Upgrade Help Please

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I've been considering upgrading my video card soon since it's probably one of the more dated pieces of my machine at this point. My current card is an ati radeon x800xl 256mb, my display is a viewsonic 19" lcd at 1280x1024.

Here's my current setup:
Gigabyte 965P-DS3(rev2)
Intel e6400(overclocked to 2.8 gHz)
2gb ddr2 mushkin (running at 700mhz)
200,250,400 gb segate hard drives(probably adding 1 more 500gb soon)
Powering it all - FSP 500W blue storm
link for PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104934

I haven't decided how much I want to spend yet, so 2 upgrade suggestions would be awesome, one in the $150-$200(I imagine at this point there would be a meaningful upgrade in this range for my card, if not please say so) range and one in the $300 max range.

For the $150-200 range I was looking at the Sapphire 1950pro 512mb or a 7900gs. Any opinions on that card?

Lately I've been trying to get into some of the "newer" games(I use quotes because at this point they're getting older) like F.E.A.R. and others. The games run ok on medium-ish settings, but I'd like to get more out of them while getting better fps.

My concern is the ability of the PSU to handle a new card, so please comment on that with your suggestions as well. Thanks in advance for the help.
 
15amp 12v rails is /pushing/ it. It may indeed not be enough.

I'd personally save up another $100 (I know, a lot, but it's a big jump) and get a new PSU and an 8800 GTS 320MB. If you think you might get a higher resolution display any time soon, or if the price difference is very small, grab the 640MB version.
 
silent-circuit said:
15amp 12v rails is /pushing/ it. It may indeed not be enough.

I'd personally save up another $100 (I know, a lot, but it's a big jump) and get a new PSU and an 8800 GTS 320mb.
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So my PSU wouldn't be able to handle a midrange card like the 1950pro or 7900GS?
 
Potentially, but I do think you would be pushing the limits, so it might not last all that long.
 
I would look into the 8600GTS also performance wise the 8600GTS's are in the same classes as the cards you have listed.

Your PSU should be ok but a beefier one wouldn't hurt.
 
DeChache said:
I would look into the 8600GTS also performance wise the 8600GTS's are in the same classes as the cards you have listed.

Your PSU should be ok but a beefier one wouldn't hurt.
Click to expand...

Short answer... no, on all counts.

The PSU may be able to handle an X1950 Pro or 8600 series card, but it would be pushed to the limit.

An 8600 will not be enough in only a couple of months to do much of anything gaming-wise, making it a very poor choice if that's your main goal. It actually loses out to the X1950 cards in several cases.
 
silent-circuit said:
Short answer... no, on all counts.

The PSU may be able to handle an X1950 Pro or 8600 series card, but it would be pushed to the limit.

An 8600 will not be enough in only a couple of months to do much of anything gaming-wise, making it a very poor choice if that's your main goal. It actually loses out to the X1950 cards in several cases.
Click to expand...

Well its better than the 1950Pro by the hard review. A 1950XT would be a great card for him but that would push his PSU way to far.

The 8600GTS Draws 47 watts at load I would think his PSU could handle that.


This is weird I never feel the need to challenge someone on the forums
 
Well I have the exact same PSU and it is powering an X1950Pro just fine. I have this system running since February and haven't had a single prob with it. My specs are a bit different than your:

Abit IB9 mobo
E4300 @ 3Ghz
2GB Patriot eXtreme
Sapphire X1950Pro
250GB Western Digital IDE HDD

I have gamed some on this system and never had a hiccup or shut down or anything to do with the video. I dunno how much the HDD's draw but I assume it isn't much so I would say that you should be fine.
 
jbmx4life said:
Well I have the exact same PSU and it is powering an X1950Pro just fine. I have this system running since February and haven't had a single prob with it. My specs are a bit different than your:

Abit IB9 mobo
E4300 @ 3Ghz
2GB Patriot eXtreme
Sapphire X1950Pro
250GB Western Digital IDE HDD

I have gamed some on this system and never had a hiccup or shut down or anything to do with the video. I dunno how much the HDD's draw but I assume it isn't much so I would say that you should be fine.
Click to expand...

I have a similar PSU running my 7950GT and it has been running fine for about a year now. I don't get why people think you need 6,700W or more PSU's to run these cards?

When shopping for cards manufacturers label what the PSU requirement is. Do you know what the psu is for a 8800GTX? It's 450W, so believe me when i say that a decent 500W for your 1950pro or something of the like, will run fine.

Mine runs fine, my brothers runs fine(8800gts btw), my friends all run fine and we are all serious gamers and have had no PSU issues. Unless you're running sli or a refrigerator or something off of your psu, you don't NEED anything more. However, sometimes what you want and need are two different things.
 
I agree with DeChache that an 8600GTS would be a good choice for around $150. I have an MSI NX8600GTS, and am able to run F.E.A.R. with all in game settings maxed @1680x1050 at very playable framerates on my stock 4400X2 with 2gb of DDR2 and a low end 420w power supply. I also play Oblivion with all in game settings maxed except antialiasing. Your OC'ed CPU and memory are also a little stronger than mine which will help. As long as you aren't running at high resolutions and don't plan on playing the 3 or 4 games out that support DirectX10, an 8600GTS would work great. Running 3 hard drives is going to tax that power supply with any of the new video cards. You probably shouldn't go above the 8600GTS level without a power supply upgrade.

The 8600GTS is actually a pretty strong card at medium resolutions and below. Better than alot of people give it credit for, especially if you overclock the memory.
 
RossY said:
I have a similar PSU running my 7950GT and it has been running fine for about a year now. I don't get why people think you need 6,700W or more PSU's to run these cards?

When shopping for cards manufacturers label what the PSU requirement is. Do you know what the psu is for a 8800GTX? It's 450W, so believe me when i say that a decent 500W for your 1950pro or something of the like, will run fine.

Mine runs fine, my brothers runs fine(8800gts btw), my friends all run fine and we are all serious gamers and have had no PSU issues. Unless you're running sli or a refrigerator or something off of your psu, you don't NEED anything more. However, sometimes what you want and need are two different things.
Click to expand...

I don't think the issue was the wattage, but rather having only 30amps total on the 12v rails.

Since you used it in your example, the minimum wattage for an 8800GTX is indeed 400-450W, but requires at a MINIMUM 30amps on the 12v rails. This is the issue I was worried about.

I'm having a hard time finding a similar requirement for the 512mb sapphire x1950pro I was looking at.

I've resigned myself to the fact that if I want a new video card (a meaningful upgrade) I'm probably going to have to spring for a new PSU as well. Those corsairs look nice, 3x18a for a total of 54amps. That should about do it.
 
joeshmo1985 said:
I don't think the issue was the wattage, but rather having only 30amps total on the 12v rails.

Since you used it in your example, the minimum wattage for an 8800GTX is indeed 400-450W, but requires at a MINIMUM 30amps on the 12v rails.
Click to expand...

Ding Ding we have a winner.
 
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