Best Video card upgrade for current mobo

[kaliboy818]

Hello,
I'm not knowledgeable enough. I want to upgrade from my current 8600 GT. Anyone know/recommend the best video card that is compatible with my mother board?

GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 / nForce 430 ATX AMD Motherboard
(PCI Express x 16 slot)

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2434#sp

 

[jyjjy]

It is your power supply and budget that will be more likely to limit what card you should/can get. Tell us that along with your processor and native resolution.

 

[kaliboy818]

Current processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor

Current PSU: A 500 watt unit that came with my RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP. ( I am willing to upgrade this )

Native resolution: 1920 x 1080. Other than everyday use, the only game I will play for now is StarCraft 2.

Budget: around $200 (for a video card)

I was initially looking at a GTX 460 but saw some comments that it doesn't work with my current board. I don't know anything about ATI cards, please reference your ATI recommendations to NVIDIA equivalent cards.

If my board can only take cards that are substantially lower than a GTX 460 level card, then I will probably move towards a building a new system built around a i5 750 and a GTX 460 level card. Budget for that is $800 to $1,000.

Thanks for your responses so far.

 

[Tamz_msc]

Whatever card you buy, you will be seriously bottlenecked by your current CPU while playing SC2.
http://www.techspot.com/review/305-starcraft2-performance/page13.html

 

[kaliboy818]

Thanks for your responses. [strike]I will go ahead and get a GTX460 and new PSU for now. A quad CPU will follow in a few weeks.[/strike]

EDIT: Blah with the slow upgrade. I decided to build a new system altogether.

 

[jyjjy]

Looking over the parts you picked out in that thread I would say you did a good job. I would recommend going with the SLI motherboard as the GTX 460 scales very well and it will be a good option to have as an upgrade path. The power supply you picked out can also handle two GTX 460s easily. Also for your resolution I would recommend going for the 1gb GTX 460.
If you really don't want the option of SLI in the future then you can save some money by downgrading the PSU a bit as it is overkill for that system with one card.
You don't really need the aftermarket CPU cooler and I actually do recommend overclocking. There is no reason not to and that processor OCs easily and well. Even on the stock cooler something in the 3.3-3.5ghz should be fine. Also if you do OC you can save a lil money by going for the i5-750 as it is the same processor with a slightly lower stock speed which is irrelevant once you OC.