Looking to upgrade!

[Rickenheimer]

Hello!

I'm looking to upgrade my PC for better gaming performance, but I've been out of the loop for a bit on what's good lately (quite busy so I don't have as much time to scour the internet reading every review like I usually would), so I'm looking for help! I play pretty much all games, but I've been noticing that my PC is not performing as well as I'd like in newer titles.

Here are my specs:
Case: Corsair 300 R
Processor: Intel i5 3570
RAM: Kingston hyper-x 4GB X 2, 1600
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
GPU: MSI GTX 660
OS: Windows 7
SSD: Looking to buy
PS: Corsair 750TX V2
Monitor: Asus VS247H-P
HD: 2 TB

At the time of purchase I had a somewhat limited budget so I stayed mid-range for the most part but now I have some more money to play with for upgrades (~$500-700). I'm mainly looking to upgrade my GPU, add an SSD, and perhaps add a higher res. monitor at some point. I'm really limited to 1080 p at this point so I'm not sure if I need a crazy powerful GPU but I'd like something that'll stay a little more relevant over time and that can accommodate potentially higher resolutions in the future. As for SSD, I probably wouldn't be using it to store anything significant beyond the OS.

So any recommendations for GPU and SSD? Monitor would probably come later but I welcome recommendations there too (1440 is fine by me).

 

[Titillating]

For the GPU, I'd go with the GTX 970. Best price to performance ratio available, imo. It's on par with or better than the R9 290 and 290x on most 1080p benchmarks, maybe a few FPS behind on a few games, but when you're saving $200, it's worth it. ~$370 for the heavily factory overclocked cards, and should last you until we start approaching the end of the next generation of hardware hopefully.

For SSD, I like the Samsung EVO series. Pretty affordable, great performance. Haven't had much experience with other brands though, so there might be something better.