upgrade gpu

I just completed my first build. My mobo (Asus M4N78 Pro) has built in nvidia 8300 series. My old gpu is a BFG nvidia Geforce 8400 GS 512mb. I'm looking to upgrade to something thats not going to brake me and give me great performance. Suggestions.

Budget?

$100 to $120

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

or if you can stretch another $20-30,

Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR AX5770 512MD5-H Radeon HD 5770 512MB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

I don't own any of these, but I'd look at cards based on the following chipsets:

nVidia GTS 250 (supposedly a re-labeled GTX9800+)

ATI HD 4850

ATI HD 4860 (new; a lower-cost scale-down of the 4890)

If you're prepared to spend a bit more, to get a DX11 card,

ATI HD 5750 (or 5770)

I'm not sure how much of a performance hit you'd take with the 128 bit memory bus of the nVidia 57xx series. The ATI 48xx cards have a 256 bit bus, useful at high monitor resolutions.

I prefer nVidia's drivers, but ATI seems to have the price/performance lead at the moment. I haven't studied things enough to make a firm recommmendation, but this 4860 looks like a good deal:

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100286L Radeon HD 4860 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

bobkn said:

I'm not sure how much of a performance hit you'd take with the 128 bit memory bus of the nVidia 57xx series. The ATI 48xx cards have a 256 bit bus, useful at high monitor resolutions.

For the most part not enough to worry about,

techPowerUp :: HIS Radeon HD 5770 1 GB Review :: Page 1 / 34

Radeon HD 5770 review

beats the 4850 and at times beats the 4870.

bassfisher6522 said:

$100 to $120

Either a Radeon HD 4850 or Radeon HD 4770.

Most GeForce GTS 250s out there right now are going for ~$150.

EDIT: Wow, totally forgot about the Radeon HD 4860. Couple of bucks beyond the limit but, might be worth a look.

stormy13 said:

bobkn said:

I'm not sure how much of a performance hit you'd take with the 128 bit memory bus of the nVidia 57xx series. The ATI 48xx cards have a 256 bit bus, useful at high monitor resolutions.

For the most part not enough to worry about,

techPowerUp :: HIS Radeon HD 5770 1 GB Review :: Page 1 / 34

Radeon HD 5770 review

beats the 4850 and at times beats the 4870.

I'm impressed. The 57xx cards seem to compete well with the 48xx series, even at high resolutions (like 2560X1600).The 5770 is priced above $120, but I see that www.newegg.com has a 512mb model for $145 (free shipping), and a 1GB model for $163 (free shipping). The 5750 lags it in performance, but a 1GB model can be had for $130 (w/ free shipping).

No point, your CPU is a bottleneck.