8600gt replacement on a 305W dell psu?

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gogoman123

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Aug 7, 2011
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hi all.
my 8600gt in my old pc failed recently (capacitors blew up!), so I am looking to get another card, however I am limited by my psu. I dont want to get another 8600gt as I read somewhere that the reason they fail is bec. of a design flaw.
here are the specs of the pc (its a Dell E520, purchased in 2007):
Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz
some dell mobo
4x512MB Ram
305W dell stock psu
WD 500GB Caviar Blue 7200rpm 16MB Cache
as u can see its an old rig and i dont want to spend money on upgrading it (psu, mobo,..) cuz its not worth it. I know its not good for gaming, but i was playing games on it on a 19" moniter with the 8600gt with decent fps.
my brother uses this pc for gaming, browsing the net, movies, music, ect.
I read that that the 305W rating of my dell psu is actually the continuous power not the peek, and that dell PSUs are generally underrated.
so I am looking for an equivalent (or a better) gpu to the 8600gt which my psu can handle.
I know this question has been asked in the past, but the threads I found are at least 1 year old, and they didnt agree on a specific card, many were suggested (7600gt, 9500gt, HD4670, gt520,..).

Thanks
 
mrjoltcola

mrjoltcola

Senior member
Sep 19, 2011
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Used 9800 models are plentiful if you look. 512MB - 1GB can be had pretty cheaply. Since you didn't mention your budget, I'm not sure.
 
DominionSeraph

DominionSeraph

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Jul 22, 2009
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mrjoltcola said:
Used 9800 models are plentiful if you look. 512MB - 1GB can be had pretty cheaply. Since you didn't mention your budget, I'm not sure.
Click to expand...

9800's will probably draw too much power. I had a G80 8800GTS that would overload the same 305W PSU.
They go for $50+ used, and at that point he might as well get a new 5670.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150535

Whoa, that's coming up as $40 after rebate and it comes with Stalker.
OP, that's a really good deal. The 5670 is both faster than a 9600GT (just a little, but it's faster), and it uses even less power. It's a DX11 card as well.
 
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gogoman123

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Aug 7, 2011
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hey thanks all.
@dominionseraph, i think ur first suggestions are less power hungry (gt240 & 9600gt), and unless theres a better alternative i think i will go with the gt240.
as for the 5670, it needs a better psu, the link u provided says i need a 500W psu for that! also i live in the uk, no newegg for me :( but thanks. same goes for 9800, 8800gt, psu cant handle them, unfortunately.
 
DominionSeraph

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
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gogoman123 said:
hey thanks all.
@dominionseraph, i think ur first suggestions are less power hungry (gt240 & 9600gt), and unless theres a better alternative i think i will go with the gt240.
as for the 5670, it needs a better psu, the link u provided says i need a 500W psu for that! also i live in the uk, no newegg for me :( but thanks. same goes for 9800, 8800gt, psu cant handle them, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Don't pay any attention to what they say it needs. A lot of PSU's have very optimistic power ratings so manufacturers play it very safe with their recommendations.

21374.png
 
frozentundra123456

frozentundra123456

Lifer
Aug 11, 2008
10,451
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There are green or PE (power efficient) 9800GT cards that are slightly undervolted and underclocked and dont require a PCIe power connector. I have been using one of these with a 300 watt power supply for almost a year in an acer off the shelf system, even though the specs for the card state a 400 watt PS is recommended. However, I am running an E4500, which is rated at 65w compared to probably 95w for the Pentium D.

But I would think that any card that does not require an external power adapter will work in your system. As someone else said, a GT240 (get the DDR5 version) or HD5670 will be a good choice. Even a HD5570 would probably be faster than your 8600GT. If you get something as fast as a HD5670 , using a 19 inch monitor, you will probably by CPU limited in a lot of newer games. The newer, poorly optimized console ports seem to require a lot of CPU power without much improvement in image quality.
 
toyota

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
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you have an old cheap 305 watt psu so do not count on it making anywhere near the power it did many years ago. a 2.8 Pentium D is not exactly a very low power cpu so I would go with something no more power hungry than a gt240.
 
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PrayForDeath

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2004
3,478
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I second the 5670 suggestion. It should run just fine on your system, and this tends to agree. In fact, it says the 5670 uses 16W less power than your current 8600 gt.
 
toyota

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
1
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PrayForDeath said:
I second the 5670 suggestion. It should run just fine on your system, and this tends to agree. In fact, it says the 5670 uses 16W less power than your current 8600 gt.
Click to expand...
a 5670 does NOT use less power than a 8600gt and that is a fact. look at every official review and see that a 5670 uses more power than a 4670 which already uses more power than an 8600gt. I owned BOTH a 4670 and 8600gt and the stock 4670 used about 20 more watts than my 8600gt. his psu is several years old and cheap so it would certainly be pushing it to run a 5670 with a Pentium D on that old thing.
 
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PrayForDeath

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2004
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toyota said:
a 5670 does NOT use less power than a 8600gt and that is a fact. look at every official review and see that a 5670 uses more power than a 4670 which already uses more power than an 8600gt. I owned BOTH a 4670 and 8600gt and the stock 4670 used about 20 more watts than my 8600gt.
Click to expand...

You're assuming too much here. Unless you have a direct comparison between a 8600 gt and a 5670 you can't claim the 5670 uses more power. I was just going by what Antec's PSU calculator says.

How did you measure your 4670 power draw?
 
toyota

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
1
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PrayForDeath said:
You're assuming too much here. Unless you have a direct comparison between a 8600 gt and a 5670 you can't claim the 5670 uses more power. I was just going by what Antec's PSU calculator says.

How did you measure your 4670 power draw?
Click to expand...
lol, yeah that makes sense. can you really not comprehend something so simple?

FACT: a 4670 uses more power than an 8600gt
FACT: a 5670 uses more power than a 4670

are you actually going to keep going on that a 5670 does not use more power than an 8600gt? :rolleyes:

heck just look at post #7 if you are still confused....
 
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gogoman123

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Aug 7, 2011
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ok thanks all, very helpful input.
ok so I decided to get the GT240 as I am cpu bottle-necked anyway, and its cheaper on ebay. so I narrowed it down to these 2:
XFX GT240 512MB DDR3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150475
PNY GT240 1GB DDR3 http://www3.pny.com/font-color999999...P2889C396.aspx

which one should I go for?

they are both being sold brand new on ebay for less than £40 and as far as I can tell they are both reference cards with same specs. so I guess the only factor remaining is the warranty service. now I know xfx provide lifetime warranty but I cant find nvidia cards on their european website (theres only ati cards), how am I going to register the card to benefit from the warranty? on the other hand PNY provide 3yr warranty.
thanks
 
toyota

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
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its better to get a gddr5 version if you can find one of those for not too much more money. if you have to choose between the two cards you listed then I guess go with the XFX if you can get the better warranty. 512mb or 1gb will not really make any difference at that level of card.
 
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gogoman123

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Aug 7, 2011
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unfortunalty theres only one GDDR5 version on ebay and it cost £55 including p&p. I cant access nvidia cards on the xfx website in order to register the card so I guess I will go for the pny unless the xfx one has better specs/components which i cant tell.
 
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gogoman123

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Aug 7, 2011
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just a brief feedback for anyone in a similar situation. I purchased a "PNY GT240 1GB GDDR3" for £40 and it fitted without problems in my dell Dimension E520. The 305W Dell psu handles the card without any problems, the card doesn't need any dedicated power cables. Now as for the games, all games I ran were on 720p without antialiasing on windows xp 32bit. these are the games I tried:

1. Assassins creed 2 on low settings was smooth. on medium settings theres a slight performance hit but still very playable fps.
2. Dues ex human revolution on high settings is very smooth.
3. COD MW3 on higher resolution and high settings ran perfect and very smooth without any lag.
4. Saints row the third on lowest settings was ok with playable fps. etxtures can be upped to high with a slight performance hit.
5. Split second runs perfect.
6. from dust was laggy on lowest settings

I think its a very nice upgrade (compared to my old 8600gt) and it ran recent games with playable fps at 720p. I think my cpu (Pentium D 2.8GHz) is really holding this card back, as I can only play most games on low to medium settings. anyway, thank you all for the input.

what do you guys think?
 
toyota

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
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gogoman123

Member
Aug 7, 2011
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one more thing, the card has 3 years warranty, the first year with the reseller and the additional 2 years with PNY upon registration of the card within 90 days from the date of purchase. but apparently only US customers can register products on PNY's website, as the european website doesnot have a registration page, which is weird. however PNY did confirm in an email that the warranty is 3 years.
 
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gogoman123

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Aug 7, 2011
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@toyota, I am not sure if all the settings were on high, but I remember that they were not on low either, it ran smoothly. 33 fps is ok, not perfect but ok, for this old pc. I dont think Deus Ex: HR is a demanding game on low resolution/settings.
 
frozentundra123456

frozentundra123456

Lifer
Aug 11, 2008
10,451
642
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Glad to hear you are happy with the card. It is a DDR3 instead of a DDR5 card, so it will be slower than a DDR5 GT240. However, it is probably fast enough for your CPU. You can download MSI afterburner to see if the graphics card if being utilized 100 percent and check CPU usage in task master to see if one component or the other is the limiting factor, or if they are being used equally.
 
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gogoman123

Member
Aug 7, 2011
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frozentundra123456 said:
The newer, poorly optimized console ports seem to require a lot of CPU power without much improvement in image quality.
Click to expand...

so true. my cpu usage during games is almost always 100%. I just tried L.A. Noire, what a mess that is on pc. at 720p with performance settings the game has slight lag but very playable fps, however it doesnt look great. I feel the character is slightly laggy even on my other pc (gtx460), is anyone else experiencing this lag when u start to walk from rest?

The games I mentioned earlier are running great on the pentiumD-gt240 pc though, except from dust which is laggy.

cod mw3, deus ex HR, split second, dead space 2, mass effect 2, portal 2 are running perfectly.

so for anyone with a similar cpu-psu combination and want to upgrade gpu, the gt240 is a very good choice for gaming at 720p (which is the consoles' resolution I think) with low-to-medium settings, but will have to lower the settings for poorly optimized console ports. but at least you will be able to play the latest games (awesome games this year!).

sorry I couldnt provide fps data, I never used fraps and it would have lowered the fps anyway. is there any other way to find out the fps of a game?
 
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