Which video card could/should I upgrade to without going overboard on the price?

here's my current rig:



Studio XPS 8100

Intel® Core™ i5-650 processo r(4MB Cache, 3.20GHz)

Memory 6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMs

Video Card NVIDIA D11M0-30 NV G310 (512MB)|||That depends upon which game titles you're looking to play, and your power supply rating. Also, what do you consider overboard? For some people their spending limit is $150, for others it's $300...



The best graphics card you can run on Dell's stock power supply is the Radeon 5670, followed by the GT240.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…



Anything more powerful (GeForce 9800GT, Radeon 4770 and higher) require a power supply upgrade.



Most people with a Core i5 CPU would opt for at least a midrange card like a GTS 250 or Radeon 5750 (and the 5770 offers much better bang/buck) but all of those choices require spending an additional $50-$70 for a 450-550W power supply, in addition to the card cost.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…



Linked below is the latest "best gaming video cards for the money" list from Tom's Hardware.|||http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gefo…

As you can see by this chart, the card you have is rather low on the list...

Your equipment can support a much higher card, but not sure about the case etc.

Not overboard could mean several different levels so I will say that the 4670 will

play most games well (especially with the CPU and memory you have) and cost

from $70.00 up depending on brand etc. and a fair jump up from there would

be the 5770 in the $165.00 up range. That one has the all too much talked

about DX-11 (currently about 3 games use it, but it's what future games will be

using so it's a " got to have" for some people) and if you prefer N vidia just

look at the chart and see what is equivalent to the ones that I mentioned...

but the cost will be higher for them...

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.…

P. S. PSU needs to be up-graded...read all info on this link and suggest you

use 25% rule...use power calculator and then add 25% to get starting point...

go to PSU's in Newegg then advanced search see useful links "rebates" and

look for PSU on the list and look for one that has rebate to make it a decent

price...

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/32…

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…|||I know that some sites say that the GT 240 can use a 300W power supply but XFX states that it needs a 350W.

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/graph…

All sites claim that the HD 4550 uses a 300W so I'd stick with that one if I were you.

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/graph…



This is because the GT 240 is probably right on the cusp of the 300W-350W divide. XFX generally chooses the safest path and I think you should probably do the same.|||THe ATI HD 4870 is a great solution that has dropped in price very rapidly in the last month or two due to ATI releasal of the HD 58XX series of cards. Its a great card for the price (used to be about $450, now is less than $200).|||http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as… 250GTS $119 shipped

I have the 285GTX version of the MSI Twin frozier edition, runs at 38C, though I did put Artic Silver 5 on the heatsink... It comes with a pigtail to use two of your 4pin molex connectors to adapt to the cards 6pin PCIEx16 power connector. This card will serve you well and perform great...