Additional Custom Build Upgrades Help

I had built my first custom PC back in July, and I admit I was excited. Got all the parts (plus my old HDD and peripherals), put it together, and after a total of 18 hours, that includes troubleshooting boot problems, it was finished and ran fine. I reinstalled my copy of Skyrim and Dust: An Elysian Tail to do some performance tests. They were... a lot worse than I expected. Only ten more frames in Skyrim (still had play low settings), and I think worse FPS in Dust than with my old 256MB GPU. This new one is 2GB. Should've done more research before purchasing the parts, as I got a DDR3 GPU and the CPU cost more than it. My initial budget was only $400, but I'm looking into upgrading the GPU, but not spend more $250-300 on a replacement. Preferably one with GDDR5 memory and 4GB or more. I'd also be willing to upgrade the PSU, which is currently 500W. Can anyone give me a few pointers? (Only one PCIe x16) Here's the list of parts, I can list the individual links if needed. (This machine was meant to be for modern games, I had in mind a GeForce GTX 750 Ti, but I'm open to suggestions)

MrMii-CustomPC - Saved Part Lists - PCPartPicker

if u can afford a 970, thats the sweet spot for a GPU on a budget

Ya, you really got to step up to a 970, 980 or 980 Ti

EVGA - Products - Graphics

You should also have windows on a solid state drive.

SSD 850 EVO 2.5" SATA III 250GB | Samsung Solid State Drives

and I`d say more memory too, double it.

Dominator® Platinum Series — 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 DRAM 1866MHz C9 Memory Kit (CMD16GX3M4A1866C9)

Start saving today :)

If not a 750 Ti, I did plan on a 970 or higher, as my mom said (she basically controls what big ticket items I can purchase, sadly. I'm not a spend thrift, buuuuuut...yeah) I could spend it how I like because it's my money. Now I did do some research regarding those 970+ cards and found they lack a native VGA. (My current monitor is VGA only) I'd have to get a new monitor, but that isn't too big of a deal because I'm sick of a max res of 1680x1050... But regarding the power requirements of the cards, some require a 400 or even 500 watt power supply minimum, so would you say I should get like maybe a 750-800w PSU to replace it? And I didn't install Windows to an SSD because (although fast) they're way expensive per GB, and combining all the space taken up from my five partitions, it's way over 250GB, and I've already moved some partitions back and forth between internal and external. (Not that I can't do it again) Also regarding the RAM, isn't 8GB enough? I guess I could try souping it up to at least 12, but I'm mainly focused on the GPU. I'm certain that's where I'm bottle-necking.

Hi,
DVI to VGA adapters usually come with the card if not they are pretty cheap.

Then concentrate on the card.

EVGA - Products - Graphics - GeForce 900 Series Family - GTX 970

A 650 to 750 watt PSU will be more then plenty for a single 970.

EVGA - Products - EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2 Power Supply - 220-P2-0650-X1

EVGA - Products - EVGA SuperNOVA 750 P2 Power Supply - 220-P2-0750-X1

I recommend the 750 P2

I think I may have a DVI to VGA adapter, but I'm still considering an HDMI monitor. And the PSU I'll look into upgrading as well. Still thinking over all of this, nothing is set in stone yet. (And even though two 970s+ would be lovely, especially in SLI, I'm not willing to get a whole new board right now only for an extra PCIe x16. Getting everything to work this time was frustrating enough, but then again, I didn't know about sysprep then. Off topic but I thought I'd mention that)

Not many games if any use more than 3gb so just a single 980ti would have a lot of room to grow

I don`t see him spending that kind of money for a card. :)

Especially with that board and cpu.

Any card you buy will come with a VGA adapter, as long as the card has a DVI port, and most have at least 1

My 980 Ti IO plate

Yep never say never
I'm putting a EVGA GTX980 Hybrid on a 6 y.o. Acer WG43M
1-4gb card is better than 2-2gb sli as far as I know.