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GPU for a 300W system

I

Intel_Hydralisk

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
4,743
I have a friend who currently has a 300W PSU in a generic HP desktop. The specs are:

Athlon II X4 2.6 ghz
6 GB ram
600 GB HDD
generic DVD drive
nvidia geforce 9100

Her monitor only runs at 1360x768.

The main goal is to just get something that hauls more ass than the crappy 9100 that's in it right now. The main issue is the 300W PSU. The games that she plays is not super demanding, but right now has to turn all settings to low due to the 9100. The main game that she plays is Vindictus which is a source engine based game and graphically isn't too demanding.

I hesitate to make any recommendations personally since I do not have any experience with a 300W system... Looking at what she has, there doesn't seem to be much room to work with. Buying a PSU is not an option right now because 1) Her total budget wouldn't allow it 2) She herself really doesn't know enough to re-connect everything to the new PSU and I can't do it for her.

Does anyone have any personal experience with a low power system? Which GPU would give her the best performance per wattage in her situation and not overload the system? Thanks guys.
 
Intel_Hydralisk said:
I have a friend who currently has a 300W PSU in a generic HP desktop. The specs are:

Athlon II X4 2.6 ghz
6 GB ram
600 GB HDD
generic DVD drive
nvidia geforce 9100

Her monitor only runs at 1360x768.

The main goal is to just get something that hauls more ass than the crappy 9100 that's in it right now. The main issue is the 300W PSU. The games that she plays is not super demanding, but right now has to turn all settings to low due to the 9100. The main game that she plays is Vindictus which is a source engine based game and graphically isn't too demanding.

I hesitate to make any recommendations personally since I do not have any experience with a 300W system... Looking at what she has, there doesn't seem to be much room to work with. Buying a PSU is not an option right now because 1) Her total budget wouldn't allow it 2) She herself really doesn't know enough to re-connect everything to the new PSU and I can't do it for her.

Does anyone have any personal experience with a low power system? Which GPU would give her the best performance per wattage in her situation and not overload the system? Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

If she had a 300 Watt Corsair or Enermax, antec, pcp&c etc.. I'd say go for it. get xyz card. More than likely that HP has a hippro or bestek power supply which are complete and utter pieces of shit. she could kill her system adding and running a new card in there.

First thing I would ask her if you haven't seen the system is, if the system is slimline because it sounds like one. If it isn't as you mentioned you would need to upgrade the power supply.

I wont be shocked if someone here tells you to add a card well because they can't be held liable and it's not their system. Listen to what I'm telling you, any card that would run in there would not be worth the upgrade in the first place. Get a new budget but quality psu and a 6850 or GTX 460
 
IMO upgrade the power supply and slot in a 6850. Great price on this 6850 this weekend, 129.99 after MIR.
Just make sure any card you get will fit in her case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150551

A GTX 460 1GB is an option but it uses more power and is more expensive for roughly the same performance.

You could probably get away with a decent 400W power supply such as this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371029

If you had more budget you could get a quality 500W but it's probably unnecessary.
 
jhokie said:
IMO upgrade the power supply and slot in a 6850. Great price on this 6850 this weekend, 129.99 after MIR.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150551

A GTX 460 1GB is an option but it uses more power and is more expensive for roughly the same performance.

You could probably get away with a decent 400W power supply such as this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371029

If you had more budget you could get a quality 500W but it's probably unnecessary.
Click to expand...

These suggestions probably approach the value of the entire system itself (if not surpass it)..

OP should've put budget in the OP -- "not within budget" (when you mentioned replacement PSU) isn't specific enough, even disregarding the possibility of the PSU not permitting any upgrade.
 
Get something like an 8600gts used, the one with just a molex imput, I think I ran that on a 350w or 300w compaq system
 
friend'scatdied said:
These suggestions probably approach the value of the entire system itself (if not surpass it)..

OP should've put budget in the OP -- "not within budget" (when you mentioned replacement PSU) isn't specific enough, even disregarding the possibility of the PSU not permitting any upgrade.
Click to expand...

Guess I didn't read the OP thoroughly enough before I made my reply...I now second the 6670.
 
sct2000 said:
that 6670 would a good card to get upgrading 9100
but needs 400 Watt Power Supply ,I'm using a 8600gt that takes no power that's on a 350w .
Click to expand...

Depending on the quality of the 300 in the OP's machine, a 6670 may work.
The 8600gt was a pretty lackluster card, even for its time.
 
sct2000 said:
that 6670 would a good card to get upgrading 9100
but needs 400 Watt Power Supply ,I'm using a 8600gt that takes no power that's on a 350w .
Click to expand...
under load, a 6670 uses about 10-15 watts more than an 8600gt. a 6670 would do just fine for the OP's system.
 
So after some more investigating... and attempts at getting her to tell me all her PSU info, it turns out that the thing only has 19A on the +12V rail...

Now I feel even more uncomfortable with getting a GPU on that PSU. The 6670 looks damn fine in terms of power consumption, but I'd think 19A is kind of really weak right? Anyone have personal experience with this and not have a failed system a few months down the road?
 
bad news is it only makes about 16-17 amps in real world conditions on the 12v. good news is that is still enough because that system with a stock 6670 would only need about 12 amps on the 12v under full load.
 
cannondale06 said:
bad news is it only makes about 16-17 amps in real world conditions on the 12v. good news is that is still enough because that system with a stock 6670 would only need about 12 amps on the 12v under full load.
Click to expand...

Yes , even 19amps is fine with that system and a 6670..
The Athlon x2 @ 2.6 is just barley sipping any juice also.:)

Another thing I'd would lke to add is Hp, Dell ect. ect. psu's are usually of high quality, I would not be concerned.

And one more thing a 6670 uses 7 amps at most. 12 x 7 = 84 watts
 
Intel_Hydralisk said:
So after some more investigating... and attempts at getting her to tell me all her PSU info, it turns out that the thing only has 19A on the +12V rail...

Now I feel even more uncomfortable with getting a GPU on that PSU. The 6670 looks damn fine in terms of power consumption, but I'd think 19A is kind of really weak right? Anyone have personal experience with this and not have a failed system a few months down the road?
Click to expand...

Of course it's weak... but it's also what you would expect with a 300W power supply.

You could try measuring how much wattage the system is pulling from the wall. I don't know of a way to measure specifically the 12v current that's being provided on that rail, but you can use a Kill A Watt meter to measure the total wattage draw the PS is pulling from the wall while you're running some stuff that taxes the system. If you don't know somebody that has one it may not be worth your time, but they can be purchased for about 20 bucks.

If you do use the meter just realize that the total wall draw is actually decreased by the power supply's efficiency. For example, if the meter shows 250 Watts are being drawn from the wall, and your power supply is 70% efficient, then your power supply is actually providing 175 watts to the system (this number is what the power supply rating is supposed to be). Don't really know how efficient that cheap PS is going to be however.

My recommendation for you is to tell her that you can try a low wattage card like what we recommended, but there is no way you can guarantee that the power supply is going to be able to hold up. She could run into stability issues, or if the power supply is low quality, it could potentially do damage if it's overloaded. I'm not saying that the chances are high to destroy her system, but it's known that a bad or overloaded power supply can occassionally take other components with it.

All warnings aside, I think it would work. That Geforce 9100 is drawing some wattage already (is that card integrated or discrete?).
 
The 6670 uses 7 amps at most guys he has plenty of juice. 7 amps = 84 watts, and I dont think a 6670 pulls even 75 watts it would be more like 6 amps. 12x6 =72 watts.

That leaves him with at least 10 amps for the motherboard and cpu which might pull another 6 amps.
Thats 12 amps for a 19 amp psu, he is more than good.
And that only if he is maxing all his components at the same time which will never happen.

edit:
In fact a 6670 pulls less than 75 watts it had no power connector. So less than 6 amps for the 6670.
 
happymedium said:
The 6670 uses 7 amps at most guys he has plenty of juice. 7 amps = 84 watts, and I dont think a 6670 pulls even 75 watts it would be more like 6 amps. 12x6 =72 watts.

That leaves him with at least 10 amps for the motherboard and cpu which might pull another 6 amps.
Thats 12 amps for a 19 amp psu, he is more than good.
And that only if he is maxing all his components at the same time which will never happen.
Click to expand...
actually the 6670 does not even use 60 watts aka 5 amps from what I have seen.

I do disagree with you about the power supplies being decent quality but in this case it is easily up to the task of powering that system with a 6670. even if everything was at 100% load, which will never happen, that system could handle it. now if she runs furmark and prime 95 at the same time for hours every day then yes she is eventually asking for trouble...lol
 
your right a 6670 pulls a lowly 50 watts peak! thats 4.2 amps. hell he could run 2!
power_peak.gif


Total system power draw a ridiculously low 124 watts, with a i5 2500k @ 4.0 and a WD black 7200 rpm drive.
Power.png
 
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My thoughts here.The PSU should work fine but is the pci-e lane on the mother board going to supply enough power to the card without issues?I'm thinking a gpu with a pci-e power connector would be better so All the power is not drawn through the pci-e slot.

Best bet is to pick up a 8800 series cheap,less than $40 and a cheap used psu.Then find someone that can install or help her install it.
 
Ducrider748 said:
My thoughts here.The PSU should work fine but is the pci-e lane on the mother board going to supply enough power to the card without issues?I'm thinking a gpu with a pci-e power connector would be better so All the power is not drawn through the pci-e slot.

Best bet is to pick up a 8800 series cheap,less than $40 and a cheap used psu.Then find someone that can install or help her install it.
Click to expand...
what? why would that specific mobo have a problem supplying enough power? there is nothing wrong with getting a 6670 and using it in that pc just like it is.
 
Can we backtrack a bit and look at the form factor?

1 - Can the PC take a standard length card?
2 - Can the PC take a double-width card?
3 - Is there a spare 5.25" slot for an auxilliary PSU?
 
Thanks guys. I suggested the 6670 to her and that's what she'll get.

The case is not a slimline, it's a full size desktop so it should be fine.
 
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