need advice in upgrading 512mb geforce 9600gt

[hananias]

I am saving to upgrade my aging 9600gt. It as been very stable so far. Runs great on normal task, and not bad for casual gaming.

The reason I am looking for an upgrade is not for gaming, but mainly for Video HD encoding. From time to time I game, but no hard core gaming.
I figure my i5-2500 could use the help. My budget is not great, possibly stay in the $100 ($150 tops)... but my goal is $100. Basically I constantly & regularly use iMovie11, FCPX, iPHoto, GImp and Parallels Desktop 6.

Is it worth upgrading, say to a Nvidias' gtx 460, 550?
Or ATIs' HD 6670, 6770?
Would I notice a difference in performance from the 9600GT???

Perhaps some can even give their insight on how easy/well to install and run osx 10.7.3 (Im running it now)??

Thanks in advance!

PS- Please leave your advice, experiences and whether I should upgrade or just keep using cause won't change much.

 

[hananias]

Forget the hd6770... I found a HD 5770 1GB gddr5 for $100! Is it worth the upgrade from 9600GT?? Remember for Editing/Encoding HD Videos, not so much for games.
What do you all think?

 

[jester969]

If you need latest video editing/games HD 5770, HD 6850, HD 6870 all are supported OOB in OS X.

 

[hananias]

Is $49.50 good price for a second hand HD5670 512mb ddr5 (actually is basically new, I saw it in a reliable local PC shop)??? Is it an upgrade from my 9600gt 512mb??

Or should I save up and put in an extra $50 for an HD5770 1GB gddr5 (also used but GOOD)?

Or a brand new GTX550ti 1GB GDDR5 for $90.54 free shipping!???

So which is best offer bang for the buck?

1) 9800GTX 512MB DDR3 = $49.80?
2) HD5670 512mb ddr5 = $49.80?
3) HD5770 1GB GDDR5 = $100?
4) GTX550ti 1GB GDDR5 = $90?

But the most important factor is, the best Hackintoshable one???

Please quick replies... please.

 

[hananias]

AFter countless hours in google!

I have narrowed down my options to:

1) Nvidia's GTX550Ti 1GB GDDR5 $90 (new)
2) Sapphire HD5770 1GB GDDR5 dual dvi $83 (used n good cond)

I am leaning more towards the 550ti, cause from what I read, it seems to be easier to install and run in Lion.

Am I correct? Please leave your comments & thoughts below.