300w vid card

SpringWater

SpringWater

Member
What is the best graphics card I can squeeze into a 300w psu? (wouldn't mind it being dx 10 and outdated cause this way it will be cheaper :D)

I read that some people did this with a 9600gt, but how... it requires a power connector which 99.9% of 300w psus don't have ?
 
HD3000 or HD4250. Otherwise no dedicated card can safely be run on that low of a wattage, especially when accounting for the rest of your systems requirement.
 
Well, it's running a gt 520 right now so yeah... (it's not the system in my sig.)

I was thinking about the 9600gso, I know that it's meant to be used w/ a 400w psu but maybe...
 
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You are treading on the edge of enough there.

Full system specs including the brand and model of PSU. (not that it matters, as you are already sucking more power than it can survive for long)
 
Don't know what the brand of the psu is and I can't check it since the pc is not at my house right now, but I can tell you that it's a stock psu so it's probably something along the lines of crap-electrics.

The rest of the specs are:
-Some asus micro atx mobo (up to 4gb of ddr2 ram)
-2gb of ddr2 667mhz ram
-gigabyte gt 520 1gb
-core 2 duo e4300 (1.86ghz) lga 775
-250gb hdd
-no case fans

I'm giving myself high hopes since the cpu is quite power-efficient
 
Okay, you are looking at the PSU tripping at 300 watts with a low power unit like that. Assuming all calculations are right and a G41 chipset, you have 184 watts to spare before your unit trips and takes other things out with it. Take it down by 50% or more because of capacitor aging and a safeway between the trip point and your power need and you have 92 watts left. That is enough for very little if any addon. (and give you now, I am not sure capasitor aging rate, or exact power consumptions from components. Took numbers from Intel breifs and quick google searches. Got 65 watt CPU, 25 watt chipset, 10 watts on HDDs, 5-8 watts per Dimm of DDR2 (assumed 2 dimms) and divided remainder by 2 to account aging and headroom).
 
wolfeking said:
Okay, you are looking at the PSU tripping at 300 watts with a low power unit like that. Assuming all calculations are right and a G41 chipset, you have 184 watts to spare before your unit trips and takes other things out with it. Take it down by 50% or more because of capacitor aging and a safeway between the trip point and your power need and you have 92 watts left. That is enough for very little if any addon. (and give you now, I am not sure capasitor aging rate, or exact power consumptions from components. Took numbers from Intel breifs and quick google searches. Got 65 watt CPU, 25 watt chipset, 10 watts on HDDs, 5-8 watts per Dimm of DDR2 (assumed 2 dimms) and divided remainder by 2 to account aging and headroom).
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Meaning? Is there any hope for squeezing a better video card into the system?

Oh, and it has two DIMMs like you predicted.
 
Meaning that you will be pushing the system with your current GPU. You can add more power if you want, but don't expect it to last.

If you could upgrade to a 420+ watt from antec, Seasonic or the like, then it would be a decent system. But I am not going to tell you you will be fine with a OEM unit of unknown age in a system that is relatively power hungry (as far as teh PSU is concerned) as is.
 
wolfeking said:
Meaning that you will be pushing the system with your current GPU. You can add more power if you want, but don't expect it to last.

If you could upgrade to a 420+ watt from antec, Seasonic or the like, then it would be a decent system. But I am not going to tell you you will be fine with a OEM unit of unknown age in a system that is relatively power hungry (as far as teh PSU is concerned) as is.
Click to expand...

I guess a better PSU it is...
 
SpringWater said:
What is the best graphics card I can squeeze into a 300w psu? (wouldn't mind it being dx 10 and outdated cause this way it will be cheaper :D)
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Nothing. Not necessarily because of the low wattage, but rather because of the low amount of current on the +12V rail. You need at least 26A (I think) on the +12V rail to run any sort of discrete card, and most 300W units cannot provide 26A on the +12V rail.

You need a new PSU I'm afraid.
 
You have to remember something though. A 300 watt OEM psu may only actually put out 225-250 watts at best from the 12V rail. The only logical answer is to get a new psu.
 
spirit said:
Nothing. Not necessarily because of the low wattage, but rather because of the low amount of current on the +12V rail. You need at least 26A (I think) on the +12V rail to run any sort of discrete card, and most 300W units cannot provide 26A on the +12V rail.

You need a new PSU I'm afraid.
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The only thing that bothers me is that this pc came with an 8400gs pre-installed by the manufacturer, so maybe this psu is not that horrible after all... :confused:
 
You are only going to regret it. It might have handled an 8400GS when it was new, but you loose power every year and for temps above 25*C that it is tested at. You are never going to run exactly 300 watts on it, and you will never come close to that after years of use either.
 
SpringWater said:
The only thing that bothers me is that this pc came with an 8400gs pre-installed by the manufacturer, so maybe this psu is not that horrible after all... :confused:
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Just because the manufacturer powers an 8400 GS using this PSU doesn't make it any better I'm afraid. Sure, it may work, but not for very long. Eventually it'll go pop or your card will die because of a lack of current on the +12V rail.

I've had this happen to me before, the moral of the story was, don't cheap out on power supplies.
 
spirit said:
Nothing. Not necessarily because of the low wattage, but rather because of the low amount of current on the +12V rail. You need at least 26A (I think) on the +12V rail to run any sort of discrete card, and most 300W units cannot provide 26A on the +12V rail.

You need a new PSU I'm afraid.
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I would take everything that Bigfella says with a huge pinch of salt before you start quoting that crap ;)

It is also impossible for the 300W unit to provide 26A on the 12V rail, because that would be 312W.

SpringWater said:
The only thing that bothers me is that this pc came with an 8400gs pre-installed by the manufacturer, so maybe this psu is not that horrible after all... :confused:
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An 8400GS sips power and is not a gaming card.

Just take the facts mate as they come - you need a better power supply. We could have cut the thread short as soon as the first person said this, there are no ifs, ands or buts, that is it, simple as. If you decide to go and get a graphics card anyway, it is the same as you buying a car that is up on bricks. It is all well and good having the car, but you have no wheels, the same here, you have the whole system, except for the most vital part - the power
 
What can happen if I install a card, and it won't get enough power, will the pc brake for good, or will I be able to roll back to the previous card and everything will go back to normal?
 
SpringWater said:
What can happen if I install a card, and it won't get enough power, will the pc brake for good, or will I be able to roll back to the previous card and everything will go back to normal?
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Just get a new power supply :rolleyes:...

If it doesn't get enough power, it will potentially, and likely, blow. As it is a cheap unit, it will not have the protection given by even a mid-range power supply, so when it goes boom it will likely fry other components. At that point, you will be out a power supply and other components just because you didn't want to spend a bit of money on a decent, solid unit. the other parts that have died will also not be covered by warranty, because no hardware warranty covers damage to due hardware failure

Alternatively, even if it doesn't blow, the graphics card will be useless because you will have the system freezing and in games there will be artifacts.
 
well guys. im going to put my 2 cents in. yes, i know that 300 watt psu (oem at that), is not the smartest thing to do according to requirments and all that. BUT, i am going to put 2 experiences in here, so one is, my friend has been running an athlon II x 2 3Ghz dual core and a hd 5670 on an hp oem 300 watt psu for about 2 years now with out a problem. psu doesnt get warm or anything when gaming. also, i built an apu quad core system with a hd 6670 in hybrid crossfire for my sister, and its on a fsp 300 watt psu and works like a charm. not a problem there either after a year. so, my conclusion is this....yes, you SHOULD get a new psu, according to requirments and what documentations say...although you can power some cards (mainly those with out pci-e power connectors)...on 300 watt psu's. its just not the smartest thing you could do....all i can say is that you can try. if you have a problem then dont be suprised since it is a 300 watt psu. or you can take a chance and see how it goes with the 300 watt psu. you may be like me and get lucky i guess if thats what you wanna call it, and have your system run fine for a while like i have with these 2.
 
Aastii said:
I would take everything that Bigfella says with a huge pinch of salt before you start quoting that crap ;)

It is also impossible for the 300W unit to provide 26A on the 12V rail, because that would be 312W.



An 8400GS sips power and is not a gaming card.
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We have 5-7 year old dells running 7300GTs, 8400s, and 6450s, Dimension 5150, e521s and e520s...and guess what they run the cards fine... probably the 7300 sucks more juice than the other two and i think we had many other power supplies fail in custom builds, but fairly few of the dells.
 
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