Advice on replacing GPU on older rig

[Axil]

Hey guys, my old faithful 8800gtx recently died on me. I quickly stole my wife's 8800gt but i'm going to have to return that soon, so i'm looking at my options. I'd like to spend $100-200.

Commence informational form.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE:

soon... if there's a good reason to wait a month, i could.

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT:

I play a lot of different games. EvE SWoTR, Starcraft II. I'd also like to play planetside 2 if i can get my fps up high enough.


CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY:

I have a thermaltake tough power 850w PSU. It has been around since 2007 though, and it pretty much runs all the time.
(current gpu was 8800gtx)

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:

cpu: q6600 overclocked to 2.7ghz

mobo:ASUS P5N32-E SLI QUAD 680I 775

Ram: 4gb MUSHKIN 1G XP2-6400

All running on vistax64 Ultimate

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS:

I'm in the US and i prefer Amazon as i get free 2-day shipping. Put i'll buy from where ever.


PARTS PREFERENCES:

I tend have had better luck with Nvidia cards in the past, but i'm flexable here to.

OVERCLOCKING: sure

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: prefer single card if it makes sense.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680x1050


As i said I'm looking in the $100-200 range so looking at the "best GPU for the money thread" I'm considering the GTX650ti or Radeon HD 7850, both the 1-2gb versions are in my price range. Also looking at some other benchmarks i noticed the gtx 480 looked better than either of those cards and could be picked up for $200

My question is given my other hardware am i going to be able to utilize the potential of any of these cards? If both the GTX650TI and the more expensive cards will outperform my system i'd obviously rather go with something cheaper.

I appreciate the advice in advance,

~Axil

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... a used GTX 460 1GB, from EBAY $100 or less... with your current system.

 

[Soda-88]

7850 = 480 > 650Ti
Considering that, I'd get the 7850 knowing that the 8000 series won't be coming out until Q4/2013 which means there's going to be plenty more performance driver updates for 7850 for new games which can't be said for the 480.
Also 480 draws double the power of 7850.

 

[ARICH5]

yikes. a 5 year old thermaltake? i dunno buddy. i wouldnt do it. my opinion.

ya it sucks when the new games coming out say minimum requirements 8800gt.

personnaly im going to get the gtx 650ti. huge improvmnet. and bang for buck

 

[Axil]

no replacement at all really isn't an option as the 8800gt needs to go back in my wife's computer at some point.

Is the PSU really that much of a concern?

I'm not comfortable buying a used videocard. I'll probable upgrade the whole system in the next year or two, but i'd like at least some sort of support/warranty until then.

If i did go with a 7850, would i be losing a lot of it's performance to a bottleneck somewhere else? If not i'm leaning that way. With my current specs and a 1680x1050 res monitor, does the 2GB version make sense?

 

[Axil]

does it make more sense just to try and scrape together $500-600 for a brand new computer?

I don't guess that's going to get me any closer to being able to play planetside2 though.