Need help choosing a graphics card and appropriate PSU

[FourMomo]

I want to upgrade my graphics card in order to run games at a higher quality/performance but I am a pretty big novice when it comes to upgrading a computer. From what I understand, I need an appropriate graphics card as well a better power supply unit for a better card. Any help or suggestions on where to begin or what to buy? My current specs

Hardware

Base processor

Phenom II X4-830 (D) 2.8 GHz (95W)
5200 MT/s (mega transfers/second)
Socket AM3
Chipset

AMD 760G
Motherboard

Manufacturer: Foxconn
Motherboard Name: H-Alpinia-RS780L-uATX
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Alpinia-GL8
Power supply

250W
Memory

Component Attributes
Memory Installed 6 GB
Maximum allowed 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) (64-bit OS)

4 GB* (4 x 1 GB) (32-bit OS)

*Actual available memory may be less
Speed supported PC3-10600 MB/sec
Type 240 pin, DDR3
Hard drive

750 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec)
7200 rpm

 

[sammyssb]

What is your price range? remember it will include the graphics card and power supply. Also what kind of performance do you want and in what games?

 

[FourMomo]

What is your price range? remember it will include the graphics card and power supply. Also what kind of performance do you want and in what games?

My price range is 200-300 and for performance, as of right now, I run most games usually with the lowest possible settings, I want to be able to reach medium or high settings on most games, high frames and all that jazz

 

[sammyssb]

this GTX 660 should do very well http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-TechBargains&cm_mmc=AFC-TechBargains-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA&Item=N82E16814127685

and also you going to want to grab a new power supply, how about http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341017

now the only thing is that your motherboard only has a PCI E 16X slot so it won't be able to run to it's full potential unless you get a new motherboard. If you want i could find the fastest GPU that will not be bottlenecked by a PCI E 1.0 slot but if you are willing to do a motherboard change down the line a little bit that would be even better

 

[sammyssb]

honestly you won't get that GPU's full potential unless you also upgrade your processor and motherboard. Would you prefer to save some money and get a less expensive GPU that will give you the same performance with your current processor and motherboard for less money?

 

[FourMomo]

honestly you won't get that GPU's full potential unless you also upgrade your processor and motherboard. Would you prefer to save some money and get a less expensive GPU that will give you the same performance with your current processor and motherboard for less money?

I want to avoid upgrading my processor and motherboard for now, I only recently found out that I needed to upgrade my PSU to even consider a higher end graphics card; what would keep me from using this card? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7607069&Sku=A455-0658

 

[sammyssb]

that card would be fine! i was going with maximum performance for your budget. But that card would work very well, you would need to get a new power supply. If your going to go with that card grab one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023 good price for a good power supply

 

[FourMomo]

that card would be fine! i was going with maximum performance for your budget. But that card would work very well, you would need to get a new power supply. If your going to go with that card grab one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023 good price for a good power supply

Ah I see, you have been very helpful, thank you!

 

[sammyssb]

that card would be fine! i was going with maximum performance for your budget. But that card would work very well, you would need to get a new power supply. If your going to go with that card grab one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023 good price for a good power supply

Ah I see, you have been very helpful, thank you!

Of course! and i should mention if you are installing these you should watch some tutorials on youtube. They can really help a lot

 

[FourMomo]

So the PSU you suggested is on newegg but the card I found was on tiger direct, to make things convenient, I tried looking for the card on newegg, is this it? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121714 Either way, thank you so much for your time

 

[sammyssb]

So the PSU you suggested is on newegg but the card I found was on tiger direct, to make things convenient, I tried looking for the card on newegg, is this it? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121714 Either way, thank you so much for your time

oh it's no problem! That is the same type of card (GTX650 from asus) but that one is actually a bit better because it has 2GB of dedicated V-RAM. This will allow for better performance and it's only $15 more than the previous one you had selected on tigerdirect, Also the one on newegg comes with a $75 value game coupon so that's a good deal. So it isn't exactly the same card, the one on newegg is a bit better, so get that one.

 

[FourMomo]

So the PSU you suggested is on newegg but the card I found was on tiger direct, to make things convenient, I tried looking for the card on newegg, is this it? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121714 Either way, thank you so much for your time

oh it's no problem! That is the same type of card (GTX650 from asus) but that one is actually a bit better because it has 2GB of dedicated V-RAM. This will allow for better performance and it's only $15 more than the previous one you had selected on tigerdirect, Also the one on newegg comes with a $75 value game coupon so that's a good deal. So it isn't exactly the same card, the one on newegg is a bit better, so get that one.

For someone who is not very computer savvy, you have been a tremendous help, thank you again, and some videos would help lol

 

[sammyssb]

So the PSU you suggested is on newegg but the card I found was on tiger direct, to make things convenient, I tried looking for the card on newegg, is this it? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121714 Either way, thank you so much for your time

oh it's no problem! That is the same type of card (GTX650 from asus) but that one is actually a bit better because it has 2GB of dedicated V-RAM. This will allow for better performance and it's only $15 more than the previous one you had selected on tigerdirect, Also the one on newegg comes with a $75 value game coupon so that's a good deal. So it isn't exactly the same card, the one on newegg is a bit better, so get that one.

For someone who is not very computer savvy, you have been a tremendous help, thank you again, and some videos would help lol

i love helping with this type of stuff and if you need anything else feel free to shoot me a personal message!

a great tutorial i would suggest (this is the second part which has the part on connections from the power supply but check out the others too if you are interested) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oUgvGpkjiI

 

[FourMomo]

So the PSU you suggested is on newegg but the card I found was on tiger direct, to make things convenient, I tried looking for the card on newegg, is this it? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121714 Either way, thank you so much for your time

oh it's no problem! That is the same type of card (GTX650 from asus) but that one is actually a bit better because it has 2GB of dedicated V-RAM. This will allow for better performance and it's only $15 more than the previous one you had selected on tigerdirect, Also the one on newegg comes with a $75 value game coupon so that's a good deal. So it isn't exactly the same card, the one on newegg is a bit better, so get that one.

For someone who is not very computer savvy, you have been a tremendous help, thank you again, and some videos would help lol

i love helping with this type of stuff and if you need anything else feel free to shoot me a personal message!

a great tutorial i would suggest (this is the second part which has the part on connections from the power supply but check out the others too if you are interested) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oUgvGpkjiI

Will do, another question though, do I have to take out my original graphics card to use the new one? Or would I just install into a different slot?

 

[sammyssb]

So the PSU you suggested is on newegg but the card I found was on tiger direct, to make things convenient, I tried looking for the card on newegg, is this it? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121714 Either way, thank you so much for your time

oh it's no problem! That is the same type of card (GTX650 from asus) but that one is actually a bit better because it has 2GB of dedicated V-RAM. This will allow for better performance and it's only $15 more than the previous one you had selected on tigerdirect, Also the one on newegg comes with a $75 value game coupon so that's a good deal. So it isn't exactly the same card, the one on newegg is a bit better, so get that one.

For someone who is not very computer savvy, you have been a tremendous help, thank you again, and some videos would help lol

i love helping with this type of stuff and if you need anything else feel free to shoot me a personal message!

a great tutorial i would suggest (this is the second part which has the part on connections from the power supply but check out the others too if you are interested) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oUgvGpkjiI

Will do, another question though, do I have to take out my original graphics card to use the new one? Or would I just install into a different slot?

you're going to have to take that one out and use the same slot that it was in