I have to say that a new card will always be worth the extra, I would never buy such a thing 'refurb' - but that said I appreciate the financial constraint, and it is not as if you have time to save-up if you are limited to a year; bummer

horse has bolted I know, but I learnt very early on in animation that you need to put together a workstation [computer] that will cope with what you need to do, and that you need to look at it holistically from the off - I build myself in order to make sure they are capable which an off the shelf mainstream computer would not be designed for - that said I could buy a ready made workstation, but it would mean spending megabucks and I am not convinced I would need all that power