Graphics Card Buying Advice Needed

[abhilashkrishn]

Im planning for Graphics update of my PC. My PC having 300W Powersupply now. I can buy maximum 360W SMPS for this.

Which Graphics card need to select from these?

ATI Radeon HD 5450, HD 5670 and HD 6670

Also please guide me which powersupply can I select for this Graphics Card : 300W or 360W (not more than that as my UPS not support more!)

My system configuration is as list as below:

Intel DG41TY Motherboard

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5GHz

2 x 2GB DDR2 RAM PC2 6400 800MHz

Seagate 500GB SATA2 HDD 7200RPM

Seagate 1TB SATA2 HDD 7200RPM

LG DVD+RW

300W SMPS

USB Mouse

PS/2 Keyboard

18.5" Wide DELL LCD Monitor 1366*768 Res

V-Guard SLENDER PLUS 600VA UPS

[tain]

My general rules of thumb are to buy the cheapest card available that has the most recent generation of buzz-word technology (whatever the latest DirectX is would be a factor). For power supplies, stick with a well-known brand and buy more power than you think you need. There are lots of calculators available like this one: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

[abhilashkrishn]

My general rules of thumb are to buy the cheapest card available that has the most recent generation of buzz-word technology (whatever the latest DirectX is would be a factor). For power supplies, stick with a well-known brand and buy more power than you think you need. There are lots of calculators available like this one: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

As per your reply I visited the site you said and checked my system with HD 6670.

It is showing that minimum PSU wattage it will use is 189W and Recommended PSU Wattage should be 239W.

I have a SMPS with 300W now, can I go ahead with the plan of buying HD 6670? Or it will burn my system?

Can I trust the value given by the power calculator site?

Edited February 29, 2012 by abhilashkrishn

[Tripredacus]

I never know about those PSU calculator sites. I've seen situations where the values they provide do not match up with actual configurations.

As far as what video card to get, I look at what programs I want to be running and what their minimum requirement is. Then just pick something that is above that (or the recommended) in whatever price range I am willing to pay. That and (for me at least) I will always get one with a fan on it.

For PSU, if the video card you are looking at does not list a PSU requirement (some vendors do not publish this info online, such as MSI) then its hard to tell. Oddly enough, that requirement will be on the video card box. Another thing to go on is what the board itself is looking for. The Technical Product Specification for your board shows the following:

For example, for a system consisting of a supported 65 W processor (see Section 1.4

on page 14 for a list of supported processors), 1 GB DDR2 RAM, one hard disk drive,

one optical drive, and all board peripherals enabled, the minimum recommended

power supply is 300 W. Table 28 lists the recommended power supply current values.

Personally, I've not used a sub 400W PSU since 2000.

[abhilashkrishn]

I never know about those PSU calculator sites. I've seen situations where the values they provide do not match up with actual configurations.

As far as what video card to get, I look at what programs I want to be running and what their minimum requirement is. Then just pick something that is above that (or the recommended) in whatever price range I am willing to pay. That and (for me at least) I will always get one with a fan on it.

For PSU, if the video card you are looking at does not list a PSU requirement (some vendors do not publish this info online, such as MSI) then its hard to tell. Oddly enough, that requirement will be on the video card box. Another thing to go on is what the board itself is looking for. The Technical Product Specification for your board shows the following:

For example, for a system consisting of a supported 65 W processor (see Section 1.4

on page 14 for a list of supported processors), 1 GB DDR2 RAM, one hard disk drive,

one optical drive, and all board peripherals enabled, the minimum recommended

power supply is 300 W. Table 28 lists the recommended power supply current values.

Personally, I've not used a sub 400W PSU since 2000.

ATI Recommends powersupply of 400w with these cards. Also their websites shows TDP of HD5450 is 19W. Then why it needs 400W? I don't know, but one of you guys can explain me before I ran into buying those.

[Tripredacus]

I have seen the same card (not this particular one, this is an example) being sold by two different OEMs that have different PSU requirements.

[puntoMX]

300W SMPS

What is in your eyes SMPS? (small model power supply)?

ATI Recommends powersupply of 400w with these cards. Also their websites shows TDP of HD5450 is 19W. Then why it needs 400W? I don't know, but one of you guys can explain me before I ran into buying those.

Not only the video card will use the powersupply, but also all the other components. Your system as it is now will draw some 150W, so you would think a 400W is overkill and sure it is. The problem is marketing, and "China-watts" are introduced, showing wattages that powersupplies only can deliver for 1ms or so .

Now, the maximum wattage you should pull, if you keep it by the rules, should be 75W from the PCI-E slot. Basically, anything that doesn't needs the external PCI-E power connector. The HD6670 should be safe to use on your 300W PSU, IF the PSU is a brand name PSU and showing the real wattage and not some over-hyped China-watts. The HD6670 does play games at 1366*768 pretty well, even with most eyecandy on!

The new HD7750 does have a lot more processing power and it has a TDP of 55W, that would play most games at maxed out at 1366*768, it is also 30USD more expensive compared with the HD6670 but it's worth it in my eyes...

But, what case does this PC have? Some slim model?