best card for a 550 Watt PSU

[blanketyblank]

Looking to upgrade my 5770, but my PSU is an antec neo 550 and I believe it only can do 2 x 6 pin connections. Thus I'm not sure if it's possible for me to get any card that uses an 8 pin unless there is a 2 molex to 8 pin converter. Also not sure if that will even work if the molex is used for the dvd writer drive.
Any good cards that fit the bill, preferr AMD so it can pay itself off.
Resolution is at 1920 x 1080. No set budget but I think around $350 for the high end.

 

[Powermoloch]

how much are you willing to spend on the upgrade?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Up to a 6950 should work fine with your un-declared budget, power supply, and energy efficiency claims. The 6950 is a pretty efficient card.

 

[toyota]

more info like what res and budget would be nice. personally there is no way I would go above a 6850 with that cpu and even then you will not come close to pushing that in more cpu demanding games.

 

[blanketyblank]

Budget isn't a problem, but let's say $350? I just don't want to spend money on a PSU upgrade. As for the CPU I'm using a Q9300 now instead of the e7300. I forgot how to edit my signature so it's been like that for a while. As for res. my primary monitor is 1920 x 1080.

 

[toyota]

WHAT RESOLUTION? you better have the Q9300 oced a bit if you want to get the best use out of a higher end card.

 

[blanketyblank]

WHAT RESOLUTION? you better have the Q9300 oced a bit if you want to get the best use out of a higher end card.

I don't mind OCing, I've taken the q9300 to 3.5 before though I prefer leaving it at 3.0 Ghz passive. As for resolution I would play at 1920 x 1080. My main concern is with the PSU connections since I've never owned a card that needs an 8 pin connection which the higher end cards seem to use.

 

[toyota]

I don't mind OCing, I've taken the q9300 to 3.5 before though I prefer leaving it at 3.0 Ghz passive. As for resolution I would play at 1920 x 1080.

I would probably just grab a 6850 as that would be a massive jump over your 4850 while consuming about the same power. plus the 6850 has some decent headroom if you choose to oc it.

 

[Destiny]

I have an EVGA Nvidia GTX 570 with my build and 550watt PSU... loving it...

 

[blanketyblank]

Looking at prices the 6870 seems to be around 165 while the 6850 can be had for about 155 on Amazon (prefer amazon to newegg). $10 difference isn't much, but I'm wondering if it's a good things since the 6870 might need an 8 pin.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

I have an antec eco neo 520W and it runs 6950s in crossfire no problem.

You can def run any single nvidia card with the 520 neo eco or any amd card up to crossfire 6950s except the 5970 of course. I have an eco 620c in the mail so I can unlock my 6950s to 6970s and run those in xfire

For the money, crossfire 5770 will be faster than any single card out there, assuming you have another pci-e slot. Best single card value is 6950, like $210 after rebates for a non reference card.

As for only having 2 6 pin pci adapters, all retail graphics cards come with molex to pci-e adapters. I had to use two to put in my other 6950.

 

[toyota]

I have an antec eco neo 520W and it runs 6950s in crossfire no problem.

You can def run any single nvidia card with the 520 neo eco or any amd card up to crossfire 6950s except the 5970 of course. I have an eco 620c in the mail so I can unlock my 6950s to 6970s and run those in xfire

For the money, crossfire 5770 will be faster than any single card out there, assuming you have another pci-e slot. Best single card value is 6950, like $210 after rebates for a non reference card.

As for only having 2 6 pin pci adapters, all retail graphics cards come with molex to pci-e adapters. I had to use two to put in my other 6950.

on the 12v line you only have 40 amps max under perfect conditions so you are pushing you psu very hard if you ever run something demanding like furmark.

you were already pushing it pretty close so why would order a psu thats not much better than what you already have to push a system that is going to use way more wattage and amps? that 620 watt psu you ordered also only has 8 more amps on the 12v yet you will be pushing about 15 more with oced 6970 setup. you need something a little more beefy to run oced 6970 as there is NO way a 620 watt Antec with only 48 amps is going to safely run oced 6970 setup.

its simple math because an oced 6970 system can easily pull close to 700 watts at the wall during full load. that right there would be around 575 real watts which is all that Antec 650 watt can provide on the 12v in perfect conditions. so best case scenario is that your system will be pushing that psu within an inch of its life during load. worst case is that you actually get a spike over what that psu can handle and poof.

 

[teatime0315]

Well for whatever my advice is worth... I was in the same situation as you. My rig was very similar to yours.

Intel Q9550 (stock)
8gb RAM
ATI 4850 512mb
520watt PSU Corsair

Then I upgraded to the HD6950. Pretty big upgrade I must say. The only bottleneck I've noticed so far was BC2, where my CPU hits 100%. Pretty impressed to be honest. First game that I've seen utilizing quads properly. I'm going to pick up an H50 soon, then overclock it to 4.0ghz hopefully.