Advice on graphics card upgrade

[Vorakus]

I think its time I upgrade my pc because alot of the games coming out now I have to play at medium or even low settings somtimes. My computers specs are 2 GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards running in SLI, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07 GHz, and 12 GB of RAM. I'm not the most tech savvy so some of these questions might sound silly lol. What would you recommend with about a 400 dollar budget? Would it be better to get one more expensive card or two cheaper ones with SLI? If I just got one better card would I still be able to use a 480 with it in SLI mode as a dedicated physx card or something? Basically I'm looking to play games on High settings for a few years before I have to upgrade again. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

[Puzzony]

Either get a GTX970/R9 390, or wait for a bit more for the next gen VGA cards coming around the middle of the year. If i were you, i'd wait to see the new cards as both GTX970 and the R9 has its flaws :
GTX970's last 0,5 gigs of ram is slower than the other 3.5 gigs and thus MAY cause fps drops if you play above 1440p/ultra, if you aim for 1080p, than it's not a problem;
Some R9 390 cards depends on the manufacturer can cause your PC not to be able to shut down properly (I have encountered this problem with the Gigabyte G1 gaming edition). In addition, the 390 needs a huge PSU support (700w+ recommended).
SLI is something that's a wild card imo, lot of games are supporting it well and gives a big boost if you use a second card for Physx, but the opposite can be true as well. I would say get a single powerful card and then test out if it is worth for you to use a 480 for physx with those games you play with.
In addition, you might want to replace your CPU soon, but for that you'll need a new mobo as well *sigh*
Last november I went with a new Gigabyte GTX970 Windforce3X OC edition, it costed me 370 euros. Depending where you're living, you can get much cheaper deals, i have seen a 245$ deal on Ebay for an EVGA one in the U.S.

TL;DR: i'd suggest to wait for the new cards coming out, if you're impatient, then get a GTX970 or a 'cheap' GTX980.

[Vash The Stampede]

My advice is to wait. You could upgrade the CPU now cause waiting for Zen isn't gonna happen soon, but big things are going to happen this year for graphics. Especially with AMD. Not too sure about Nvidia's Pascal.

[Evildeffy]

Some R9 390 cards depends on the manufacturer can cause your PC not to be able to shut down properly (I have encountered this problem with the Gigabyte G1 gaming edition). In addition, the 390 needs a huge PSU support (700w+ recommended).

Good God stop spreading this crap that is false.
The R9 390 is rated at a max of 275W TDP over 12V rails meaning the only real thing you need to worry about is being able to supply that amount for the GFX card.
700W+ for a single card is only for people that are mentally behind and buy a "700W PSU" they bought for 40 USD/EUR and expect it to be the best in the field.

If you have a proper 500W PSU (can do with 400W even) you'll be more than fine for 99,9% cases of power abuse.

No-one that comes to this forum asking for advice like this will buy such PSUs.[/QUOTE]

Barring that I agree with Duke's statement.
If the OP wants get a CPU/Mobo/RAM upgrade now (and TBH even that isn't TRUTHFULLY necessary just yet if he Overclocks that CPU) and wait till AMD and nVidia have released their new cards before making a decision on that part.

[Vorakus]

If the OP wants get a CPU/Mobo/RAM upgrade now (and TBH even that isn't TRUTHFULLY necessary just yet if he Overclocks that CPU) and wait till AMD and nVidia have released their new cards before making a decision on that part.

Thanks for the advice everyone. About overclocking the cpu, how would you recommend I go about that? I have MSI afterburner i think its called which I'm pretty sure would let me do that but I've always been kind of hesitant to do it because I dont really know what I'm doing.

Also what cpu would you recommend I upgrade to?

[Evildeffy]

Thanks for the advice everyone. About overclocking the cpu, how would you recommend I go about that? I have MSI afterburner i think its called which I'm pretty sure would let me do that but I've always been kind of hesitant to do it because I dont really know what I'm doing.

Also what cpu would you recommend I upgrade to?

MSI Afterburner does not overclock CPUs, only GPUs.
The problem in overclocking your generation of hardware is that it's difficult and tedious compared to overclocking stuff from Sandy Bridge and above.
The best thing is to find an overclocking guide for your mobo and have a bit of a guideline how to work with your specific mobo.
You could park that CPU to up to 4.2GHz without issues in general ... however as I said it's far more tedious and time consuming than newer generations.

Regarding upgrading... well there are options for that but quite limited if your budget remains @ 400 USD.
So start off by telling us your exact PC specs including specs you cannot find in software like your exact make and model of PSU, CPU cooler make and model... etc.
After that also include what you do exactly with your PC. Do you only play games, if so which? Do you create media, if so which programmes etc.

We'll see what we can do ... but do include your absolute budget as well as location (because you mentioned USD I assume US but this may not necessarily be the case).
This due to the fact that any upgrade done now will mean a replacement of your CPU, CPU cooler, RAM (I do not recommend 1.65V RAM on Haswell), RAM.
PSU is unlikely to be the case as you're powering a 130W TDP CPU as well as a GTX480 ... but we'd like to know just to be sure.