My EVGA GTX 470's life has ended. Im usually in the postiton to buy whats top notch during its time, but in this case I am not.

What would be an equivalent card these days without breaking the bank...

probably this

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130826

you could go 660 Ti version for some more omf but looking close to $300 there

The GeForce GTX 650 Ti is probably the modern card nearest in performance to the GeForce GTX 470.  Depending on the prices that you find, you might want to step up to a Radeon HD 7850, which is meaningfully faster, or even a GeForce GTX 660 or Radeon HD 7870.

As an added bonus, none of those have the endemic overheating problems that plagued the reference GeForce GTX 470s.

so a 660 or 660 ti would out perfrom the 470?

Yes, a GeForce GTX 660 will comfortably outperform a GeForce GTX 470.  Modern cards have about double the energy efficiency of the GeForce GTX 470, too.

A GeForce GTX 660 tends to be a hair slower than a Radeon HD 7870.  A GeForce GTX 660 Ti is a little faster than either card, but tends to cost more by enough to make it a bad deal.  I'd advise against a GeForce GTX 660 Ti if the price tag exceeds a GTX 660 by at least $40 or a Radeon HD 7870 by at least $30.

Also, for either a GeForce GTX 660 or GTX 660 Ti, if it says 2 GB of video memory, you should think "1.5 GB usable".  The card mismatches the memory channels, so if you use more than 1.5 GB, your memory bandwidth will take a huge hit.  1.5 GB isn't bad, and it is more than your old card's 1.25 GB, but don't get ideas about running ultra-high monitor resolutions off of it.

Right now there is little point in getting a 660 series card as they are not priced well at the moment. You can find a 7950 for cheaper than 660ti, you can find a 7870 for cheaper or equal to the 660 and its more powerful.

If you're gonna spend the money on nvidia just get the 670, otherwise stick with AMD.

Can you tell us your budget, so we can suggest you a card that is up to your budget?

i also plan to buy a new NVIDIA vidcard - my budget is between $100 - $200

any suggestions for me? :<

Originally posted by Marirranya

i also plan to buy a new NVIDIA vidcard - my budget is between $100 - $200

any suggestions for me? :<

Nvidia isn't really a sound option in the sub $200 bracket. Your money would be well spent on an AMD 7850 for $150-180. If you absolutely have to have nvidia then there is the 650ti which is 120-150 market but it is by far weaker than the 7850, since that is the case you might aswell add some extra bucks and get a 660 for $210-220.

Originally posted by Aori

Originally posted by Marirranya

i also plan to buy a new NVIDIA vidcard - my budget is between $100 - $200

any suggestions for me? :<

Nvidia isn't really a sound option in the sub $200 bracket. Your money would be well spent on an AMD 7850 for $150-180. If you absolutely have to have nvidia then there is the 650ti which is 120-150 market but it is by far weaker than the 7850, since that is the case you might aswell add some extra bucks and get a 660 for $210-220.

Since I forgot to ask, what kind of system are you running and at what resolution? Also what is your PSU?

To just match your old 470 and staying with nVidia:

A 650Ti (~$150 US) is just a hair slower in most games, but pretty darn close:
AnandTech Comparison: 470 vs 650Ti
A 660 (non-Ti) (~$210 US) is a decent bit faster in most games:
AnandTech Comparison: 470 vs 660

And to kinda show what everyone else is saying:
An AMD 7850 (~$170 US) is a decent bit faster in most games, and maybe a hair slower than the 660:
AnandTech Comparison: 470 to 7850
AnandTech Comparison: 660 vs 7850

So if your really on a budget crunch, you can see the various options here:
7770 --- 650Ti --- 470 ------ 7850 --- 660 ----- 7870/660Ti ------ 7950/670 ---- 680 --- 7970Ghz

Of course, if you have more money than that to spend, then by all means, but these are the nearest cards to being "equivalent" to a 470 in the current generation. And if your computer ran a 470, it won't have any issues with power or cooling with any of these cards.

what resolution is your monitor ?

gtx660 / hd7870 are probably best value for money at ~$200 at the moment and should be able to handle single monitor 1920x1080 on high settings with ~60fps for most games.

If you really need extra performance you can grab a  660ti or hd 7950 pay $300 but i really dont think it is required. ~$200 is the sweetspot range for a gfx card imo.

These are my specs.. My budget is $100-250

Antec P182 gunmetal case

ThermalTake smartM series 850 watt PSU

Evga geforce 470 GTX 1280mb video card <<<<DEAD>>>>>

Gskill 4 gig  ddr2 1066 (8500) memory

AMD phenom II X4 945 deneb 3.0 Processor

Asus M4N82 Deluxe AM3/AM2+/AM2 Nvidia  980 sli Motherboard.

Razer Barracuda AC-1 gaming audio card

Western digital WDC WD64001aals-00l3b2 (640 gig Hard drive)

Hitachi Hard drive 500 gig as a backup (secondary)

Windows 7 64 bit

On your budget I would go with a 7870. After rebates and what not it will be around $200.

I use a 7870 and am very happy with its performance.

Originally posted by jdnewell

On your budget I would go with a 7870. After rebates and what not it will be around $200.

I use a 7870 and am very happy with its performance.

thanks for the help. How long till I need to upgrade the rest of my rig? and what brand of card should i go with?

Originally posted by cichy1012

These are my specs.. My budget is $100-250

 

Antec P182 gunmetal case

ThermalTake smartM series 850 watt PSU

Evga geforce 470 GTX 1280mb video card <<<>>>>

Gskill 4 gig  ddr2 1066 (8500) memory

AMD phenom II X4 945 deneb 3.0 Processor

Asus M4N82 Deluxe AM3/AM2+/AM2 Nvidia  980 sli Motherboard.

Razer Barracuda AC-1 gaming audio card

Western digital WDC WD64001aals-00l3b2 (640 gig Hard drive)

Hitachi Hard drive 500 gig as a backup (secondary)

Windows 7 64 bit

 

You might not want to pour too much money into an aging rig.  Replacing a video card to keep the system running if you were happy with the performance makes sense.  But I certainly wouldn't consider spending more than it would cost to get a Radeon HD 7870 or GeForce GTX 660 unless you were planning on moving the new card to a new system soon.

If you were looking to upgrade, I'd say that you should look at replacement instead.  Socket AM2+ and DDR2 memory have been obsolete for about four years now, so hopefully your system has had a nice life.