Greetings all. I have a PC that's slightly les than four years old which I built from parts back when Dragon Age 2 had just come out, because my old PC kept melting down when trying to run it. The main idea, actually, had been to make something that would be able to run Skyrim. However, I am starting to note that it is no longer keeping up with modern games. Particularly notable in Dragon Age Inquisition, where I'm getting lag and then skipping in cutscenes, which is the last places where I want that to happen. This is despite me having turned most of the settings down to low.

So, what I've got:

1. Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 975 360 GHz
2. 8 GB RAM
3. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
4. Corsair 750w power supply
5. Windows 7 64-bit

So, it seems to me that the weakest point on my system is the video card. When I was building this, I was looking for an inexpensive card that had high capabilities for its price range, and the GTX 460 was reccommended for that. Now, I don't want to dump $600 on a 980, but I've noticed that there is a notable price drop between the 980s and the 970s, but the 970s still seem to have high performance ratings.

So... I'd like advice. Should I look into 970s? And if so, which one? Can my current power supply handle one? And is the rest of my hardware good enough the way it is?

I would appreciate any help you all can offer.

Definitely get a 970. There is no other card out that has as good of a dollar to power ratio. I have the MSI version and haven't had any problems with it. Your power supply can definitely handle it as I have a 750w as well, also they optimized the power draw for the 9XX cards so they actually take less power than their predecessors.

If you want to upgrade more after that it might be a good idea to replace your CPU with an Intel one. The i5-4690k is what I would recommend but the 4790 is great too.

Yes a 970 is great value. Go get one.

Thank you for your responses. I've gone through a number of reviews on NewEgg and Amazon for various 970 cards, and in the end I've selected the... um... "MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support G-SYNC Support Video Card" (much easier to copy-paste than try to type it out myself). While it didn't have the highest rating on NewEgg, it did have the most reviews, and the most of them trending towards positive.

I did notice at least one saying that the individual had had to update his BIOS on an older motherboard in order to get the card to work. That's a bit concerning, as my motherboard is as old as the rest of my components (ie: nearly 4-years old), and I have always followed the basic advice that was given to me of "don't screw with the BIOS." I'm hoping this won't be an issue.

yeah, your current powersupply is enough for sure, a 970 doesnt use that much more juice than a 460 actually.

your cpu is based on an architecture from 2008 though, so it will hold the graphics card back in situations where the cpu matters.
It should still be a step up from a 460, and you'll be able to use it for a couple of years if you decide to get a new cpu down the line.

I've heard that Dragon age inqisition has some issue with the cutscenes, they are animated at 30 hz i believe, so even if you have 100 fps, the characters still appear stuttery, whilst the rest of the scene looks fine.

970 for sure.