Upgrading from the Geforce GT 220 to a good gaming card. Budget.

[slashercat]

I am trying to upgrade from my GT 220 to a good but not super expensive gaming card. I have the current pc specs:

AMD Athlon II X3 450 Processor
3.21 GHz
4GB Ram
Windows 7 Home (64-bit)
500 Watt Power supply

Any suggestions on how to go about upgrading would be awesome! Oh and my budget is 250$.

Edit: I want to be able to play some of the newer mmos like Neverwinter or Dragon's Prophet on higher resolutions. (On Dragon's Prophet i can barely run it on the lowest setting.)

Edit #2: Also if you have any suggestions for any other upgrades towards gaming like ram or cpu, that would help a lot as well!

 

[DarkSable]

For $250, you could afford a 7870 XT, which is an amazing card... that being said, it'll get bottlenecked by your CPU.

What's your motherboard? That'll tell us how easy it'll be to get you an upgrade.

 

[Xavier Tan Sync]

Your ram and cpu is good enough. Get this one. It would be over budget but its okay if you spend more abit. Its really good and work super good with your current specs. http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-285

 

[wa1]

GT220 is not even a gaming card, going to GT240 or GTS250 will do big performance increase in your system, you might want to search them on eBay (if you want to save money and get used one). I think a single used GTS250 or HD4850 is more than enough.. on the save money way..

 

[DarkSable]

Your ram and cpu is good enough. Get this one. It would be over budget but its okay if you spend more abit. Its really good and work super good with your current specs. http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-285

Why get an old, hot, power hungry card over a new card that would outperform it? Or even better, a new quad core and still moderately better graphics card? Older graphics cards like the 200 series are going to be expensive. Heck, a 9800gt (GTS 250 equivalent) is $60, and about a quarter as powerful as a $90 7750.

 

[Xavier Tan Sync]

Your ram and cpu is good enough. Get this one. It would be over budget but its okay if you spend more abit. Its really good and work super good with your current specs. http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-285

Why get an old, hot, power hungry card over a new card that would outperform it? Or even better, a new quad core and still moderately better graphics card? Older graphics cards like the 200 series are going to be expensive. Heck, a 9800gt (GTS 250 equivalent) is $60, and about a quarter as powerful as a $90 7750.

well its just a suggestion, ( no offense )

 

[DarkSable]

No, I'm just saying, the older cards represent bad value now, unless you find one absolutely dirt cheap.

 

[Xavier Tan Sync]

No, I'm just saying, the older cards represent bad value now, unless you find one absolutely dirt cheap.

hmm okays, i will do more research and thanks for the advice.

 

[slashercat]

For $250, you could afford a 7870 XT, which is an amazing card... that being said, it'll get bottlenecked by your CPU.

What's your motherboard? That'll tell us how easy it'll be to get you an upgrade.

To be honest i really cant figure out how to know what my motherboard is.
I have tried Everest and it just says Unknown for the motherboard.
I know that it is 2+ years old.

 

[notea]

Your ram and cpu is good enough. Get this one. It would be over budget but its okay if you spend more abit. Its really good and work super good with your current specs. http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-285

why would you recommend a GPU thats obsolete, and doesnt even support DX11??
@OP, id suggest you upgrade your PSU, Mobo and CPU, (PSU depending on what rating it is and if its a generic one, the sooner the better), your AMD CPU will severely bottleneck current generation cards @ the $250 price bracket
here's a comparison from anandtech - Athlon II x3 450 vs Intel Core i3 2100

id suggest getting a phenom II X4 or X6 (both are socket AM3 which your motherboard will support) and then get the new GPU - a AMD 7870 XT or a GTX 660Ti , personally, i'd go for the AMD 7870XT as it is cheaper and performing almost similar to the 660Ti

 

[slashercat]

Your ram and cpu is good enough. Get this one. It would be over budget but its okay if you spend more abit. Its really good and work super good with your current specs. http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-285

why would you recommend a GPU thats obsolete, and doesnt even support DX11??
@OP, id suggest you upgrade your PSU, Mobo and CPU, (PSU depending on what rating it is and if its a generic one, the sooner the better), your AMD CPU will severely bottleneck current generation cards @ the $250 price bracket
here's a comparison from anandtech - Athlon II x3 450 vs Intel Core i3 2100

id suggest getting a phenom II X4 or X6 (both are socket AM3 which your motherboard will support) and then get the new GPU - a AMD 7870 XT or a GTX 660Ti , personally, i'd go for the AMD 7870XT as it is cheaper and performing almost similar to the 660Ti

I COMPLETELY forgot that I was going to actually plan on getting a Phenom II X4 a while ago, Plus I am liking the 7870XT. What wattage would you recommend in PSU that could handle these?

Edit: Since i really don't know anything about my current mobo is it safe to go for the x6? (When I brought it into my local computer shop they said i could upgrade to a 4-core, but this was like almost a year and a half ago.) I just wanted to know if it could go 6 cores with no problem

 

[slashercat]

I tried using CPU-Z to find out my motherboard and it came up with a MSI MS-7309

 

[DarkSable]

That doesn't seem right- when I google it, I get an FM2 motherboard, which is both modern and doesn't support your CPU.

That being said, if your motherboard is AM3 or AM3+, it'll support a Phenom II x6 just fine - any motherboard that supports the X4 will support the X6.

 

[notea]

I tried using CPU-Z to find out my motherboard and it came up with a MSI MS-7309

im not really sure what chipset it is.. might not support AM3 if its the same board as this http://www.msi.com/product/mb/K9N6SGM-V---K9N6PGM-FI---K9N6PGM-F.html#/?div=Detail

EDIT: list of supported CPUs
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-MSI/K9N6PGM2-V_(MS-7309).html

So, you can upgrade the CPU to a phenom II X4 (AM2+)

 

[slashercat]

That doesn't seem right- when I google it, I get an FM2 motherboard, which is both modern and doesn't support your CPU.

That being said, if your motherboard is AM3 or AM3+, it'll support a Phenom II x6 just fine - any motherboard that supports the X4 will support the X6.

Ok thanks, yeah that is not my motherboard because if it could not support AM3, then why am I using a AM3 chip at the moment...

 

[notea]

if this is the same as your board.. then you can upgrade it till X6 (socket AM2+)

http://us.msi.com/product/mb/K9N6PGM2-V2.html#/?div=CPUSupport