Which Card for 250 watt PSU?

[teambarnes]

OK I found an Acer deal I couldnt pass up - I have an Acer Athlon X2 4400, 30 gb hd, 2 gb ram, but integrated Ati 1250 IGP. The problem is that I need a graphics card for moderate gaming, and the computer only has a 250 watt PSU.

I know, upgrade the psu! But if, IF i wanted the best card I could get with a 250 watt PSU, what card would that be? I have a PCI-EX 16 slot, so its only the PSU i need to worry about. Any suggestions, other that upgrading to a new psu?

(Is the ANY possible way to get an ATI Radeon 3850 in there w/out upgrading the PSU?)

 

[ArbysOvenMitt]

I wouldn't count on it. If you check out the power consumption at load on the 3850 it almost reaches 190ish alone... leaving a mere 60w for the rest of the system.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151&p=11

Doesn't look very good for that small a psu. You could probably find a good 400w for cheap though!

EDIT: Fellow ATer has a 430w for sale at $10+shipping.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2122334&enterthread=y

I don't imagine a deal like that will be found again soon, assuming it's compatible.

 

[DaffyDrunk]

Actually from what I've read the 3850 uses 35w idle and 95w full load. That Anandtech article showing 190 watts would have to be the entire tower. If the Acer in question has a 65w brisbane cpu in it, then I think it will work just fine. Probably wouldn't wanna push it much farther though. Nice to have a little headroom in the ps.

 

[teambarnes]

Interesting, but on ATI homepage they reccommend a minimum 450w PSU. SO 35/95 sounds great but is it true? The Radeon article you link (which is what decided me on the Radeon) never mentions that it is the full tower wattage, they just call out the cards. Can I get some clarity here? I would love to have a 3850, but I am leery about changing the PSU, cuz 1 I dont want to, and 2, it is a small form factor case and Im not sure which one would work. I know nothing about hardware.

This whole wattage issue has me scratching my head. I dont want to become more knowledgeable about it, but I guess I will have to.

I just want a video card! Argh!

 

[TheOtherRizzo]

Originally posted by: ArbysOvenMitt
I wouldn't count on it. If you check out the power consumption at load on the 3850 it almost reaches 190ish alone...
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151&p=11

190 is the full system. X2 4400+ is probably the 65 W version and 3870 needs 66 W max., 3850 even less(http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354)). If the PSU is capable of 250W it should be fine but only testing will really tell.

Originally posted by: teambarnes
Interesting, but on ATI homepage they reccommend a minimum 450w PSU.

Forget those recommendations. They assume you have a crap PSU and wan't to run dual overclocked Pentium 4 + 8 Disk RAID and your computer controlled vacuum cleaner with it.

 

[DaffyDrunk]

The 3850 is a 55nm GPU. You might figure out a way to get the thing to crank out 190 watts on it's own, but but the magic smoke would certainly be unleashed.

 

[Capt Caveman]

You should be fine with a 3850. There is a person over at ocforums running a 880GT which uses more power than a 3850 using a 250w psu.

 

[Denithor]

Be careful with "there's a person over somewhere with xxx on a similar powersupply" because not all 250W power supplies are made equal. There is a huge difference between those that will handle a constant load of 250W versus those that are only rated for 250W peak use. More important is the amount of amps your +12v rail provides. Does your PS label have any kind of statement about the max output from the 12v rail?

 

[nowayout99]

For what it's worth, the Antec EarthWatts 380 is going for $15 on NewEgg after a $30 MIR. That's about the cheapest you're going to get for a good PSU for quality mid-range gaming. At that price, why not?

Linky

 

[Stumps]

you might be able to get away with using your small PSU, but in the long term upgrading to a beefier PSU would be the sensible thing to do.

As others have said make sure your +12v rail is upto the job before adding a video card, usually anything over 24A is fine with new video cards, but anything over 15A should be fine for Video cards like the 7600 series and X16x0 series video cards.. a 7900GS should be fine as well.

I have a P4 3.4ghz/7800GS system with an Antec SP350 (old model) that only has 15A on the +12v and it runs all day long with out any problems and it has a multiple harddisks in a large RAID array.

 

[teambarnes]

Thanks for all the replies! That clinches it -I am going to order the 3850 (or maybe wait until the 512mb comes out... and will use it with the knowledge that I may immediately need to replace my PSU.

Wow, I am impressed how the IGP ATI x1250 out performs my old Geforce FX 5200 from 4 yrs ago, lol. I cant wait to try my new rig with some ACTUAL grafix processing!