viable vidcard upgrade or not?

[kef7]

I haven't been keeping up with hardware for over 2 yrs now so am needing advice about a possible upgrade.

Current system is an intel 975BX2 mobo with Q6600 (no O/C) 2 gig ram, corsair hx620 psu and visiontek 4870 (512mb).

It has been playing Skyrim ok (I think it put settings at high first time I played?) but I'm thinking some of the in-game slowdowns are due to only have 512mb on the videocard.

So, is there a vidcard in the $140-180 range that would be worthwhile upgrade (and that the HX620 could still power)? I would be willing to go $240-280 range for a more future proof solution even if I'd be cpu-limited. (I plan on replacing mobo/cpu/ram in 5-6 months)

Locally on Craigslist there is an XFX 6950 Double D for $200 and a 6870 for $140 that fall into my budget range.

After Skyrim I'll likely go back and play Dragon Age2 and Fallout New Vegas just to give perspective on hardware that would be appropriate.

thanks in advance.

 

[Puppies04]

What resolution are you playing at.

 

[kef7]

1680X1050; I do plan on jumping up to a higher res 23inch monitor in the next few months though.

 

[toyota]

I never realized so many people had Q6600 cpus. it seems half the people asking about gpu upgrades on here and other forums now are people with stock Q6600 cpus.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

If you can grab a 6870 for $140 then do it. Then add 2GB of RAM to your system, and consider overclocking your processor, as it's beginning to bottleneck the latest games at stock frequency.