7900gs to gts 250 on E6600 cpu or other card?

[thebighat99]

Hi All,

I would like to upgrade my Graphics Card and I have read and searched. But I am still a little confused on some things. Most likely I will be buying from bestbuy because I have a gift certificate, spending from 100 to 150 dollars. I will NOT be updating power supply, mother board or processor. I hope you all will be able to help me decide on a card that will not choke the front side buss or suck my power supply dry.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Next two weeks BUDGET RANGE: $100-$150 BEFOR Rebates

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming Half life 2, Day of Defeat source, tropico 3, bioshock, Doom 3, Sim City, Editing and watching video, Editing recording music, DVD, general computing. Really would like to update to DirectX 10.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: Enermax FMA II 535W Model EG565p-VE

EVGA 7900gs 256-P2-N622 256-bit 450mhz clock, 256mb 660mhz GDDR3 memory PCI Express x16.

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:

OS: Vista

CPU: (Sckt775) Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 CPU @2.4GHz 1066FSB 2x2MB L2 Cashe EM64T

Motherboard: MSI P6N SLI-FI nForce 650i SLI Chipset LGA775

Memory Ram: 3GB DDR2/800 Dual Channel Corsair XMS2

Hard drive: 320GB SATA 7200RPM and 80GB SATA 7200RPM

FLashmedia: 12in1 flash media reader

DVD: Sony Q170A 18x Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-R+CD-R/RW

Case: Sigma Gamming Orca Mid-Tower.

Cooling: stock cooling small fan on side, large Fan in back,

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com if the price is a lot better maybe But most likely I have to get from BestBuy.com I have a gift certificate COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

PARTS PREFERENCES: I prefer NVIDIA probably EVGA Geforce. I was thinking about

NVIDIA EVGA - GeForce GTS 250 1GB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card bestbuy $129.00

EVGA - GeForce GTS 250 512MB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card Bestbuy $144.00

or maybe if I have to GeForce GT.

I am open to all most any graphics card that has good general review. That will run the best on my system.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe Some day, SLI

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680x1050

I have already looked on this form and found where it said my power supply could handle the gtx 250 but it seems like everyone’s system is a little deferent and I am confused about witch 250 to get if I can because the 250 512mb card cost more than 1gb model. Lots of people have said the gtx 250 1gb card has noisy fan and it does not seem to have as good of rating as the 250 512mb. I also don’t know if my mobo can take these cards.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Your motherboard will be fine and the reason the 512MB card costs more is because it's an OC'd version.

 

[wh3resmycar]

cant you stretch your budget a little and get this? >>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500160&cm_re=gtx260-_-14-500-160-_-Product

if not, i'd get the 1gb version. overclocking a gts 250 is a pretty easy task.

 

[thebighat99]

I did look at the 260 but when I saw it needed a PSU with a minim of 500W 36 amps and my PSU is 535W with only total of 34 amps I dint think the 260 would work very well. You can see my power supply sticker buy clicking on then name of the power supply above.

Yes I am thinking you’re probably right about getting the one that’s not over clocked. I wish it had the similar cooling setup as the over clocked one where it sends the air out the back of the case.

 

[thebighat99]

I did end up getting the gtx 250 1gb card. It was not noisy at all. The only thing was the fan speed is not adjustable. Wish I could have got the 260 but it was too big for my case anyway.

Thanks all

 

[nforce4max]

cant you stretch your budget a little and get this? >>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500160&cm_re=gtx260-_-14-500-160-_-Product

if not, i'd get the 1gb version. overclocking a gts 250 is a pretty easy task.

Read the first post. He has a cirt from Bestbuy.


1Gb is the best option and is better off than having to upgrade the card due to future minimum requirements.

 

[thebighat99]

Best answer selected by thebighat99.