New video card help

[Albinism]

I'm looking to get a new video card but torn on what I should get. I have the Msi GTX-550-Ti and it's not a bad card, but I have a friend who's going to buy it from me so I want to get something better. I was thinking a GTX-570 (EVGA 012-P3-1571-KR GeForce GTX 570 HD) , but was wanting to know what other people thought. Looking for something in that price range ~$300-350ish. Thanks

[Adappy]

For that price range the GTX 570 or the Radeon 6970 (or the 6950 with a non-reference cooler) are your best bets. I have an EVGA GTX 580 (had two of their GTX 460s prior to getting it) and I have had no problems with it. One of my 460s had to be RMA'd and the process was very painless (compared to getting my old Dell laptop's motherboard replaced... twice) I have read a few reports of people blowing up their GTX 570s trying to overclock them though (related to the card's VRMs). If you run it stock you should be fine, and it could have been a bad batch.

Personally with that price range, I'd probably get the MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III as I've read the reference cooler is kind of loud, and the 6970 with that cooler is out of your price range ($387) ...or get the GTX 570

[Albinism]

I'd seen a number of people suggesting that two 6850s in Crossfire would be a better option, but ultimately think I'll go with a 570, so later I can add another in SLi.