Looking to change/upgrade my GeForce 9800 GT

[smajatz]

Hello friends,

Here is my current rig:
Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2
AMD Phenom X4 9850 BE
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT (512 MB)
2x G Skill F2-6400CL5-2GBNT 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM
HD WDC WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 ATA Device
Thermaltake TR2 RX 450W

I'm looking to upgrade my graphics card with something more current, yet not too expensive. My aim is to spend around $100-$160. Even though I'm satisfied with my current one, I think it's time to move on as I've had it for about 5 years now.

I've been going through this review list:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

And from my stand point, these three cards are the ones that are the closest to what I can afford:
Svga PCI Asus HD7770-1GD5 (can get it new for ~$140)
SVGA PCI VTX R7 250 1GBD5-HXE (~$134)
Svga PCI Asus GTX650-E-1GD5 (~$150)

Any thoughts on the mentioned cards, and which way would you lean to? Also keep in mind that I would rather NOT change my PSU and instead opt for a somewhat weaker card to compensate.

Ideas?

Thanks!

 

[rolandzhang3]

Your CPU is a tad outdated, but you could look towards the new GTX 750 and 750 Ti cards, extremely low power consumption and more than twice as powerful as the GTX 650

If your budget is fairly tight and you're living with higher prices outside the US, the 750 would probably be a better bet than any of those cards

That being said, the 7770 is the better card out of those three options, 7770>650>r7 250

 

[smajatz]

@rolandzhang3

Well, the CPU is a recent upgrade from Athlon X2 5200+, so I think I'm good for now.

As far as the budget goes... I can overextend by $10-$30 or more if the purchase is worth it, but I'm still looking to keep it within the already mentioned limits if possible. GTX 750 are not available in my town, I could go and order them on ebay or amazon (if I can find one) but would prefer to stick to a local shop because of warranties and RMAs.

Thank you for your response. I'll keep it noted.

 

[rolandzhang3]

Ah that makes sense then, the 7770 would be the best value in that case