EVGA Geforce GTX550ti Superclocked, 1GB GDDR5

[Azmodaeius]

Hi, I have an AMD Phenom 9600 quad-core processor 2.3 GHz, 7.00GB of RAM, on a 64-bit operating system, Windows 7, 875GB of storage, with an existing NVIDIA Geforce 9800 GT. I'm not HEAVY into gaming, but I do play games such as D3, RIFT, Neverwinter Nights, Sims 3, Global Agenda, TERA, WoW, Battlefield 2142...basically MMORPG's with a more recent being only Battlefield 3. What I want to do is upgrade my graphics card to an EVGA GeForce GTX 550ti Superclocked and want to know if this is a smart idea. I'm not a hardware tech and know very little, I'm trying to educate myself but it's difficult to compare against as the 9800 GT I'm running is kind of outdated. I'm not looking to upgrade my CPU for a while and when I do, I'm sure it will be a complete overhaul, or at the very least and upgrade to an i-3 card. I'm not looking for Battlefield on ultra-high graphics, I'm just looking to upgrade the graphics of my MMO games as they all look quite pix-elated, and quite edgy. Right now, my budget is VERY slim as I'm selling old consoles and stuff I don't use and putting THAT fund into our computer as an upgrade for me and my wife. Right now, I'm open to about 150ish, but not much more. I can get some mailed off tigerdirect for 146.99...is it worth my money to get it, or is there a more cost-effective one I can get? Like I mentioned before, I'm not after anything high-end, I'm just looking for an upgrade I can carry over at the cheapest price I can get.

 

[rolli59]

That would be about the max card to pair with your CPU so I say go for it.

 

[Azmodaeius]

Really? That's not EXACTLY what I was thinking, but I spent a few hours(till around 2 AM) reading up on different cards and I thought it would be a substantial upgrade, but I didn't know if it would be pushing it, too much, or not even worth it. With all the upgrades coming out, it's hard to keep track of what's new, what's old, what's in and what's out...you know?

But that's cool. I'll read up on it some more and see what I can do. It's not that I can't or don't want THAT PARTICULAR one, I'm just on the bar with this and with a Zotac GeForce 560 GTX. I'm not sure which is better, but that Zotac is being sold for $125.00 CAD off a guy who upgraded to a better one for his system. So, it's 125 for 560 GTX or 150 for a 550 GTX. LOL

 

[Azmodaeius]

I suppose it's worth mentioning that the EVGA GeForce 550ti Superclocked is the middle priced of 3 models. There is a 550ti, 550ti superclocked BOTH are 1GB GDDR5, and then there is a 550ti 2GB GDDR5...out of those I chose the superclocked.

 

[Lutfij]

check out this chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

can we have the links please to all your cards?

CPU : AMD Phenom 9600
Mobo : ?
RAM : how on earth is it 7GB's?!?!
HDD : 875GB how many drives?
PSU: make and model?
case: make and model?
monitor: model make and gaming resolution you run

according to the above survey, we can prescribe a GPU for you.