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB within the coming month.

My eyes are currently set on the Geforce GTX 770, I've read online, specially on TomsHardware.com (from what I heard in the past, this site seems to be legit about PC hardware), that the 770 is the best bang for the buck (currently somewhere between 310-380$).

However I also read that it might not play so well with older systems, keep hearing this "bottleneck" thing. So my question is, how bad is the bottleneck(ing) on older systems, for example my system which is almost 4 years old, posting specs below.

Almost 5 years old DS system:

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 (Bloomfield) 2666MHz, OC @ 3750MHz
Motherboard: EVGA X-58 LE Edition
RAM: 6GB 1600MHz DDR3 Mushkin Enhanced
PS: 750W Corsair TX
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.

If the impact is too much, which other card that's compatible, or within range of the 770s performance would people recommend? Current budget for a card is within the 300-350$ range.

Thanks for the help.


Edited by jp619 - 24 Feb 2014 at 6:18am

I agree with bprat22, either the GTX 760 or GTX 770 will be a vast improvement over your current 5850.

Thanks to all for the info, since I bought my DS PC I've never had the need to upgrade anything until now, because the games I played didn't call for more power. However a few months back I started noticing that those same games started to lose FPS, so I was thinking it was because the card is old and was losing it's juice to support them.

So that got me shopping around and here :D. Thanks again

Also I don't have much experience with these companies, so which card / company would you guys recommend? The cheaper would be the best option, but with a reputable vendor please.

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=137&r=2048&sort=a7


Edited by jp619 - 24 Feb 2014 at 5:43pm

Thanks!