Gigabyte GTS 250 1G in SLI vs...

Hi, i am kinda new to these forums and not quite what you would call a computer genius. I built my first rig about 2 years ago. Basic stats are 6g DDR3 ram, 2x 500 seagate set in RAID 0, OCZ 700w prostream (just replaced), Asus P6T motherboard, and a Gigabyte GTS 250 1g.

For the last little while I have been considering upgrading to SLI. However a friend has told me that instead of going with 2x GTS 250 in SLI i should upgrade to a GTX 480 or the new 590. I am running dual monitors; one at 1920 x 1080 the other is a old leftover and runs at 1280 x 1024. I am not that attached to the second monitor and would have no problem ditching it for SLI


I figured i would log onto the OCF and ask the pros. What creates the better system/what would you recommend? I really don't want to dish out $700 for a video card but I am fairly flexible on the price. Thanks for your time. (If you need more info don't hesitate to ask)

I recommend GTX570 - will be ALOT faster than SLI GTS250 and even faster than GTX480.
Unless of course you can find GTX480 way cheaper than GTX570, then get it, but all other way the GTX570 is your best price/performance choice.
SLI GTS250 would be good, but in general it would be just slightly better than a single GTX285. Besides you want a new DX11 card, not that DX11 matters at this moment...
You also mentioned GTX590 - but i think it is not for your pocket.

Even a lowly GTX560 would be significantly faster, cooler, and quieter than 2 highly overclocked GTS250's in SLI.

The 570 and 480 perform almost exactly the same, however the 480 has more memory bandwidth, but the 570 will OC better.

Thanks alot for the help, really appreciate it.