Best bang for my buck?

So, I want to upgrade my graphics card and I really want the best bang for my buck. My budget is around 150-170 dollars.

I have a Dell Optiplex 755, Core 2 Duo at 2.66GHz, 2GB of RAM, and a 550W Ultra PSU inside of an NZXT Source 210 Elite Midtower case.

I was thinking of the GTX 550, GTX 460, GTX 550 Ti, or the regular 560 OC'd version.

What do you guys think I should go with? Or maybe you guys have a better card in mind?

Thanks!

Reply to h2l

Also, I know this is the nVidia section, so sorry for this, but what about this card? Looks pretty badass: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] CatId=3669 Especially for the price too. The benchmark is pretty high, although not as high as the 560 Ti, but it seems like that Radeon has so many other features like Blu-Ray and what not. Even though I'll probably never put in a Blu-Ray player.

Reply to h2l

Yep that's a good one.

------------------------------ Dell Inspiron 546 MT - Athlon II X2 250 - HIS IceQ X HD6870 - 4GB DDR2 800 - 750GB Hitachi Deskstar - Antec Earthwatts EA-500D - Windows 7 Pro 32-bit - ASUS LED Monitor @ 1440x900
Reply to jessterman21

Personally I have a HD6870. It runs everything I throw at it at all High Settings. (Skyrim, Metro 2033, etc)

So I'd recommend the 6870.

But really.......2GB of RAM???? Do yourself a favor and upgrade to at least 4GB. Also a slight OC on your processor wouldn't hurt either.

EDIT: By the way. I am running at 1920x1080. Forgot to mention that.

Message edited by sardonicjester on 02-15-2012 at 10:54:54 PM

For that price range the Radeon HD 6870 is the card I would recommend. Its one of the better cards in a performance vs cost comparison that is still higher end. I am not sure if you would get the max out of that card or the cpu and ram will be a bottleneck.

Reply to xtremcarl

get the 6870 or 6850, both are much better priced than the nvidia card for the performance.

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Reply to esrever

lol I know guys i dont like the 2GB anymore then the next person but I have to work with what I got right? I will add more though within the next couple weeks. Right now I'm just trying to settle on a nice graphics card, and I might be going with the 6870. You guys think the 6870 will fit in that NZXT case?

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to h2l

h2l wrote :

lol I know guys i dont like the 2GB anymore then the next person but I have to work with what I got right? I will add more though within the next couple weeks. Right now I'm just trying to settle on a nice graphics card, and I might be going with the 6870. You guys think the 6870 will fit in that NZXT case?

Yea, RAM is cheap. 2Gb is about $25. It should definitely be your next focus.

I do not own that case, have never seen it in person, but by looking at pics online.....I would say that almost certainly it will fit.

The 6870 really isn't all that big, and that case looks like it has a fair amount of space.

If you are worried, measure your case and then compare it to the sizes listed online for a 6870.
(But I am pretty positive it will fit without a problem)

Yeah, it should fit, I just did what you said lol. I measured the dimensions of the card and there shouldn't be a problem. It's a Midtower case with some decent amount of space so it should be fine.

I think I'm going to purchase some RAM when I buy the Sapphire 6870 from Tigerdirect. Save on shipping costs and just do it. I know I'll be spending the same amount of money a week from now, so why not just group it together. I'll probably get two 2GB sticks though and add it to the system. Max is 8GB on this mobo, so 6GB should be more then enough. Won't even be running a 64bit OS but at least I'll have it incase I want to upgrade to a 64bit OS in the future.

Reply to h2l

if you have a hard drive in the lower slots, you may run into issues - but if not, the card will definitely fit.

------------------------------ Dell Inspiron 546 MT - Athlon II X2 250 - HIS IceQ X HD6870 - 4GB DDR2 800 - 750GB Hitachi Deskstar - Antec Earthwatts EA-500D - Windows 7 Pro 32-bit - ASUS LED Monitor @ 1440x900
Reply to jessterman21

I won't. I only have one 250GB HDD and I'm going to install it as far as possible from the motherboard to eliminate space issues.

Reply to h2l

it will fit your case, the 6850 (i prefer this over the 6870) but its your call, oh better get some more cash for the ram, as you won't be enjoying much with 2gb, i can assure you that ^_^, its better to enjoy both at the same time and a 2gb more ram shouldn't be expensive but if you can't afford one now there is always next time but also do check if they are available, and if they are (the one that is compatible with your pc) go grab it, since they might go out of stock/phase out soon but still not sure about it

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Reply to Tavo_Nova

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