New Video Card Advice

[Mainiac65]

Hi All,

I just upgraded my monitor to a Dell 24" running at 1900x1200. I'm currently running a 7600GT and it's definitely struggling at that resolution on anything higher than medium quality in games. I'd like to upgrade to a DX10 card, but am not sure what my options are as they may be limited by my power supply from what I've been reading. I'm looking to spend $100-$150.

My current system is a Gateway GT5228 Athlon 64 X2 4200+ with 2GB RAM (I'm probably going to upgrade to 4GB). My power supply is only 300w so I'm not sure what my options are. Most of the cards I look at don't seem to have specs on what you need for power. I'm mainly looking at either the 8600GT or 8800GT series but I am open to other cards. Any advice is appreciated. If it helps I've linked my system and power supply specs below.

Also, I just talked to my cousin that has a similar Gateway PC with a similar power suply and he upgraded to a 8800GTS 6 months ago with no problems so I may have more leeway than I thought.

Thanks for any advice!

System:
http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/10...09153sp2.shtml

Power Supply:
http://support.gateway.com/s/POWER/6...6054Rsp2.shtml

 

[Narynan]

I am thinking that a 8800GT would be your best bet. But really anything you are looking at above that 7600 is really going to get into the realm of NEEDing a better PSU. I mean, WILL it run? Sure maybe, for a little while. But I would think that a moderate PSU increase would be choice.

I know its not the most fun, because it makes the video card THAT MUCH more expensive, but really looking at the following choices will make that video card / computer life much, much sweeter.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...n=Corsair+Power+Supply

or this, because I love Zalman PSU's
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817379005

Once again, it COUDL swing the 8800gt, but its going to put a hurting on that PSU, and degrade it very, very fast.

 

[faxon]

to be honest i wouldnt settle for anything less than an 8800GT, preferably a 9800GT though because of the die shrink n it makinfg it use less power and run cooler as a result. however for any gaming system i wouldnt settle for less than a 500 watt CPU either, since you will be running that shitty PSU at load as it is, and it is probably going to croak wirh any upgrade you do. i have an athlon 64 4000+ on a 939 evga board with 2GB of ram, and i have a 750 watt PSU because i have 5 hard drives, an hd 2900PRO 1GB, and an X-Fi. all in all my system uses like 500watts of power at load, if not more what with my cooling fans. if i were to add in another GPU i could get away with it if i took out some HDDs, but PSUs are designed such that to put the peak load possible on it often would actually burn out the PSU in a matter of days. thats the situationthat OEM manufacturers like dell and gateway put you in with their systems, since it is cheaper to only give you what you need and no rom to improve other than in ram or disk space.

in short, you need at least a 500watt PSU to drive a system with a gpu in it that. can drive your monitor without stuttering.



any errors in the above post are the fault of my phone. im on vacation in maui and im posting from my blackjack2 LOL

 

[natty1]

a 9600gt might run on his PSU

newegg has 9600gt's for about $100

 

[Mainiac65]

Thanks for all the replies.

I was out at Best Buy last night and I just said the heck with it and picked up an 8800GT. I put it in my system and it's been running perfectly with no problem.

If I understand though it appears even though it is working fine it could fry my power supply after some time? If that's the case I may be better off going with the 9600GT if you think I can get by with my current PSU with that card. I plan on getting a new PC in 6 months or so and I really don't want to add the extra expense of a new PSU in my current system.

Thanks.

 

[octopus41092]

Why not just get a new PSU now and reuse it later?