Video Card Upgrade?

[sbr]

It is about time to update my video card, and I don't know much about them.  I currently have a GTS450, it works fine for everything I do but I know it is pretty old.

I am not interested in (nor can I afford) anything even close to top of the line, I just want a reasonable, economic upgrade.  If there isn't a reasonable and economic step up I will just stay with what I have now.

I have an i5-2500K CPU, 8 GB RAM and run Windows 7.

Anyone have any thoughts on a next step up upgrade that would increase performance enough to be worth the cost but won't break my bank account?

I don't want to mention a dollar amount now, I would prefer to see what people think and decide myself if I want to pay that rather than limit the conversation too much now.

[Grey Fox]

A geforce 670 with has many memory that you can afford.

Do you have an boot SSD? If no, get that before a new video card. Your HDD is the real bottleneck of your setup.

[katmai]

I plopped down about $300 for geforce760 with 2gb of ram for Xmas. Now running my games at least 60fps and the mmo's at 100fps minimum.

[Razgovory]

What kind of power source do you have?

[sbr]

I forget exactly what power supply I put in it when I built it, but I am confident it can handle the kind of upgrade I am looking at.  I pulled the 450 from my old PC when I built the new one and knew the video card would be the next upgrade and I spec'ed the power supply with that in mind.

After some help elsewhere I am thinking I will get a GTX 660.  The price is right for me and the bump in performance seems to be more than worth it.

[DontSayBanana]

What kind of power source do you have?

That's not so much of an issue as it used to be.  500W+ is going to be enough to run the vast majority of rigs, and a comfortable amount of them can be run with 400W, which even come stock from some manufacturers.

An SSD will vastly improve your boot and load times, but won't help your framerate.  A video card will improve your frame rate, but not your load times.  More memory may make small improvements in both areas, but not likely to be large enough to be noticeable outside of benchmarking.

A 670 would definitely give you some firepower for gaming, as would a Radeon 6970 (though a 6850 will get you playability with a lot of games, too).

[sbr]

And yes, I have a 120GB SSD in my PC.  I am regretting not getting a bigger one now.

[Alcibiades]

I have an 80gb for just system files and the like and it can be a chore to keep that clear of clutter.  Routinely get under 10gb of free space.   Think my next rig I'll definitely shoot for a large SSD, but I do kind of like my current set up of a SSD for my system and a 1tb hd for games/everything else.

[Beenherebefore]

I'd have a look at the new 750s from Nvidia. They're based on their latest chip.

In general, I'd go for Nvidia, but that's not saying the Radeon alternatives are shit. I just don't like their drivers, and that's a personal opinion, not a fact.

The GTX 6-series in general are a good alternative, having low power usage, good performance and not to mention good drivers.

I had a GTX 670 from Asus, a Direct CUII. It was quiet and had excellent performance on one screen. If you'd like it, it's for sale.

[Beenherebefore]

In any case, this should help.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

Tom's usually have it right.

Some cards just aren't worth it, like the GeForce GTX Titan, which was more expensive than an average laptop. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti is in the same bracket. Just a waste of cash that you could use for an extra SSD for apps.

Unless you use more than one screen, I would venture that the following few cards would be more than good enough:

Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 (the expensive option, but probably future-proof for at least three years)
The GTX 760. Get one with a custom factory cooler and an overclock, and you'll make your pants a dairy factory. If that isn't enough, they are inexpensive enough to add a second card in SLi later.
The Radeon X7 260X. Well worth a try. A bit of an unknown to me personally. My only concern with the newer Radeon cards is heat. They're fairly inefficient in that way.

[Caliga]

Who the fuck are you?

[Beenherebefore]

Your mom. Fucking hell.

How hard is it to glean that?

I am Norgy.

[Caliga]

Dude, it's a tradition.  Relax.

[katmai]

Yeah, Cal has always been a dumbass!