Looking to get a new graphics card

You really don't have a choice if you want to upgrade and honestly the one area you never want to skimp out on is the power supply. It will be powering your entire system and having a bad one leads to an unhealthy PC.

The Corsair 550W HK recommended is a solid choice for your system. Corsair tends to have some of the best quality power supplies and are often a favorite among tech sites and builders. Of course there are other PSU manufacturers that are good too if you're interested.

At stock settings the Radeon 6850 beats out the GTX 460 1GB more often then not and is $10 - $20 bucks cheaper depending on what vendor you choose. What the GTX 460 currently has going for itself though is that their are several OC'd cards on the market that do beat the stock 6850. However both cards can be OC'd and are pretty good at, check out this review from Hardwarecanucks to get an idea of what both cards can potentially achieve.

You're original choice of an MSI GTX 460 HAWK was pretty good, the card is already OC'd out of the box and is only $190 after MIR on top of many other goodies it offers.

I am curious though, are you in the market to buy something right now? You did start off saying this was for Christmas or your Birthday in February of next year. If that is the case, I just want to say that in the coming months we'll likely see changes in the market such as custom OC'd Radeon 6850's and maybe even early next year Nvidias refresh of the GTX 460 into the GTX 560.

Gah...I meant total budget. It's much better if we decide how to distribute the money; we usually know what we're doing. Oh well, that's about $270ish.
Like I said before, the 6850 is a fast card, and the corsair 550w is near the minimum that you'd want. Don't skimp out on your powersupply. You could even move up to a 6870 if you want. Also, about waiting to upgrade, there will always be future releases that promise to be faster and cheaper than the current...if you keep waiting, you'll never buy anything. That's not to say that you must buy, but the new 6000 series has a very good price point.
SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC

Sorry, I just watched a girl perform a most brutal harakiri.

HK is right, something new & better is always on the horizon so don't get caught up waiting for the next best thing if you really want something now .

Well I was just capitalizing on Christmas, and I love to play many PC games. Im more trying to build a PC for the future, although it would be nice to run fallout NV, Civ5, and BC2 maxed. I could wait till my birthday feb 18 but that would be the cut off for me as after that i can't capitalize on it being free. So many choices, it's really a hard choice to make. Would an OC'd card be more prone to overheating, as I have stock fans from hp...not the best cooling method lol

You right, but you can always manually change the fan speed on your graphics card; it'll be louder, but you can make do with minimal cooling if you have a high fan speed.
Well uh, take your time to decide when you want to buy, and give us a shout whenever.

Probably doesn't apply to the op but a more experience pc enthusiast could buy a 465 from msi or evga and flash the bios to get 470 specs.

that would be okay bc i don't mind fan speed noise, i have my desktop inside the part of my desk where you can close a small door and fan noise would be minimal. I have never actual known how to adjust the fan speed on one tho but i assume it would be easy. Maybe my hp fans aren't that bad, my current card stays impressively cool, around 40, maybe its not overclocked or anything. Also i have 2 slots it looks like for a graphics card to go in, but more like 3-4 slots a various sizes but i say this bc i saw this cooler fan that looks like it can be pushed into one of those slots right above my card and it would keep it cool. Similiar to this, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119097
Maybe I wouldn't have to change my stock fans and just add one of these in?

Hey everyone, so my birthday is the 18th of this month and I am planning on getting a new video card as planned. Do you guys know any video cards that can run without having to upgrade my power that cost less then $300, or perhaps one that graphics card + power supply = around $300 hopefully less? Im hoping to be able to run Bad company 2 on max, Shogun 2 on max with smooth fps, and hopefully Crysis 2 on very high.

Thanks for the advice Leeky, in that case I won't skimp. I love to play PC games and although I can't afford to update every year I like to stay up to date somewhat. Ill see about getting a new PSU then, I have never updated my power but i heard its easy. I just hope it fits because i hate to have to return something. If im going to get a new PSU then hopefully i can get a pretty awesome and up to date graphics card that should hold me over for awhile. *I checked newegg for a new PSU and iim alittle confused about something, i assume the more wats the better and therefore more expensive but i see 700W ones costing less then 550W, is it just an amazing deal or perhaps there is more than what Im seeing? Im going to assume all PSU's are the same size.

Also here are a couple of graphics cards I found within my price range (below $200)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500163
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125353
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125343
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150516
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161348
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127519
Some state they have "Stream Processing Units" and others "Processor Cores" is there any difference?

No there is no real difference, however, make sure that you are not using them as a direct indication of speed. Look at benchmarks instead.
I'm on a phone right now, but if I will look asap.
Imo, for two hundred, I'd look at a 6850.

imo save an extra $20 and get the AMD 6870

I found this recommended by Klepto12, it's slight over my budget but maybe ill put a few bucks if i can have it, the only thing would be is that id have to see if it fits(which i doubt) also 2 power connectors? Im assuming putting this thing in isn't complicated...I have installed video cards before, I just imagine another of those red, white combined wires with the plastic tips with the spikes in it x2, but id have to make sure that the power supply is rite to. Would it make a big different in the long run?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4161349&cm_re=AMD_6870-_-14-161-349-_-Product

That's a good card.
Now about the powersupply, actually, if it's not right, your computer will not turn on...
I missed your earlier inquiry about the wattage, but no that's not what you look for. You look for a reputable manufacture, high quality parts, and 12v rail amperage.
The corsair 550w should be good, but it's at the lower limits.

you might try this as a power supply Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W Continuous Power
and also that HIS 6870 is a very good card but they are 10.5" long so u might measure to make sure it will fit also there are some great deals on 5850s right now if you look hard you could always pick one of those up there amazing cards.

If you're looking at a HD 6870 -and it is a very good card- I'd maybe go for the XFX version- at $215 after MIR + $3 shipping it works out $7.50 cheaper than the HIS - Has a much better warranty, better cooling and far superior support. HIS is somewhat well known for outsourcing it's RMA/Support (Lexy Pacific Corp.) with dubious results.

as of late i haven't seen good reviews on xfx products is it just me or are they starting to go down hill i have used HIS cards and there great cards really just up to the OP both are great cards and will perform the same. How is that card cheaper when the HIS is $199 after MIR ?

I stand corrected, I didn't notice the HIS MIR.
XFX or HIS generally makes little difference in the long run if you're looking at the reference design. XFX have in general been slipping since they moved to AMD's camp -partially because of the Powerplay issue in the HD5xxx series, and partly a less stringent binning process (seemingly) for their Black Edition and XXX cards (I use two Black Ed. 5850's).
Having said that, I update cards fairly regularly to recoup a higher percentage of the purchase price, and find that the double lifetime warranty becomes a significant factor in the reselling market. If the OP has no inclination to upgrade in the foreseeable future then the AIB of choice becomes a non issue.

If all cards are more or less created equal then the Sapphire at $199 with free shipping and a more complete bundle (HDMI 1.4a cable and adapter) makes better sense.

So i measured the inside and it would seem that the gpu would fit, i would just have to move 1 wire which goes around the back of my current gpu to going over it, which shouldn't be a problem. I actually have an extra 100 to spend towards it thanks to amazon, so im going to have to get it there. Doing a quick search I found, the sapphire card but not the XFX, http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-D...1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296795392&sr=8-1-fkmr1
*edit: I actually did find the XFX! (http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Radeon-68...1_fkmr1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1296795392&sr=8-3-fkmr1) Can't believe i missed it when i first looked, glad i doubled checked.
The XFX was actually the one i was leading towards but with $100 off i can't argue.
I got $100 amazon gift card to put towards it.

Also If I change my power supply, i wouldn't have to change all the wires connected to it right? They would just plug into the new one. Sorry for all these questions, its just a big purchase and I have been wrong in the past and this time want to get everything right the first time around.

Here is the pic of the inside of my HP desktop, the jumble of red and yellow wires are more towards the camera and shouldn't be in the way of the card, the bigger thicker white wire coming from below is the one i'd have to move alittle, it would seem i could move it around the card however more towards the camera.
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/2568/imag0286z.jpg

*edit: All i need to do now is pick a good power supply and then place my order, i guess ill get the XFX unless someone suggests a better card.

Umm, no actually I think you would have to re-plug in everything that was connected to the powersupply.
The only exception is if you have a modular powersupply (doesn't look like it), and your new one is compatible with your previous cables.
What do you have currently anyway? The 6870 isn't too demanding, maybe you won't have to change.