graphic card upgrade ,backward compatibility and why is it expensive here

my currents spec are:
Processor: Intel E5300 @ 3.12 GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte E31M-ES2L
Ram/Memory: Kingston 3GB DDR2 800MHz
Graphic Card: Nvidia 9400GT 1GB GDDR2
Monitor/Display: LG 17" (1440X900)

i am thinking of buying a new graphic card and my budget is till 10k
first i thought of gtx 460 but now there is gtx 550ti too, and there are ati cards like 5770 and 6790 which also lie in this price range
which is the best for the bucks??

i wanted to ask as i have a old motherboard it has a PCI Express x16 slot and not a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot which all these cards support but i also heard that all 2.0 cards r backward compatible with 1.1 .So what is the major difference between the two

one other curious thing abt every electronics item or computer peripheral available in India is that it is always expensive then usa or any other country
like for eg the cost of the 550ti in us is abt 150$, thats abt 6.5K but its retail price in India is about 9-9.5K.this is the thing i dont get ,if everything has to be manufactured from China ,then why does it cost less in Usa than in India even though it has to travel more distance(assuming graphic cards r made in china,CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG)

first thing first
which power supply do you have
post the full model number along with the manufacturer

A

GTX 460 pwns the 550 Ti. The 550 doesn't even come close.

However, in this budget my choice of card would be either 6850 or 460, nothing else.

But for these you need a Corsair VX450/550 or Seasonic/CM Real Power 500 or more.

CM extreme power or GX can't run these cards!

Firstly, you'll have to tell us which PSU you have.

GTX 550 Ti = waste. The performance doesn't justify the price and power consumption. It has performance of a HD 5770 and power consumption of HD 6870.

Then comes GTX 460. GTX 460 > GTX 550 Ti - looking at both price, performance and power consumption.

But my recommendation will be HD 6850 as it hits the 10k sweet spot perfectly right. It requires only 1 6pin connector. HD 6790 requires two 6pin connectors.

Although I also feel that your Pentium D E5300 a bottleneck for new games which stress CPU too.

i have a local 450W power supply which came with the computer case

^^ Change your psu asap before buying a graphics card.

since your budget is 10k
i would recommend this

FSP sagaII 500W @ 2.2k
sapphire/MSI HD 5770 @ 7.7k

^^ Better wait for 6790 instead of 5770. I see no point going for the older 5 series. Newer 6 series have better tesselation performance.

^^ Also higher power consumption

Sapphire Radeon HD 6790 Graphics Card Review - Power / Temp / Noise / OC

vickybat said:
^^ Better wait for 6790 instead of 5770. I see no point going for the older 5 series. Newer 6 series have better tesselation performance.

6790 is faster than 5770 but more power consuming too
let just drop this choice to OP

i think i will wait till the 6790 comes and till then save up some more to buy the correct power supply for it

pra85 said:
i think i will wait till the 6790 comes and till then save up some more to buy the correct power supply for it

Save up and get 6850. Worth the money.

^^ yup. better to get HD6850. worth that slight increase in price.

Yes 6850 is a better choice than 6790 if you can save a bit. It requires only a single 6 pin power connector as opposed to two 6 pins on a 6790.

But 6790's power levels are acceptable. They are still lower than gtx 550.