Considering new video card, need suggestions

Hi. I've built a new PC and am just about done. Just need to install the O/S (Will have W7 Ultimate 64-bit + Linux Ubuntu.) and I'm go. I put in a 2yr old vid card in there, but considering that there is sales galore going on I think I wanna upgrade it:

Specs:
ASUS P6t LGA1300
6GB Crucial DDR3
i7 920 CPU
1TB HDD, 500GB HDD
1000w Corsair PSU
7 cooling fans
Thermaltake v1000 series blue chassis


I know the card I have is laughable with the hardware I've put in there already. I'm not an ultra PC gamer, but I want something that will work well with my system and have high FPS. I do want to watch movies on it, and I will be playing some games (just not WoW lol). Basically I don't want lagging to happen when I put so much work in it already. I was looking at Tom's site for benchmarking but I'm having issues deciding. Looking in the max $150s range for price. Thanks!

 

And, to add: if I'm not mistaken, the P6T supports both CrossFireX and SLI, along with PCIe 2.0. Gives you a lot of flexibility for future expansion.

 

Thanks I know my question seems silly when you look at what I've got but it's my first build and I really don't know enough about how to choose vid cards. I just don't have enough experience... I like Nvidia too. It came on my Lenovo laptop, but that thing isn't my new rig lol. I'll check those out.

Yes you are correct. I looked into that MB A LOT before I bought it because I had that thought in mind for easy upgrades. It's got a lot of perks. I'll let everyone know how everything runs once I set it up. Should happen by the end of this week. I just have to liberate my current PC of one of its DVD-roms

 

nVidia is nice, but there is just one problem. It likes to take over everything it seems.

ATI is an old standby for me. Just a thought.

 

With some of our programs here at work, we've had some problems in the past with our third monitor adapters not working well with nVidia. Basically if nVidia didn't recognize the input device it would display all weird. We would try to modify things in Windows display settings only to be forced to use nVidias.

 

lol, the other choices were extremely easy. I knew exactly what I wanted. And I did spend a small fortune but now I'm set for a good run. Vid cards, like you said...there's a lot of them. I did some more reading up on them since my last post and I have a better understanding, so I'm most likely going to go over my $150max.

Right now I'm looking at Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 or 470. Is 470 worth the extra bucks though? =/ Sooo many choices lol!

 

The GTX470 is the best "bang for buck" card on the market today.

Nvidia have just released the GTX580 and it has really great reviews but it come at a price $480 to $590 depending on where you find one.

 

You said you looked at Toms Hardware, did you notice their article, Best Graphics Cards For The Money: November 2010?

 

If you can afford another $20-$30 an ATI HD6850 1Gb card (currently about $180) is a good choice as well. I just put one in my HTPC to play games on our big screen and it handles everything just as well the HD5850 in my main rig and at $50-$80 less than a 5850 goes for.

Sam

 

Thanks for the input & I saw that the other day. Considering that one costs half the amount of my total new system, I didn't even bother reading about it lol! :-D

Thank you! I've been coming around to your assessment over the last few days of looking at vid cards. Especially considering that I'm more of a console than a PC gamer. Then again, there are some Xbox titles that have caught my attention

Yep. I did come across it. That's where my 2 choices came from. Thank you though!

Oh I can afford it. I just don't want to spend a lot of money on something that might not be worth getting. I'll look into the ATI you suggested as well. I'm probably not going to make a decision until the end of the month. But I will be getting a new vid card. The fact that the one I have is the ONLY old thing in my machine besides the chassis itself bothers the heck out of me.

See...this is why I put forth the question. I was looking at Tom's Hardware's benchmarking. The only thing I understood clearly was higher fps = better card. Well that's a lie because I also understood power consumption. But the rest was pretty confusing for me. Now after reading for several days, I'm getting what you guys have all been saying. I feel loved That said, you have convinced me to look at the 470 more strongly.

 

Hey all, just an update for you since thanks to you my new build is now working in harmony!!

I ended up getting EVGA's Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 758MB Overclocked graphics card. I got it today and after a little confusion (on my part) about how to get power to it was cleared up by awesome tech support, I can proudly report that I've installed it! I've already tested it out a bit and let me tell you, I'm really satisfied.

Just wanted to say thanks for all of your input and helpful advice!!

 

Good job! Glad you you're in Gamer Heaven now, and thanks for the feedback. :major

 

Lol. I just need a list of games to play. I'm staying up reallllyyy late tonight to try to grab a DVI monitor, so I'm going to need some good stuff to stick my mitts on. Rec's? Anything for Xbox or PC because I have Wii and PS3 and refuse to play their games on PC. :-D

 

Head on over to the Games forum, especially this thread - I'm sure Mimsy, Ned, Rikky, etc. will recommend to your (and their) heart's content.

 

lol Thank you for the redirect