Ok. So Christmas time has come and I am going to be asking for a new GFX card, but I dunno which one to get.

What I want is:[/u]

To be able to play future games on the highest settings, or at least high settings. Games like Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3.

What I have is:[/u]

One available PCI X slot, the card cannot be a dual slot card.
535 W Power Supply, which should be more than sufficient.

The rest of my computer is pro, so I should be good. Quad Core and 8 GB of RAM, etc etc.

I'd like, if you can, three choices of the best cards that meet what I want and what I have.

Also, I would estimate the budget to be no more than 450-500 Canadian Dollars.[/u] I'm fully aware that I might not be able to get what I want (crysis 2 in high gfx, etc), but the best possible candidates are very much appreciated.

Thanks alot

Im sure you mean PCI-E, there is a PCI-X slot but its generally only used on server motherboards and very few graphics cards were ever made to use it.

Whats your current card?

Single slot and massively powerful is actaully a tough combination to come by. You sure you cant make room for a dual slot cooler? I'll have to look but the most powerful single slot card I know offhand is an XFX 5770. Which isnt going to maxout future games, but will probably get the job done for most.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150501 = XFX 5770

If you can go dual slot, take a look at the 6870. It was just released and is probably the most powerful card you could use without replacing your power supply.

The HD6000 series just came out, a 6850 might be a wee bit faster then a 5770, but I would still recommend a 5770.
E:Oh single slot, Triscuit has your solution then.

Heh, I was editing while you posted. The 6850/6870 would be a great choice, except I think they are all using the dual slot reference cooler right now.

Would you be able to educate me on what exactly this Cooler thing is?

All I can tell you is that while there is a ton of room inside my computer for a large graphics card, there is only one PCI Express slot available for a graphics card to go into. I am unsure what else you need.

Currently I have a nice little piece of **** ATI 4350.

6850 is a little < 5850 and 6870 is > 5850 and more or less on par with 5870 (a little bit less powerful), but both are cheaper than their 58xx counterparts. The 68xx series is actually midrange now; AMD switched up their naming so that x7xx is low-end x8xx is midrange, and x9xx is high-end (as opposed to the old x6xx < x7xx < x8xx naming)

It only uses one slot, but two case ports for the cooler. Look at the pictures.

Look at any pictures of the cards, it's a large peice of plastic covering most the board with heat sink and fan.

I'm trying to see what pictures you're getting me to look at. I am not too fluent in these areas.

However, am I understanding correctly that basically, when you purchase a card that has a Dual Slot Cooler (i.e 6870 or any card with one), instead of it taking up 2 PCI Express slots, it is just a single slot card that's massively larger and thus you need a larger case to accommodate? Or am I missing something?

It's not massively larger, but it's double wide.

Note that it only has one PCI-E interface, but the cooler takes two slots on the back of a case.
E: Provided as an example, a 6870/50 would be the same.

Look at this image. It's a "dual slot card". Dual slots only refers to how much physical space the card takes up. There's only one PCI Express connector.

OH. I think I got it now. So all I need to do is have a large enough spot at the back of my PC Case that the monitor cables hook into, etc, as well as enough room to accommodate the width. Time for some measuring?

Holy god that one is gigantic, it's so loooong.

Tibby, I have a 260gtx and that thing is almost as long as the ATX motherboard is wide

Yep. That's a 5870. They're massive. The GTX 480 is a tiny bit longer even I think.

Here's what mine looks like in the case.

http://i520.photobucket.com/albums/w322/algerad/IMG_0130-1.jpg

wiring job from hell

thats what she sa...... ah forget it...

It's really not nearly as bad as it looks from a top-down picture (airflow isn't an issue at all), and I'm not anal enough to care about spending the time to pretty it up for the Internet.

Good job with the pictures.

Sup, Antec 300 case buddy. Does the restart button on yours work? I noticed recently mine doesn't, but the wiring to the mobo seems to work.

Umm, I think so? I can't honestly say though cause I don't know that I've ever really used it.

I never used it untill yesterday, when it didn't work and I spent a few hours trying to figure out what the ****, also: what board is that?
Nevermind, found the incredibly obvious model name.

Darth and I have almost identical twin computers

http://www.binarydemons.com/upload/files/d.jpg

Hah, almost.

Random question. Do either of your guys' cases have the cutout on the motherboard plate behind the processor socket? Mine doesn't, but I know someone else who has a 300 that does. Either way, it was a pain for me cause I got my cooler later, so I had to take the damn motherboard out to install it, whereas if that cutout was there, it'd have been much simpler.

Mine doesnt.

When I saw the price range I was thinking GTX 480 but I'm not sure how it fits in with your other requirements. I have it's little cousin, the GTX 460, and I have no trouble with the latest games maxed out. I'm not sure if your power supply if good enough to be honest, look into it.