9600GT fried... Quick suggestions for a replacement?

Hi there, it's now 5pm and I'm planning to go to the bank at 8 so I just have a few hours to decide what card to buy.
I read that the GTX260 needs over 260 Watts of poer and 8 pin an d6pin connectors and I really dont know if my 500 Watts PSU can do that? And I want to keep it cuz it cost me an arm and a leg then to buy that Zalman quiet PSU.

So prolly not the GTX260 so what would you advice then? Also wondering ATI might be nice? Never tried one, but seeing as this is the second Nvidia card that has gotten fried during this year I'm willing to consider new options. Any suggestions ?

It's my bday soon so money is not an issue ! Well, anything less than 300 bucks.

the gtx260 uses 2x 6 pin plugs ,its the 280 that requires a 6 pin & an 8 pin.

a card thats a similar speed to your 9600GT is the 8800GT ,the 9600 is simply a rename from nvidia ,virtually identical card tho.
if you want a bit more grunt go for the 8800GTS/9800GTX.

as for ATI (altho im not a fan of there stuff) the HD4850 is a reasonable card ,about same speed as the 9800GTX ,but be warned ATI cards tend to run a fair bit hotter than nvidias.

VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 Video Card

CNET editors' review

* Reviewed by: Rich Brown
* Reviewed on: 06/24/2008
* Released on: 06/25/2008

As a standalone 3D graphics card, and depending on the game, AMD's new $199 ATI Radeon HD 4850 is very competitive with Nvidia's $229 GeForce 9800 GTX+. What's potentially more exciting is that the 4850 also seems to scale better in dual-card Crossfire mode than anything Nvidia has for the same price. It's also only a single-slot card, which gives you more flexibility in the kind of system you can use it with. Physical convenience aside, if the price on the 4850 falls to the $150 range (which is very possible), it will be time to get legitimately excited about the sheer value found in this new card. Right now, it's only a pretty good standalone part. If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive dual-card upgrade, however, the Radeon HD 4850 is worth getting excited about right away.

The Radeon HD 4850 chip is AMD's second 55 nanometer part, and on paper, it seems to compare well with the GeForce 9800 GTX+.

ATI Radeon HD 4850 GeForce 9800 GTX+
Price $199 $229
Manufacturing process 55nm 55nm
Core clock 625MHz 738MHz
Stream processors 800 128
Stream processor clock NA 1,836MHz
Memory 512MB 512MB
Memory speed 993MHz 1.1GHz

• HOPING THIS HELPS

Well plz keep the suggestions coming cuz from the troubles I'm having now with an 9800 GTX (heat/crashes) It looks like I either have to buy a new motherboard and a bigger case or get a new smaller card cuz the ends are on top of the Southbridge and next to the HD bay so it's toasty in there ! So I'll hold my breath and pray for winter to come soon... but it looks like I might go out shopping soon again. Most importantly now is the Decibels and heat. that HD4850 looks like a griller too.

well if your having heat troubles with a 9800gtx and 9600gt then tbh u really need to sort that as these are 2 of the cooler running cards ,ATI cards are known to run hotter,and nvidia 8800s are hotter than the 9xxx series as well.

buy urself a new case with decent cooling ,a few 120mm case fans would do wonders and a larger case.I recently bought an Antec 300 case for my 2nd PC ,comes with 2 120mm case fans and room to fit another 3! ,excellent little case with loads of space and ofc vg cooling.is pretty cheap as well.

any card that runs cool enough atm probably isn't really worth buying as the performance will be terrible compared to the cards uve already tried.