Video Card upgrade: Which is a better choice?

[Ascendant]

Ok, here's my specs and here's what I'm looking at:

Current Video Card: galaxy 9500gt
Power Supply: Newegg.com - XCLIO GOODPOWER 500W 500W ATX SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply
(power supply does have the 2 6-pin connectors for a video card and is 500w)

The two upgrades I've narrowed it down to are:

1) Newegg.com - EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

2) Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1371-AR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Though the 2nd choice does seem like it would be better, there is a $40 dollar difference between the two, and not sure if it would really be that much better than choice 1. If anyone could take a look at the two of them and let me know what you think would be the better choice as far as bang for the buck, I'd really appreciate it.

One other thing as well, how much of a difference will I notice going with one of these two cards? The most graphic-intense things I'll be using it for is gaming, like Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft, which is why I'm upgrading. Want to make sure this will be significant enough to be worth the cost, as ideally I'd like to be able to max my graphics settings on those games and I know the only thing holding me back right now is my video card. Thoughts?

 

[VINMAN46]

go with the 460 whats the rest of your pc specs too?

 

[pokher]

gtx460 all the way. gtx260 is no where near the gtx460, they need to drop the price on that 260 to less than $150 to sell any of them. you can get the gtx460 at the same price(which is $200) but out performs it.

 

[Ascendant]

go with the 460 whats the rest of your pc specs too?

Ok, here's a list of all the main components in my comp specs:

motherboard - ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD
cpu - AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core
ram - Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
video card - Galaxy 9500GT
hard drive - Western Digital Caviar RE 160GB Sata 3gb
cd-rom dvd drive - LG 18x DVD+-R DVD Burner with 12x DVD-RAM
(one other dvd drive as well)
case - XION II XON-101
psu - XCLIO Goodpower 500w
sound card - Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE

Also, I believe 500w would be the minimum needed for the 460. looking at the rest of this, should that be adequate or am I looking at the additional expense of another PSU? If possible, I'd like to avoid having to do that.

 

[pokher]

Naw, you need atleast 600w.

 

[Ascendant]

Naw, you need atleast 600w.

You sure about that? If so I might hold off on this as I don't have the extra cash for both a new video card and a PSU.

Regardless, if I do need a stronger PSU, what would be a good choice that is within a reasonable price range while being reliable?

 

[pokher]

here's very good PSU for a really good price. Hope this help,GL.- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018

 

[Ascendant]

here's very good PSU for a really good price. Hope this help,GL.- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018

to be honest, the price isn't that great, it's about average. though i do really appreciate the feedback, between that expense and the video card, it's a bit more than I'm looking to spend here.

from what i've looked into on the net, it seems like 500w should be adequate, so i'm thinking of maybe just giving it a shot for now. i mean if you are slightly underpowered, how would you know?

 

[Celegorm]

I'm running a 260 on 500W and it's just fine. If I recall correctly the 460 doesn't require that much more power.

If you buy the card now, you should be ok but I'd play it safe anyways and look into a new PSU when you can afford one.

 

[pokher]

to be honest, the price isn't that great, it's about average. though i do really appreciate the feedback, between that expense and the video card, it's a bit more than I'm looking to spend here.

from what i've looked into on the net, it seems like 500w should be adequate, so i'm thinking of maybe just giving it a shot for now. i mean if you are slightly underpowered, how would you know?

ok...$79 is pretty cheap when dealing with PSU's.I paid $169 for mine i want to be safe than sorry.like "celegorm" said try it out and see if it works.you going to spend $200 on a GPU but then settle with a cheapo PSU that if it goes if could bring other parts with it.Just dont have mad fans running everywhere .