I'm still running a 6600 GT on my i5 quad core - 4GB system. Would be nice have a decent video card to go with it so I can check out some newer games. What kind of cool new stuff would I be able to play on this and are there better alternatives for the money?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127441

Why not just splurge for a 5770, it's another 100 bux and a hell of a lot faster.
But, you don't look like you need pure power, so yes. buy it.

I'm on a budget, and for that price I wouldn't have a problem replacing it in a year if I magically get back into hard core PC gaming. With my current card I can't even try new games to find out if I want to get into it.

Do it, it's an alright card. Certainly leaps and bounds better then that 6600GT.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102834

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is only $10 more and a helluva lot better card if my memory serves.

A search reveals that you're right.

Similarly looking at new gfx cards.

Catches:

• Must Fit Single Slot PCIE
• Must fit Aging Dell 305w PSU
• Must be under $100
• Prefer No Extra Power Connectors

Keep in mind that my only real problem with my current 256MB 8600GTS is that it only has 256MB and games are really raping it with their GBs of ultra-res textures. I don't give a **** about how high detail I can set the shadows, I don't care about AA, and I don't give a flying **** about stupid huge resolutions.

Ouch, that's a pretty bad PSU. I don't think you are going to get anything better then that card with those constraints.

I always thought that the 8600 series were pretty weak, even in their day. Didn't add much on top of the preceding 7600GT at all. I think you ought to be able to find a decent upgrade in something more modern. If you're concerned about power consumption numbers this should tell you everything you want to know about any card you are considering. I would think that the ATI 5670 would be a good choice. The 512MB version is within your budget, the 1GB version is over it, but there isn't really a performance difference between the two (only at the very highest resolutions/detail settings which the card isn't suited to anyway). Hope you don't mind but I can't be bothered to trace any performance improvement numbers for you - certainly there are no direct comparisons between the 8600GTS and the 5670 because of the multi-generational gap. You could cobble an idea of relative performance together by looking at articles comparing performance of the 8600 to the 8800 then and other articles comparing the 5670 to the 9800 now (or something along those lines).

EDIT: Sod it.
8600 GTS vs 8800 GT
5670 vs 9800 GT/8800 GT (several pages of benchmarks) (also here)

On another note, a 5750 might even work in your PC, and be a lot faster, but as far as I know the dull-headed card makers have not released a single slot model (only thing I've heard about is a single-slot 5770 being tech demo'ed the other month by Powercolor, which would be taking things too far). Plus admittedly it'd blow the roof off your budget.

I'm actaully surprised the 305W you currently have adequately powers the 8600GTS. Go dell.

I think a 5670 is probably a good suggestion for both these guys. Might as well benefit from improved power consumption and DX11 support.

Certainly if Dash_Rendar can stretch his budget then the 5770 is ideal. Especially if his motherboard supports Crossfire (I'm too lazy to search for the other thread), since I would say 2x 5770's qualify as hardcore. If your trying to be really cheap right now EVGA has a sale on all their refurbished stuff - http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?switch=20 - 8800GTS 640mb = $49.

The 8600 has worked pretty well...except in a few more recent games:

ArmA2: Have had to wait for textures to load at times, decent playable FPS though.
GTA4: Relatively decent/playable FPS, even more textures go unloaded.
ETW: Some framerate issues but mostly playable, I blame the textures again (certainly can't be the AI)

I can actually run Crysis pretty well with decent settings now that they patched out that enormous snow/ice slowdown.

Keep in mind that I'm running all this @ 1280.

I really don't want to spend the money on the 5 series though even though I know I should...my own research has told me the 4650 or 4670 would probably work fine. It's like $80 or less depending on where you look.



Not even using the extra power connector. I'd have to disconnect my DVD drive to use it. I think it's less Dell and more overstated power requirements. I've even heard of 8800s being used on that PSU.

There is a pretty substantial difference between the 5670 and the 4670 - check those reviews I linked earlier. The Anandtech one shows you the difference between the 512MB 5670 and the 512MB 4670 while the Tomshardware one shows 512MB 5670 vs 1GB 4670. The 5670 beats them both by a fair bit. The main thing that puts the 5670 ahead, I reckon, is memory bandwidth - the 4670 actually has no more bandwidth than your current card, just more memory, while the 5670 has twice as much bandwidth. At 1280x1024 you don't need a 1GB framebuffer so the 512MB 5670 is suitable. It just seems to make more sense to get the 5670. It's better value for money - I am not too familiar with American shops but Newegg has 5670s at $89.99 with free shipping while 4670 is a little over $70 including shipping, depending on which model you choose. That price difference is smaller than the performance difference, and will help make sure you aren't spending $70+ just to almost stand still in performance (the memory bandwidth will matter at times, and 32GB/s in the case of the 4670 really isn't much nowadays).

On another note, I agree that graphics card makers do overestimate PSU requirements. I can understand why, of course!

At only about $10 more that could work...

Ok, I think I'm gonna pwn my budget and go with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/NewProduct.aspx?Item=N82E16814161338

Nice.

Ok, now I'd like to pwn my budget even more and go with this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333

Do you think my power supply can handle it?

i5 quad core
MSI micro ATX mobo
6 80mm case fans
3 SATA hard drives
1 optical
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI sound card
480 watt thermaltake PSU (5 years old but going strong)

I think that would be a risky move especially considering its age. Which model PSU is it, does it even have a 6 pin PCI-E cable? The GT460's require 2x 6pin connection. It's not like your other components are low power either- your running a quad.

So IMHO a bad idea.

Don't get HIS. They have a reputation for inconsistent quality.

Why do you need so many fans.
Why do you need a sound card.
That PSU will light on fire.
Go for an i5 750, I have one. Overlocked it to 3.0 on stock cooler with no heat increase.

HERE is a link to my power supply.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=n82e16817153007

I should also point out that I have a 24 inch monitor, 1920x1080, with a 1280x1024 secondary monitor next to it and I want to play Crysis and Flight Sim X. This is why i'm expanding my budget so much, realizing that the cards I was discussing towards the top of this thread might not cut it. But now that it looks like I'm going to have to upgrade my PSU as well.....ugh.

A good PSU isn't that expensive, I've used the same one for 4 years I got for 100 bux.
600 watt too, and quiet.
But again, I'm curious. Why do you need so many fans and a sound card?

Crysis and FSX are both designed to make PC's cry. Sounds like you decided to jump into highend pc gaming. Your current PSU might be able to handle a 5770, for anything beefier you will need to upgrade.

You don't need a dedicated sound card.

I actually don't have a sound card installed right now, but i have one sitting on my desk that i was planning on installing to see if it made my volume any louder. The volume on my new system sucks, everything is 100% including the volume wheel on my headphones and its barely loud enough. My XP system would hurt my ears under the same conditions.

The 6 fans are there because I used to keep my PC in a bedroom that reached 95 degrees in the summer, but I've since moved it out of there and installed a switch that turns off 4 of the 6 fans when i don't feel i need them. Maybe not necessary, but I'll usually turn them on if I enter a game or something.