Looking to get a new graphics card

Came across this GTX 560 Ti Roundup on Hardware Canucks. In addition to the head to head comparisions of the GTX 560's it also includes a number of the other cards you're considering ... might be worth a look. Some of the results for the GTX 560 are surprising, at times even matching the reference GTX 570.

@Mizzou
The counter argument being that the GTX 570 is itself rather overclockable- and it's larger memory bus and frame buffer utilize the overclock fairly well in relation to the 256Mb card(s).

After a long deliberation I decided to get..... The EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked 1280 MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card (http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclo...SMGW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1297478854&sr=8-2)

I can't wait to get it, thanks everyone who helped for your input! I realized only now after ordering it about heat, I really really really hope my stock fans+the card fans can keep this baby cool, i don't want any fireballs or anything happening inside my case.

You can just adjust the fanspeed up if you need and you'll be fine.

Thats good to hear! My desk have a section for the tower and I could just shut the door so the sound speed won't be such a problem.

Just beware putting the computer in an enclosed area. Sure closing a door on it might reduce the sound, but it will also most likely increase the temperatures in the system as well. The intake and exhaust fans of the case need somewhere to intake cool air from and exhaust the hot air to

After all that work it saddens me to say that everything has gone bad! They never shipped out my GPU after so many weeks of waiting. I received the PSU only to find it fits but there are so many wires and such that it wouldn't fit. The piece where the wires come out of the PSU would hit another wire of the drives that it also needed to plug into. It's really the factory HP case fault. There were a couple of wires that needed to get plugged in that were impossible to get to unless I took others things out it was crazy.
So i'm very sad to say i'm giving up on this upgrade. I canceled my GPU since it never came I was never charged and i'm returning the PSU.
I still like to thank all of you for helping me, you guys know your stuff!

Perhaps in the future ill find a card that will run on my current PSU but will be more powerful, maybe around BF3's release for good measure since I think S2TW will run fine on my current card.

Maybe I can overlclock my 9800GT? Is that even possible/worth the risk?

Overclocking would be fine.

Overclocking was a fail lol It's default clock is 600 and I tried putting it up by 15 and watch to see how the temp was, and even not running any games the temp was hitting 80. idk what a safe temp would be so i left it alone. I was reading online that my card should clock to 670 atleast easy =\ Im using the EVGA tool to clock it. So what's a safe temp for clocking? Also what's the best card in your opinion that can run on my PSU? 460GTS? Also what kind of improvement would that be from a 9800GT1gb

80°C isn't horrendous for a 9800GT, although you wouldn't want to go much higher. Nvidia GPU's are all rated at 105°C -obviously you don't want to stray into that territory.
In my opinion you won't gain much (if anything) from overclocking the card - a frame per second here and there -not worth it for the extra stress you are putting the card under and the higher noise output -I assume you manually set the fan speed in Precision ? The stock driver profile allows cards to run a little too warm in most instances at the expense of quieter running.
With the PSU you are running, a GTX460 might be pushing it I think. You would get a reasonable upgrade in performance by going with a HD 5770 or GTS 450 (this one is OC'ed) -both are in the 110-120w usage bracket which should be fine with the Delta unit you seem to have. Either card would provide a good boost in performance.
The next step up the performance ladder (HD5850/6850, GTX460) would likely mean a PSU change.
The other alternative is to look at a medium sized molular PSU -only install the cables you need

Actually I left the fan on auto, but did play around with it to see if it would cool the card, I was just afraid while gaming it wouldn't keep it cool enough on the % I place it at. Being able to only use the cables you need sounds nice since the one i had to return cabled completely filled my case.

Would you know if Nvidia or Radeon are planning on releasing a GPU that would be able to run on my PSU but be more powerful than the 5770 or 450? I only ask because I hear alot of new GPUs are using alot more power and if there not going to be able run on my PSU in the future I mas-as-well spoil myself now. However, if they prob are I can wait, but I just want to be sure.

As far as AMD are concerned-No. AMD are releasing a HD 6770 but it is a rebrand of the HD 5770 with HDMI 1.4a (3-D capable) tacked on. Nvidia is due to release the GTX 550Ti this month, but the card isn't a major development over the GTX 460 768Mb in terms of performance but is supposed to require about a 30% less power for gaming -around 110w (as opposed to the GTX 460's 150w, and close to the HD6770/5770's 108w).

So my PSU would be able to run a GTX 500, everytime i hear GTX i think bigger PSU so it surprises me.

People in the link seem to be complaining in the comments about it and one guy said id be mental to buy it for that price lol

Do you think it would be possible to sly/crossfire a gpu which only consumes about 110 each on a 450W?

Most of the people are either bitching about the speculated price (believe me it wont retail for $216), nvidia fanboys complaining it should be GTS550 and not GTX550 (sullying the vaunted GTX moniker!) , and the usual AMD fanboys who troll every nvidia post on the net.-I wouldn't take too much heed- they all mostly belong to the same tribe. A lot of noise, no manners and short attention spans.

Short answer- No.
A 450w PSU doesn't run at 100% efficiency, so even a reasonable PSU at say, 85% efficiency is only outputting a maximum of around 380w -of which, a portion is reserved for the 3.3v and 5v rails. PSU's also lose efficiency over time, so that number decreases incrementally with use.
I would personally look towards a good 550-600w PSU for Crossfire/SLI even with lower power consumpion cards. You don't want to be running the PSU at near capacity 24/7.

I didn notice everytime a nvidia card came out people always claimed the same amd card was better so I always took it with a grain of salt. I'll probably wait to see a benchmark and maybe pick it up.

Sli/crossfire I was just curious about, id be happy with 1 card that can run S2TW, BC2 on max, and hopefully run bf3 pretty high as-well whenever it comes out. My 9800gt runs bc2 very high but not max, and s2tw runs fine but im a pc gamer im obsessed with thingslooking the best they can. Also i play all my games in 1900 by 1200 so i think that hurts performance..

I was looking at some PSU benchmarks here(http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6850/7.html) Do you think I can run it good? I know in another post it was stated that it would be pushing it but with these benchmarks it looks like it would but ofcourse I always ask just to make sure. Also would you recommend this card over the 550ti? I ask because I heard the 550ti comes out today maybe you guys know some info about it.

The HD 6850 is likely a much better card than the GTX550. Your 450w PSU might be struggling with the card also. I would most definitely NOT overclock if you plan on using this PSU.
Your options are buy the card and PSU (which sounds like something you're trying not to do), or buy the card and hope that there are no adverse reactions. Best case scenario is that the PSU and card run fine. Other possible outcomes are slow card performance and/or system instability (including- but not limited to- games crashing to desktop, BSoD's, system lockups and not forgetting fireworks if the PSU gets really overworked and has no over voltage/current protection).
Your call.

Ok so im going to go with this(http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...E6/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1300281840&sr=8-12) It's probably the safest option and best performance boost for my computer. From a 9800GT to the 550ti ill get dx11 support, and I cant imagine if my 9800GT can run games like shogun 2 almost on max, and BC2 on really high that this card will have no problem handling them even higher. Probably for the future around BF3 release ill purchase another, better card and give this one to my bro lol

Hey guys! Just wanted to conclude the thread! I got myself the 550ti 1GB. it came slightly factory overclocked at around 956, but I shot it up to 1000. Everything runs great and im loving it! It fit in the case perfectly, and runs great on my 450W power supply even overclocked and I have run into no real problems with it. I play shogun 2 on ultra and it runs smooth, and bfbc2 amazing aswell! it was easy to install and with the beta drivers helped make games run even better. Thank you all for helping me, it was a learning experience that now I can use in the future I probably learned more about graphics card than I ever have and im currently in a computer 101 class at my college. Thread Heroic Victory!