6950 Sapphire 2gb (40$)

[synario]

I saw this guy selling 2x 6950's on craigslist for 40 dollars each.

Considering I only have about 80 dollars in cash and I need to buy some gas, this seems like a great deal.

Right now I have an inspiron 650, 4gb of ram, i3 2100. How much of an improvement will I see over my 650? 2x as powerful, 3x as powreful?

How does the 6950 compare to a card like a R9 270, in gaming?

I have an antec bronze 80+ 550w PSU

is a 6950 similar to a GTX 660 or noticeably worse?

 

[ChronoAM]

Definitely not going to be 2x or 3x as powerful. You'd be looking at closer to a 50% frames per second increase in gaming. Also you'll need to make sure that you have 2 6 pin pci-e connectors available to run from your psu to the new graphics card.

To answer your other question, the 660 will be about the same step up from the 6950 as it is from the 650. About 50% frames increase.

 

[rowdymoody]

I am assuming that your dell inspiron 650 does not already have a dedicated graphics card installed. Under that assumption, the performance gain you get from the 6950 will be quite substantial.

Both the r9 270 and gtx 660 are considerably faster than the 6950.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-270-vs-Radeon-HD-6950
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-6950-vs-GeForce-GTX-660

Combined with the processor you have, the 6950 would be a good card for playing some older titles, but will struggle immensely if you try playing new releases.