Upgrading graphics card

[blyver]

I'm thinking about upgrading my graphics card - currently have a GTS8800 320. Other relevant specs:

Core 2 Duo E6700
Gigabyte P35-DS3R Motherboard
2 GB Gskill RAM (will probably upgrade this to 4GB, the max for my motherboard)
Corsair 520 watt power supply

I'm thinking the GTX560 (non Ti version) would be right for me as I'd like a solid boost in performance but am not looking to break the bank. I'm wondering if my power supply is enough to support this card? The specs say it needs 450 so I assume I'm fine, but just making sure. And is it worth going for the 2GB version, or is 1GB plenty? Back when I got my GTS8800 I opted for the 320 MB version rather than 512, and started to regret it right away. Also, will my processor put a severe bottleneck on this card?

 

[brinks]

The power supply will be enough to power the system.

Your cpu will sometimes be a bottleneck depending on the game your running and resolution. How much of a bottleneck, I don't really know.

If you are running multi monitor or very high resolution, or have money to spare than the extra memory will help. If you have single monitor with normal resolution than you won't see any difference between the 1GB and 2GB.

 

[patonb]

+1 to Brinks reply

 

[blyver]

Thanks for the reply! One more question - I want to upgrade my RAM, which right now is 2GB of:

GSkill F2-6400PHU1-1GBHZ (PC2-6400, DDR2, 4-4-4-12)

I'd like to upgrade this to 4GB by adding two more 1GB sticks (my motherboard has 4 slots and can only handle 1GB per slot). I can't find this exact module for sale, though. The closest thing I could find was:

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK

Would these mix with my current memory, or would I have to purchase all new ones?

 

[blyver]

Actually I think I got part of that wrong, I was using System Information to detect the max memory but when I checked Gigabyte's website they said up to 8GB is supported. So I would probably get something like this:

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

and hopefully keep the 1GB sticks in there as long as they would be compatible.

 

[brinks]

The new ram should be compatible with your old ram. I'm assuming your OS is 64bit.

 

[wraith1213]

Your CPU is gonna kill your graphics card in newer games that use dx9b and up.... due impart to the newish physx and cuda tech in nvidia's cards and tessellation in new games