Upgrading from an onboard ati radeon hd 4250 NEED HELP CHOOSING!!!

[gunkorn]

Alright, I'm new here and this is my first post and im in desperate need of assistance. Im looking to upgrade my on-board ATIradeon hd 4250 but i have no idea what i should get. My mobo only has PCIe 2.0 and im not sure3 if that's backwards compatible with PCIe 2.1 and I'm looking for a radeon card and i cant find any compatible with 2.0. Ill probably be buying sometime over the summer. Here are my pc specs:

-Cooler Master GX 750w power supply SLI ready
-AMD FX 4170 125w quad core processor @4.2 GHz
-Asus M5A88-V EVO Mobo with AM3+ socket and AMD 880g chipset (i would also like to know whether this is a good chipset or not but don't worry if you cant answer that)
-8 GB Gskill Ripjaws memory @1333 MHz
-Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2BAA 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
-WD Caviar Black 3.5" 1TB HDD 7200 RPM
Samsung SyncMaster S23B550 23" LED monitor 1920 x 1080 resolution
-Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit

I need a good card for playing Shogun 2 total war on full graphics settings.
I might overclock and possibly SLI but I'm not too knowledgeable about SLI and not sure if my mobo supports it.
I'd prefer something from Newegg but its not mandatory its just that i only have an account there.
I NEED SOMETHING NO GREATER THAN USD $225!!!!!!!! (Ill be lenient if its maybe a few bucks more)
I would also prefer a lifetime warranty but that's not as important as the price and the following preferred specs:

-NOT AN NVIDIA CARD
-Preferably has something better than stock cooling or is upgradeable
-has HDMIand VGA/DVI port but most importantly HDMI

THANKS IN ADVANCE TO ANYONE WHO SPENDS ANY TIME AT AL TRYING TO HELP ME!

 

[clutchc]

First, I don't believe that board will do SLI... just Crossfire. Also, with the 2nd PCIe slot at x4, I would advise against wasting your money on a second card. As far as the PCIe interface, all PCIe versions are backward compatible. So there is no concern there. There is nothing in your specs you listed that would limit you from getting any graphics card you desire. And $250 leaves you with a wide selection. Here is a Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart so you can compare the various cards:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

And here is a selection of AMD cards from Newegg in the $300 - $200 price range listed by 'Best Rating'.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600100181%204018&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=RATING&PageSize=20

You won't go wrong with any of those choices. Use the chart above to see where the cards fall in relation to each other. If you want someone to pick one out for you, I'll suggest this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102986

 

[_zxzxzx_]

All PCI-E cards are backwards compatible with PCI-E 2.0 or even 1.0. And by the way, SLI is nvidia only, Crossfire is ATi's equivalent. For your price there are some good nvidia cards but for ATi/AMD you're looking at the HD68xx.

Good deal here though for a HD 6950:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102987

XFX HD6870, can look around for some other brands as it doesn't really matter.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150563