Which GPU can I upgrade from GTX 550Ti?

Strathos

Honorable
Sep 30, 2012
31
0
10,530
Hiya folks

Like many people who suffer from similar problems from time to time, over the last few days the "kernel driver stopped working" and "video hardware error" has been getting progressively worse. There were plenty of blue and black screens. It reached a point that it wouldn't load after the windows logo at startup. If it did load, everything was VERY slow and sluggish - totally out of character. At first I wasn't sure what the problem was. I tried formatting the PC, upgraded it to windows 10, got latest drivers etc, but none of it helped.

I managed to access the PC via Safe Mode and I uninstalled the drivers for my graphics card. The system was running on very basic video hardware - and suddenly all the problems vanished. I took my GPU out and fitted my monitor into the onboard graphics slot (Intel HD 3000) and again, no problems. I think I can safely say that the problem was the GPU. So, I am thinking of upgrading it to a newer one. These are my system stats:

PSU: TX 650 M (I'm not sure about wattage or voltage etc)
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K @ 3.40GHz 3.40GHz
RAM: 8GB
System: Windows 10 64-bit
OLD GPU: gtx 550 Ti - (PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot)

After seeing these stats and my problem, firstly would you agree that the problem was the GPU? And secondly, what card would you advise as a replacement? When I type in any random card into a search engine it produces many different looking ones with different codes. I don't want to end up with one that isn't compatible with my system. Thank you very much for your time and help!

Kind regards
 
Solution
If you have the money, why not get a gtx970? It goes great with a 2600K

960 and 950 will also be great, both at least twice as good as the 550

Strathos

Honorable
Sep 30, 2012
31
0
10,530
Hiya

Thank you for replying :).

Will either of those cards be ok with the PSU I mentioned? Also, my board is a PCI-e 2.0 - the cards you mentioned are 3.0. What effect will that have? I have heard that they can be interchanged but you will lose some of the utility of a good card in a 2.0 slot. I don't want to buy a card that will run at 70% efficiency because it's in a lesser slot than it should be in if you get me :).

Also, my monitor has a VGA end to it. Will that be a problem?