What low end cards are a decent replacement for integrated graphics?

StrangleHold said:
What a OEM does is a different story.

Plus Nvidia minimum requirements for a 9400GS is 300W and it can pull up to 40/50W under load.

A 230W OEM power supply, I would be surprised if it even has 130W (if even that) on the 12V rail. They dump alot of the watts on the 5.5/3V rail.

So you are looking at 130 watts at MAX. Being a cheap OEM, running at any thing over 50/60% pull puts alot of stress on it.

Would it work, might so. Would it be the responsible thing to suggest, No.
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yea remember Nvidia quoting 500W for a 6800GT that ran fine on 300W. Im in the bussiness and do this daily for my own clients at my shop, with zero issues to them, OEM's today arn't building there own PSU's for instance the last dell I opened up I was able to discover it was an Antec 300. And they focus alot more on the 12V rail today, because the 5v Rail isnt used today except for older devices and 3.3v is used for low power devices. OEM's know the 12V rail is now the no1 rail and build accordingly, I promise it would work.
 
A radeon 5550 would be good. Roughly equivalent to a 4670 in power, and uses a maximum of 40W. Should be available in half-height form.
 
Candlepally said:
yea remember Nvidia quoting 500W for a 6800GT that ran fine on 300W. Im in the bussiness and do this daily for my own clients at my shop, with zero issues to them, OEM's today arn't building there own PSU's for instance the last dell I opened up I was able to discover it was an Antec 300. And they focus alot more on the 12V rail today, because the 5v Rail isnt used today except for older devices and 3.3v is used for low power devices. OEM's know the 12V rail is now the no1 rail and build accordingly, I promise it would work.
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Thats great. I've been in the business for 16 years. But I give up, you can build them any way you want. I build custom computers to fit my standards. Dont really care what OEMs do at all really.

Plus OEM computers Dell/Sony/HP/Compaq/eMachine and so on dont make any of the hardware and never have. The parts are made by the cheapest bidder, sent to Dell and so on. All the OEMs do is put them together. They dont even make the cases.

I could go on more but thats all I got to say.
 
bigfellla said:
You cannot repeat, cannot put a PCIe card on that PSU. You need 26A on the 12V rail minimum, that PSU will not have that. You need a PSU first off. That may even fix the problem.
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What are you talking about? I mean the GTX 460 you only need a minimum of 24 amps on the 12V rail and that's a pretty decent card. They are talking about low end cards.
 
StrangleHold said:
Thats great. I've been in the business for 16 years. But I give up, you can build them any way you want. I build custom computers to fit my standards. Dont really care what OEMs do at all really.

Plus OEM computers Dell/Sony/HP/Compaq/eMachine and so on dont make any of the hardware and never have. The parts are made by the cheapest bidder, sent to Dell and so on. All the OEMs do is put them together. They dont even make the cases.

I could go on more but thats all I got to say.
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you've been in this bussiness for 16 years you would know then that 230W will run just fine for his system, recomending a PSU for no reason isnt right at all. I do build Custom PC's for customers, one of the rigs I sold to a guy for his son for Christmas was using

Corei3 530, 4gb DDR3 1333, Intel Board, and Nvidia Geforce GT240 all running on a 350W PSU and 100% stable. You should know that compaines over rate the real power needs of the parts and always have. with a low end card and his other parts we are looking at about 170W used total, so he is under the 230W his PSU provides
 
Candlepally said:
I know its a 230W, I also know a 230W psu will run with a Q6600, 4gb of DDR2, a 500GB hard drive, and a 9400GS ive opened plenty of computers at my shop with that configuration from the OEM. There cards will use about 25W full load and wont stress is PSU unless he has OC'd the system which i doubt considering its OEM. For a low card like this recomending to replace the PSU is wasted money, I promise that much.
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Candlepally said:
with a low end card and his other parts we are looking at about 170W used total, so he is under the 230W his PSU provides
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And the moment someone starts talking about watts as the criteria, then you know they understand PSUs little. No offence, but anyone who understands this stuff realises that the OEM will put in the most basic, cheapest and 'just enough' PSU to make mum and dad happy. On a hardware/computer forum however, recommending a GPU upgrade on that PSU is plain irresponsible.
 
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I was just going to get him a cheap HD 4350 or 8400 GS to be honest, those cards don't draw much power at all.

What about one of these? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500164&cm_re=IOn-_-14-500-164-_-Product

He told me today that if it would be cheaper in the long run just to put together something new, just to do it. But if I don't buy new parts, Pick up a Antec 300, a 500w PSU and a Low end card. (GTS 450 is what he asked for.)

So if enough people suggest just to replace his old machine, I will do it.
For a new machine, I was thinking about getting him a Athlon II 445, 4GB of DDR3, and GTS 450/GTX 460 768MB. I also owe him about $100 so I might throw in 60/64GB SSD.
 
...had two 9800GTX+ cards and a 125W cpu on a 550W PSU... the thing ran pretty much ok, tho the case was the problem with stability, it was getting warm. honestly at times i think load comes into a factor with alot of these psu's, how often will a web surfing box get pegged, maybe possibly from a out of control java app? probably not very much...which is why these oems can run a lower end power supply...hell i think my friends gateway has a 9500 phenom x4 with 3 gig of ram and a pair of 500 gig hdds, and he put a 9800GT in it...the bugger runs FINE... so eh, go with what you think, and if it doesnt work...well then change the part, often the ratings that nvidia puts has small print *WITH SUCH AND SUCH CPU MOBO AND RAM* pay attention it and adjust your figures accordingly...hence why some ratings seem so much higher... i dont see much problem with attempting to put a lower end gpu in a machine with a low end power supply, but thats my two cents...its not going to be running any super intensive apps...should be okay.
 
^
Well... Some games like Need For Speed Underground 2 and Most wanted, as well as Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, CS:S and some others.

But if my HD 4350 worked on his system at full load, what other cards do you suspect can be used?
 
bigfellla said:
And the moment someone starts talking about watts as the criteria, then you know they understand PSUs little. No offence, but anyone who understands this stuff realises that the OEM will put in the most basic, cheapest and 'just enough' PSU to make mum and dad happy. On a hardware/computer forum however, recommending a GPU upgrade on that PSU is plain irresponsible.
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Im well aware they do but they use the same PSU for the onboard as they will when they toss the 9400 into, because they also know it will handle the GPU fine.
 
BurningSkyline said:
Please stop arguing and pay attention to the actual thread....
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I agree 100% with bigfella and stranglehold, to put any video card, low end or not, into a system with a 230W PSU is just plain stupid. By all means go and do it, but all you can expect is, maybe not immediately, but eventually with the extra strain, for that unit will blow, and like what happens when a unit blows, especially a cheap one like what you already have, it will have little protection against it, so you can except much of the rest of the system to be going down too.

You are much better off getting a PSU now and saving for a video card later. What is the point in buying a new engine for your car if you can't afford the fuel to run it?
 
How about something a bit more helpful, assuming you would need an atx psu and also if you can wait for rebates, you may have a bit more choice.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371023

Antec Basic 39.95 or 29.95 after rebate, there are also a few more choices simalar to this, theres a corsair, another antec, a fsp and a seasonic, but this seems to be a good deal.

GPU,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102896

Sapphire HD4550 14.99 after rebate, 29.99 before, if you cant wait for rebates and want to keep the total under 60 then there are plenty of 8400's to choose from.

On a related note but not necessarily important atm for the op, anyone else hear about the low-profile hd57xx's?

http://www.techpowerup.com/123610/PowerColor-Low-Profile-HD-5700-Series-Cards-Spotted.html
 
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This is a "slim" case, and I figured out it has a TFX12v Power Supply.

There aren't many of those Units so I figured It might just be best if I built him a new machine considering this one is from 2007/2008.

Power Supply, Case, and Video Card.

Like I Said In an Earlier Post, It might be best to just build something new.
 
BurningSkyline said:
But If I pay that much to fix it, wouldn't it be better to just build a new machine for him?
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Not necessarily. By getting those 3 parts, you give him the platform to keep upgrading, spending little amounts over time. With the case, when he chooses he can change the mobo, add more hard drives or optical drives, put in an aftermarket HSF, larger video cards or extra cooling, the PSU will handle almost any low-mid range cards and upgrades, so really, he can, for his needs, do whatever he wants so far as changing his system around is concerned, until standards change
 
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