looking for a new gaming graphics card for a i7 950 system.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I recently did some work for a guy here in town. He brought over his system because he bought a new CPU and new motherboard and needed help putting them in. For my services, instead of money he just gave me his old CPU and old motherboard.

CPU : i7 950

Motherboard : X58A-GD65

http://www.msi.com/p...tml#/?div=Basic

I have the CPU oveclocked at the moment to 3.8 and ran Prime95 throughout the night with no issue.

My goal is to buy a good, power supply, graphics card, 128 GB SSD and 12GB of ram and turn it into a gaming machine for my TV upstairs. This is just part 1 of my bigger plan. In the future I plan on purchasing a 1080P Projector. This will be the machine for the PC gaming side of things.

So what do you guys have for recommendations. I'm thinking about spending $250 - $300. Can i get something that good for that much? Do you think the OC'ed 950 would be any sort of bottleneck?

Thanks!

*Update* 10/8/2012

Thank you everyone for your recommendations.

All the parts arrived and the gaming PC specs are as follows

Intel i7 950

Crucial 128 GB m4

EVGA GeForce GTX 660Ti 2048MB

18GB DDR3 PC3-12800

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W

[fusi0n]

I have the 950 and that will not be your bottle neck.

This card right here is pretty good. A co-worker as one and he loves it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130809

[+Warwagon MVC]

I have the 950 and that will not be your bottle neck.

This card right here is pretty good. A co-worker as one and he loves it

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130809

Thanks. I'll look into that .

[Astra.Xtreme]

I'd also agree with the 660 Ti. Definitely the best card to get for under $300.

[+Warwagon MVC]

With in the past 2 days I have played Dirt 3 and Modern Warfare 3 on my i7 920 and on my original graphics card from 2008 my Radeon HD 4800 series graphics card with 12GB of ram. Either i'm not really picky or those games actually ran very well. I played the first mission all the way through at 1920 by 1200 with 4x AA. The frame rates (don't know what I was getting) but it was silky smooth. So wow this new graphics card will last me ALONG TIME!

[Mando]

if possible grab crysis 2 or something newer (Bf3 is a good gfx card grinder), youll then see your 2008 card struggle at high AA and texture settings, that being said im on a 570GTX and everything at max detail in excess of 60fps with x16QFSAA enabled is quite beautiful, a 6 series wipes the floor with my last gen card and would be the card of choice. Cant comment on any AMD offerings as ive not had a radeon since my 9800pro AIW.

Its all about the number of unified streamprocessors/cores these days, card ram and clock speeds are not as important ironically now (esp when increasing gaming resolution to 1920 and beyond.

Of course if your happy with your existing card then keep it & replace the other items you want to first,then in the future if the gfx card isnt cutting the mustard any more with new titles, then purchase a card.

[neo1911]

GTX 660Ti 2GB. The best VFM card that ever existed. Buy this thing.

Do not look at any garbage from AMD.

[Brian Lewis]

7850 has been a solid card for me. But the 660ti if you go with nVIdia. It's a fantastic card from what I've heard (similar specs to 7950 I guess?)

[Mando]

lot of review sites like the 660tis and there is next to no perf difference between the cheapest 2gb models against the 3gb ones (2-10FPS for an extra ?100).

Apparently the 660tis approximately 3-5x more grunt than my 570! Whilst drawing pretty much the same power from the PSU, now thats an impressive improvement! Temps remain similar also under full load, mates 660tis run under 100% load ovrclocked also, and never go above 65C my 570 is the same with Nvidia Reference Cooling, never surpassing 65C (even in a 5 hour BF3 gaming sesh)

[+Warwagon MVC]

First post updated!

[Astra.Xtreme]

Non-modular! Oh noes. :pinch:

[Luis Mazza]

Just don't buy a projector... They're too expensive and image quality is far worse then a used 50" LCD or plasma. :)

[+Warwagon MVC]

Just don't buy a projector... They're too expensive and image quality is far worse then a used 50" LCD or plasma. :)

From the reviews I've read I've heard the image quality on good ones are far BETTER than a 50 inch LCD or plasam.

[Luis Mazza]

From the reviews I've read I've heard the image quality on good ones are far BETTER than a 50 inch LCD or plasam.

Well, that's a matter of preference. Some people like the movie theater style... I rather go with brightness and resolution. The pixels on projectors are often much less defined and less bright. 1080p LCD or IPS panels with a VGA connection (not HDMI) have superb image quality.

You should look at both and compare... Reviews have a lot of tastes embedded.

Just my 2 cents.