Video Card Upgrade

[jdogg707]

My current system:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz
Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H
G.Skill 4GB DDR2-800 RAM (2x2GB)
BFG 9600GT OC 512MB Video Card
Antec 900 Tower Case
Corsair CMPSU-450VX 450W PSU
Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive
LG Blu-ray Burner
Dell 3007WFP

Question:

When I originally put this system together I never had gaming in mind. In fact, if the motherboard had supported the resolution of my monitor I wouldn't have the 9600GT. Recently I have decided to get back into WoW and possibly Warhammer Online as well. I was hoping to upgrade my video card to the following 4890:
Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 4890 1GB Video Card - $219.99

Will it work without me needing to upgrade my PSU? I don't have anything overclocked, nor do I have plans to. I prefer quiet if at all possible, and it looks like the custom cooling solution on this video card provides both great cooling and quiet operation. Any other recommendations that would be better than this?

 

[yh125d]

4890 would be great. Your corsair 450w should be fine also

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

4890 for WoW is overkill, unless Wrath is more intense on gfx cards - I haven't played WoW since before then. That would be pushing it with a 450w PSU according to the outervision calc which tends to be liberal with the power. This is more true for an older PSU. It could be fine, but I'd keep an eye on it and prepare to buy a new PC Power & Cooling 500w like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817703015

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChai
4890 for WoW is overkill, unless Wrath is more intense on gfx cards - I haven't played WoW since before then. That would be pushing it with a 450w PSU according to the outervision calc which tends to be liberal with the power. This is more true for an older PSU. It could be fine, but I'd keep an eye on it and prepare to buy a new PC Power & Cooling 500w like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817703015

Wrath is a lot more gpu intensive yes. 4890 isn't overkill, but it's about the max I'd recommend anyone buy for just WoW

And the PSU you recommended has a whopping 24w more power on the 12v :


The corsair is fine

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Originally posted by: yh125d

Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChai
4890 for WoW is overkill, unless Wrath is more intense on gfx cards - I haven't played WoW since before then. That would be pushing it with a 450w PSU according to the outervision calc which tends to be liberal with the power. This is more true for an older PSU. It could be fine, but I'd keep an eye on it and prepare to buy a new PC Power & Cooling 500w like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817703015

Wrath is a lot more gpu intensive yes. 4890 isn't overkill, but it's about the max I'd recommend anyone buy for just WoW

And the PSU you recommended has a whopping 24w more power on the 12v :


The corsair is fine

The reason I suggested that PSU is because it's NEW. I don't know how old the OP's system is, but the wattage put out by a PSU (w/ electrolytic capacitors) that is a year or more old begins to drop... The OP could get a 610w for $100, but I don't know their budget. Estimating his system, 450w is barely passable. 24 more watts is 24w more. Try the 4890 and if your system shuts down or anything, order a bigger, NEW, well-made PSU. Like I said, it should be OK, but don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I used to play WoW on an AMD 3200+ & 6800 128MB and I could run low-higher settings fine, so a 4850 with a Q would dust that...

 

[0roo0roo]

its only overkill if you cant afford it.
fsaa settings to the max

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChai

Originally posted by: yh125d

Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChai
4890 for WoW is overkill, unless Wrath is more intense on gfx cards - I haven't played WoW since before then. That would be pushing it with a 450w PSU according to the outervision calc which tends to be liberal with the power. This is more true for an older PSU. It could be fine, but I'd keep an eye on it and prepare to buy a new PC Power & Cooling 500w like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817703015

Wrath is a lot more gpu intensive yes. 4890 isn't overkill, but it's about the max I'd recommend anyone buy for just WoW

And the PSU you recommended has a whopping 24w more power on the 12v :


The corsair is fine

The reason I suggested that PSU is because it's NEW. I don't know how old the OP's system is, but the wattage put out by a PSU (w/ electrolytic capacitors) that is a year or more old begins to drop... The OP could get a 610w for $100, but I don't know their budget. Estimating his system, 450w is barely passable. 24 more watts is 24w more. Try the 4890 and if your system shuts down or anything, order a bigger, NEW, well-made PSU. Like I said, it should be OK, but don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I used to play WoW on an AMD 3200+ & 6800 128MB and I could run low-higher settings fine, so a 4850 with a Q would dust that...

450w barely passable? I can run my rig off a 3 year old FSP 400w so that's bollocks...


Does it matter what you *used* to play wow with? My brother raided in vanilla with a 6600gt, old barton 1.8gHz and 1gb of ram and it was fine. Then TBC was a huge jump in GPU, and then Wrath was an even bigger jump than vanilla -> TBC. I play WoW now, and my 4890 can't quite max out WoW these days, so it's definitely not overkill

 

[jdogg707]

Thanks for all the replies. The PSU is only a few months old, as this system is kind of a mixing pot of HTPC and leftover parts I put together. I think I'll try the 4890 with the current PSU and see what happens. Worst case scenario I get a new power supply!

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Originally posted by: yh125d

Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChai

Originally posted by: yh125d

Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChai
4890 for WoW is overkill, unless Wrath is more intense on gfx cards - I haven't played WoW since before then. That would be pushing it with a 450w PSU according to the outervision calc which tends to be liberal with the power. This is more true for an older PSU. It could be fine, but I'd keep an eye on it and prepare to buy a new PC Power & Cooling 500w like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817703015

Wrath is a lot more gpu intensive yes. 4890 isn't overkill, but it's about the max I'd recommend anyone buy for just WoW

And the PSU you recommended has a whopping 24w more power on the 12v :


The corsair is fine

The reason I suggested that PSU is because it's NEW. I don't know how old the OP's system is, but the wattage put out by a PSU (w/ electrolytic capacitors) that is a year or more old begins to drop... The OP could get a 610w for $100, but I don't know their budget. Estimating his system, 450w is barely passable. 24 more watts is 24w more. Try the 4890 and if your system shuts down or anything, order a bigger, NEW, well-made PSU. Like I said, it should be OK, but don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I used to play WoW on an AMD 3200+ & 6800 128MB and I could run low-higher settings fine, so a 4850 with a Q would dust that...

450w barely passable? I can run my rig off a 3 year old FSP 400w so that's bollocks...


Does it matter what you *used* to play wow with? My brother raided in vanilla with a 6600gt, old barton 1.8gHz and 1gb of ram and it was fine. Then TBC was a huge jump in GPU, and then Wrath was an even bigger jump than vanilla -> TBC. I play WoW now, and my 4890 can't quite max out WoW these days, so it's definitely not overkill

Wow, are you gonna camp me now?

You're right... it doesn't matter that you have a 3 year old PSU most likely feeding a less than 95w CPU...

It's not like the game has changed much since I played Burning Crusade, but isn't WoW more geared towards nVidia?