Upgrade to video card needed ASAP

[Gary Ledgerwood]

I have a Dell XPS 9100 with an Intel® Core™ i7-980X processor Extreme (12MB L2 Cache, 3.33GHz)12GB Tri Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 6 DIMMs and an ATI Radeon HD5870 1GB GDDR5

I am on my third ATI Radeon HD 5870. They just keep failing. I need to upgrade to something more appropriate. I am running Building Design Suite 2013 as well as Sketchup and Photoshop. Looking for recommendations $500 and under. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Gary

[John Dollus]

for a $500 budget, I would go with an Nvidia 580 GTX. It's a stable design and solid performer for your budget.

[Dimitris Tolios]

What kind of PSU does your Dell pack (Capacity = Wattage wise)?

The 5870 is a high-draw card, so i guess you have something sufficient for a GTX 660/670 or AMD 7950, but perhaps a 580 will be too much...Dell rarely allows for much PSU headroom.