I'm saving up a nice stash of coin to buy the upgrades needed to run Crysis 2 maxed out (I'm talking still getting a comfortable 30-60 FPS with full settings & DX11 on). Here's what I currently have:

Video Card:
AMD Radeon 6970HD 2GB

Other:
8GB Kingston RAM
Intel core i7 870 2.93GHz
650w power supply (unsure of the brand, it came with the case)

Those are the main things I think people are interested in. The card I am thinking about getting is the Nvidia GTX 580. But I looked at the price and thought 'is this worth it?'

So that's my question. Based on my specs and my current card, is it worth buying a GTX 580 or even a 590? Will I see improvements? Because currently it's driving me crazy that I lag so much in certain areas.

EDIT: I should add that my monitor is a samsung syncmaster 223bw and has a native resolution of 1680x1050. And I'm not interested in SLI or crossfire.

I'd advise getting a quality branded PSU cause if you do go for the 580 you're gonna have to OC it, i got the first edition which can run hot but you've now got a nice selection to choose from.
A thing about the 590: you know it's clocks are quite a bit lower than the 580's? <Yeah i'd go for a nice 3GB 580, once the game gets optimized, with yout HT 870(i want one of these, i's have it at least 4.0( my 760 is at 4.2), umm ...yeah with your CPU you'll be fine, with 8gb RAM you could disable your page file too, and ..yeah get one of these >>


The ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX 580


Remember too, the 580 is the fastest out there right now, don't get me wrong i'd have two 590s if i could but lookm at the price, they're over ￡600, a 580 is ￡370.

There's your answer. You would get slightly better framerates with a 580, but I don't think it would be worth the price. If you can get another HD6970 and crossfire them together, you would get awesome framerates, but you would need a new power supply to make it all work.

if i dont want to make a sli or crossfire, i d go to a 6990. i think its the best dual gpu graphics card right now

Thanks. So if i was aiming for a single card I'd just be better off sticking with what I have or getting another 6970. I'm really not interested in having 2 cards, I don't know how to set it up or how to overclock my cpu or any of that jazz, and I'd like to avoid buying a new PSU if I could. Maybe I'll just hold out and see how the 11.7 drivers hold up.

There is a good chance that that '650w' generic PSU is already limiting your system. In reality, it is likely to be around the 400-450w mark.
Use a cheap PSU at your own risk, 'cos usually when they go, they take your other, more expensive hardware with them.

I HAVE 2 EVGA GTX 470 SC FOR SALE WITH SLI BRIDGE FOR 325.00 BOTH IN MINT CONDITION !!

Cheap PSUs have a tendency to blow up

man that graph is strange... with my 2600k and gtx 570 my fps sits around 80-90 and occasion hits 115 fps at 1080p. So the 570's are also a good card to concider... although I will probably end up doing the evga step up to 580's.

If you have enough money, go get a GTX 590. Or if you have a lot of money, you may wanna upgrade to a water cooling edition GTX 590. It's a beast.

No point going from 6970 to 580, waste of money

Just get a better psu (corsiar 750w-850w) and go 6970 crossfire

No point going from 6970 to 580, waste of money

Just get a better psu (corsiar 750w-850w) and go 6970 crossfire

I'm actually going to do just that as much as I don't want to.

I'm a little scared too because I've never installed a power supply before, and all these different rails scare me lol.

No point going from 6970 to 580, waste of money

Just get a better psu (corsiar 750w-850w) and go 6970 crossfire

I'm actually going to do just that as much as I don't want to.

I'm a little scared too because I've never installed a power supply before, and all these different rails scare me lol.
Nah its easy...Just find designated plugers and hook em up to ur components... For example for motherboard there will be 1 big plastic connector with 24 pins and is the biggest one so u wont miss it. For HDD ull see also. Its easy