help in upgrading video card

[raincastle]

hey guys and gals,

looking for some advice on upgrading my video card, my current rig is:

Phenom II x6 1100t Black Edition
Gtx 560 1gb
Asus M488TD-M-USB3.0
16gbs ddr 3
Windows 7 x64
Antek 750w
Inwin Dragon rider case

I'm mostly looking to play a handful of games on it such as skyrim, gta 5 and a few others, i know the cpu can handle them but the video card is gonna need an upgrade, I built this computer nearly 5 years ago and have not kept current with whats out there so i'm turning to the fine people of toms hardware to see if i can get a hand with the upgrade as i've been reading a lot of various issues with this cpu and certain video cards and so on. So what cards would you guys recommend getting? and i welcome any other tweaks or advice you can offer!

Before it gets mentioned, i realize that in order to get into the new games more i'm gonna have to upgrade my whole rig at some point but i just cant let this one die on me just yet lol

Also if anyone has any recommendations on a a really good SSD i will be grabbing one of them as well

thanks a lot for any and all advice and sorry if this is the wrong category

 

[hang-the-9]

Need a budget number and are you planning on getting it for long term use with maybe a CPU upgrade in a year or two or just to match your current CPU well and be cheaper?

 

[raincastle]

not really concerned about the budget but i'd say keep it under 500$, i'd like to get as much life out of my current rig as i can, still a world of games that i haven't played that i can use this rig for so i for long term use. currently i'm looking at a gtx 970 as a decent upgrade but i'd rather something better if possible. thanks

 

[hang-the-9]

not really concerned about the budget but i'd say keep it under 500$, i'd like to get as much life out of my current rig as i can, still a world of games that i haven't played that i can use this rig for so i for long term use. currently i'm looking at a gtx 970 as a decent upgrade but i'd rather something better if possible. thanks

Not much better than a GTX 970 to pick from, even a 970 will out-spec your CPU in many games. For $500 you can actually start building on a fully new system. To maximize your budget, you can go with a prior gen 1150 Intel board and an i5-4570 or similar spec CPU. That's under $300, leaves you $200 for a good mid-range video card. Or go with a higher $300 video card and save another $100 or so for the i5 board/CPU down the road.

Also keep in mind that there are plenty of people that would buy your existing motherboard and CPU combo, if you add that into the cost for the new platform, you can get a CPU/motherboard/video card set now and maybe still be under $500 you have to spend.

Do what I do also, run 3DMark on the system, note the scores, CPU and video card as well as the total. Then when you get the new platform, run it again, shows you exactly what you improved to.

 

[raincastle]

thanks for your answer, sticking with my current rig for now was all set to go buy the msi gtx 970 gaming 4gb today when i saw that the asus strix gtx 980ti is on for cheaper so now i have to do a bunch of research in the next 4 hours and see which i want