Best graphics card my PSU can handle?

[RyanGreener]

General specs of the computer that should generally matter in this question:
1. AM3 Athlon II 245
2. One Hard Drive.
3. One Optical Drive.
4. Using a PC Power and Cooling 370W PSU.

What's the best single graphics card I can run without worries of lack of power? I'm not looking for a super fast graphics card, just one that can be ran on this type of PSU with this type of setup. Thanks!

 

[mpilchfamily]

Any video card that doesn't need a 6 or 8 pin PCI-e power connector will be fine. Anything else and you could run into problems. So if you plan to game on this system you'll want to upgrade the PSU at the same time your upgrading the video card.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Any video card that doesn't need a 6 or 8 pin PCI-e power connector will be fine. Anything else and you could run into problems. So if you plan to game on this system you'll want to upgrade the PSU at the same time your upgrading the video card.

Thats hardly the case. The key was what you stated-- Any video card that doesn't need a 6 or 8 pin PCI-e power ....

His PSU can handle any of the older cards no problem!!

 

[v8envy]

I presume that's the PC P&C Silencer 370. That PSU has 27 amps on the 12 volt rail and a PCIe connector. Moreover, it's not optimistically rated like some '600 watt' (aka 300 watt) PSUs.

It'll handle a GT250/4850 or smaller card without breaking a sweat. If you use molex adapters even a 4890 should be safe.

 

[yh125d]

I wouldn't go past a 4870/gtx260/5770

 

[Stefan Payne]

27A or 324W total on the +12V Rail?

With a low end CPU like that Athlon 2 x2 you'll can buy almost any single GPU graphics card you like.
A HD2900XT I'd rather not buy.

So you may use a HD5870 but that wouldn't make that much sense due to that rather slow CPU.

 

[v8envy]

27A or 324W total on the +12V Rail?

With a low end CPU like that Athlon 2 x2 you'll can buy almost any single GPU graphics card you like.
A HD2900XT I'd rather not buy.

So you may use a HD5870 but that wouldn't make that much sense due to that rather slow CPU.

IIRC it's a single rail PSU, 27A. It's a monster of a "small" PSU -- I think the box even said "SLI Ready."

While it's miles better than some alleged "600 watt" units the 5870 might be pushing it. I mean, he's gotta have SOME power left over for the CPU, fans, capacitor aging...

 

[Stefan Payne]

Well the HD5870 doesn't use much more than the HD4870, so both should be fine.

With 325W there is about 100W for the rest, so yes it is pretty damn close, if he had a Phenom or something but he does only have a dual core athlon 2 wich isn't that hungry...