Building a Desktop, which one?

Hi guys.. i have decided to build a desktop for my sister (an excuse, im going to use it ) and im looking for a really good graphic card that is not too expensive but works really well.. im thinking for going for geforce gtx 480 but i think its an old card.. but nevertheless its cheap and has a good rating on passmark.. any advice on the cards i should get.. btw, i game a lot.. i play games like planetside 2 .. battlefield, shogun 2, hawken etc..
i would also like for my graphic card to play crysis 3 on a 1920 x 1080 resolution monitor with sexy graphics... i might be asking for too much, but some advice would be appreciated.. thanks :)

also thinking of gtx 660, gtx 560 ti, gtx 570, gtx 760, radeon hd 7870..

How much is the 480? It's 3 generations back Nvidia style, but still good for gaming, but a 250W card.
[Won't want to skimp on a power supply, at all, see jonnyguru.com for supreme info on them]

Compares well to a Radeon HD 7870.

GeForce GTX 480 vs Radeon HD 7870 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare

Texel rate is AMD's thing, Pixel rate is Nvidia's. Should you care that much, probably not.

1920 by 1080 isn't pushing my Radeon HD 7950 around, and I am doing that res on 3 monitors at once if I want.

Really just comes down to budget, so what's the $#?

Still need the $#.

Overclocking is probably ill advised, adds to cost and stability issues not worth it, imho, if it's a budget rig.

CPU is more critical than the video card, + motherboard chipset, then best video card within the budget, since it's upgradable with ease later if need be.

Here's a sample build I put together:

AMD FX-8350, HIS Radeon HD 7850, Rosewill REDBONE - System Build - PCPartPicker

Costs start to add up quick!

I have a new GTX 650Ti which seem to do very well, the sell for ~$190 and are low power users. I would got with an i5 CPU and save about $110 or so. Be sure to get a good CPU cooler, Intel stock one aren't very efficient.

You can save some money by getting the 3570k, it`s awesome.

Here`s 2 card suggestions.

Newegg.com - EVGA SuperClocked 02G-P4-2765-KR GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support w/ EVGA ACX Cooler Video Card

MSI N660 TF 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Newegg.com

I agree with the above, an I5 3570K is very well good for OCing and for gaming, use the extra cash saved to get a GTX 760.

16 gigs of RAM is a waste of $ for 99%, 8 is more than fine with Win7, that will save you some dough for other options, and not all RAM sticks are equal, pay attention to the CAS, lower is better, the normal low is 7, typically sold is more like 9.

OP making plans with dad's $ for his 'sister' and then adds wanting to overclock?

[Someone seems IN over their head on the technology should not be talking like that.]

Meanwhile dad sees $400 Walmart special and says good enough, and OP is
[That would be my dad back in the day with offering me a Sinclair that required soldering with not even a real keyboard. He didn't think I was serious about computers! ]