Graphics Card Upgrade

[Razorbacx]

My son has the Nvidia GTX550 Ti (2GB version) and he wants to upgrade to the next level card. I'm admittedly out of the loop and not sure whether to move up to the 600 series Nvidia cards or go the direction of the ATI Radeon 7800 series. He's got your basic HP pc with an A6 AMD processor, 8GB RAM. We upgraded the OEM PSU with a Thermaltake 430W PSU when we bought his GTX550 graphics card 3 months ago. I assume that he'll need to upgrade his PSU when we finally decide on a new card. Would appreciate your thoughts and insight on a new graphics card. I would like to add that price does matter, although I do feel that we could recoup some cost by selling his current graphics card and PSU should we be required to upgrade it.

Thank you in advance.

Razorbacx

[Major_A]

If you get a GTX 6xx card make sure you get at least a 660 Ti otherwise you're seeing minimal gains. The HD 7850 is on par with a GTX 570 so take that how will. Depending on the card you get you might be able to get away with using the current PSU. My computer is pulls roughly 400W at the wall under full load.
i7 2600K @ 4GHz
GTX 570
16GB DDR3
4 Hard Drives
Sealed water cooling unit
X-Fi PCIe sound card
case fans...etc

[Razorbacx]

Thanks Major A for your response....much appreciated.

We've decided to go with the Nvidia 660ti and now I'm keeping an eye out for the best price. He has a 430W Thermaltake PSU (model TR2) and I've read where a 500W PSU is required and I've read where what he has currently will work. Can someone please clarify this for me? His current set up is as follows:

HP P7-1234 PC
AMD A6-3650 processor
8GB DDR3 RAM
1TB HD
DVD Drive

Addons:
GTX 550ti graphics card (to be pulled/sold)
Thermaltake TR2 430W PSU

Thank you in advance.

Razorbacx

[Apoptosis]

A thermaltake TR2 430W power supply has dual 12 Volt rails for a combined max current of 29 Amps.

EVGA suggests a minimum of a 450 Watt power supply with a +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amps. - http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.as ... P4-3661-KR

He's cutting it close, but it should work.

[Major_A]

Try it. Worst that can happen is it won't work. If you start getting a bunch of BSOD/restarts while gaming then it's probably the power supply. No point in spending extra money if you don't have to.

[Razorbacx]

Thanks Apop/Major A! Your response is much appreciated.