New Video Card for GA-P55A-UD3

[girisking]

Hey folks,

I'm currently searching for a new video card to replace my Radeon 5770. It's been great, but it's time to up the fps!

I was thinking about picking up a Radeon 6950 or a Radeon 6870.
The one issue is, these cards have a PCIe 2.1 interface, and my GA-P55A-UD3 (specs here http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3439#sp) apparently "The PCIEX16 slot conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard. " I'm really not super super tech savvy, so are these cards completely out of the picture due to incompatibility?

I really do not want to change out my motherboard, so I'm trying to upgrade the peripherals.

I have a budget of $300 or less.

Any help would be great! Also, if there are other good cards that would be compatible with my mobo that you would suggest, please do so!

Thanks.

EDIT: I'm not sold to either AMD or geforce, but I would like the ability to hook up 2 monitors.

 

[dfusco]

I'm running 6870s in Xfire on mine. No problems at all.

 

[coozie7]

My MB is a P55 chipset, too and it's running a HD6950, no probs.
Where are you? What are the system specs? Exactly which powersupply is installed and what is your monitors resolution?
The 6xxx are fine cards but a little behind the times, the newer 7xxx offer better efficiency.
For your budget you can go a LONG way up the performance table.
Keep the 5770, spares are very handy for troubleshooting .

 

[girisking]

System Specs:

Processor: i7 860 @ 2.8Ghz
RAM: 4GB 2x2 @ 1333mhz (Also planning on upgrading to 4x2 soon)
Power Supply: Corsair 650TX (650 watts)

Video Card: Radeon HD 5770
Mobo: GA-P55A-UD3

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Thanks for the input so far! Lemme know if I should post anything else!

EDIT: oh, and coozie, don't worry I'll keep the 5770, I still have the stock RAM that came with my first laptop 8 years ago! =P

 

[jtenorj]

About the edit in your initial post, pretty much all modern graphics cards come with
at least 2 display outputs. With your budget, cpu and powersupply I have no trouble
suggesting either a gtx660ti or hd7950 to you. It would be good to know about the
case it'll be going in to make sure there's room between the back of the case and
the HDD bay(s). Also, what kind of games do you play? That can make an impact on
whether you will spend your whole budget or are able to get by with a less powerful
card. I do imagine you would like a combo of high/max settings and high fps, other-
wise you'd just turn down the settings on that HD5770.

I might mention that if future games become bottlenecked at all by your cpu, you can
alleviate that a lot by overclocking that i7. Nehalem c is well known to oc to 4ghz or
faster on a good air cooler by ramping the base clock speed. I suggest if you will be
upgrading your ram soon to go with 2x4GB of ddr3 1600. I think you can actually
find it cheaper than ddr3 1333 and it will allow you to raise your system bus speed
without the ram going way out of spec(also no need for drastic timing changes).

Oh wait , is that 300 canadian or 300 US? Where you live will have a bearing on the
price of components and the site(s) or store(s) you use to purchase them, what with
shipping, tax and all that. We may be better able to help you fine tune your selection
if we have a little more information. Oh yeah, could be 300 australian too. That would
make a bigger difference than canadian vs US.

 

[coozie7]

Off the top of my (slightly drunk ) head the only game where the 660Ti really outclasses the HD7950 is Starcraft II with AA enabled, otherwise they trade blows and come out pretty even.
Performance wise the HD6950 is below both, in some cases by a fair margin although it'll play just about every game out there at high or maximum settings smoothly.
You may have to extend the budget a bit the get either a HD7950 or 660Ti, though.
Overclocking is good!

 

[girisking]

I'm in Massachusetts, USA, though I generally buy from tiger direct or newegg. But yeah, 300 amur'kin dollars.

I don't plan to OC at all to be honest. I tend to prefer things at stock speeds for longevity's sake.

As for games I play, things like BF2, WoW, I own D3 (though playing it is another story), skyrim. I would like something that can contend with future games reasonably well. the 5770 is mid/high settings with reasonable framerate. I'm looking to top those off and then some.

My case is: Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
I love this case soo much

 

[jtenorj]

Right on. (amur'kin...lol)

I few days ago I read an article on techreport that showed processors such as yours
and the i5 750 still hold up pretty well@stock in current games as far as not bottlenecking
your gpu goes. I was also in error about the cost of ddr3 1333 vs 1600. I guess I
was looking for 1600 in regards to someone else's thread and on more examination
found 1333 is cheaper, but not by much. You can totally just add more of what you
have, or you could spend a few bucks more and get something that might be more
beneficial in a future build.

The antec 300 ain't a bad case, but it doesn't have quite as much room for really long
graphics cards as some cases that mount HDDs sideways. Just in case fit is an issue,
I would go with a gtx660ti. Here's a zotac card on amazon that is only 7.5in long and
costs 300 dollars shipped(tiger direct has it for that price but is currently out of stock).

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008VXYWV6/?tag=pcpapi-20

I've read a review of this card(I'd link the review but can't remember what site it was
on. Sorry bout that) and the dual fan heatsink quietly keeps the gpu cool.

 

[coozie7]

I'd grab that 660Ti quickly.