What vid card do I need for these games & what can my PSU handle?

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zandor

Supreme [H]ardness
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Dec 14, 2002
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I'm looking to upgrade my video card from a 7900GTX. I'm a full time law student and don't really game while I'm in school, so this is basically an upgrade just for this summer. By the time next summer rolls around, anything I buy will be old, so I don't want to spend a lot of $. Basically I just want something that will run the games I want to play this summer nicely.

My Rig: (I used to write code for a living....)
2x Opteron 285 (2.6 GHz, dual core) 95W TDP (thermal design power, absolute max they'll use)
4x1GB reg'd ECC DDR dimms.
Supermicro H8DC8 mainboard (2 pci-e bridge chips + Adaptec SCSI)
1 74GB Seagate Cheetah 15k.4
3 36GB Seagate Cheetab 15k.3
1 Sony 20x DVD burner.
1 16x DVD reader (forgot brand...)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
7900GTX 512MB
GF 5200 PCI (128 or 64MB... I don't remember & I don't care. Drove the 3rd screen until I got Vista, now it doesn't work. I might replace it, but I'll probably just toss it since all I really do on that machine is game).

Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510. 510W continuous @50C, 650W max, 34A +12V continuous.

Based on adding up the components in my system I came up with a fairly conservative estimate of about 100W for a vid card with my current PSU assuming the vid card draws 100% of it's power from the 12V rail & the 12V rail doesn't go over 34A.

Case: Pedestal Server/Workstation style. It has a solid metal plate under the PSU, so if I change PSU's I need a single fan design that doesn't need ventilation from below. On the up side, I have room for a 12" long PSU as long as the width and height are normal.

Monitor: Sony GDM-FW900 24" CRT.

I'd like to play these games on the above machine:
Fallout 3
Bioshock
Mass Effect
+ a few others, but my 7900GTX handles them well enough.

Fallout 3 wants an upgrade.

So, I've got 3 questions.
1. Which cards will run the games at 1920x1200 or 2304x1440 with good-looking detail settings, enough AF to make textures look decent, and low (1920) or no (2304) AA?
2. Which cards can my current PSU handle? I know it can handle a 9600GT, a 4830 is probably ok, and a GTX250/9800 might work.
3. If I need a new PSU to handle a card that'll run the above games decently, what quality PSUs in the 700-800W range don't have bottom vents/fans?
 
GTX 260s/HD 4870 1Gbs are fairly cheap now...and while your opty is going to bottleneck them you'll still be able to max the eyecandy in all games save for crysis and stalker cs.

/ps dont even try playing GTA IV.
 
You're pretty much stuck with PC Power & Cooling for 80mm fan only PSUs anymore. Turbocools and Silencers. I'd recommend a Silencer 750 Quad if you decide on a new PSU.

At 1920x1200 your best bet is probably a Radeon 4890, but that's a ~160w draw card. The GTX 260 is a little slower, a little cheaper, but it draws about the same.
 
Would an ATi 4830 for under $80 ish still be a good deal?

OP say he doesn't want to spend alot of money and seems though hes not a heavy gamer during the school year.
 
DTN107 said:
Would an ATi 4830 for under $80 ish still be a good deal?

OP say he doesn't want to spend alot of money and seems though hes not a heavy gamer during the school year.
Click to expand...

That card will be absolutely destroyed at the kind of resolutions he's talking about.
 
zandor said:
1. Which cards will run the games at 1920x1200 or 2304x1440 with good-looking detail settings, enough AF to make textures look decent, and low (1920) or no (2304) AA?
Click to expand...

The best single card at that res is a gtx 280/5, no lower. A 260 is not enough or even if it is, by fall you'll be looking for another card.
 
GTX260 is fine at 1920x1200. it ran FO3 with max quality @ 1920x1080 on my box, but i also have an OCed C2Q.
 
Ok, so that first post was a bit long. Thanks for the PSU advice silent-circuit.

Mostly I'm just trying to figure out two things, and you all can really only help with the first one:
1. What are the fastest cards I can run on a Dual Opteron 285 (2 dual-cores @ 2.6, 2x95W TDP) 4x1GB rig w/ 4x 15k SCSI & 2 PCI-e chipsets without blowing up my PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 (510W/34A@+12V continuous, 650W max)?

2. How much do I feel like spending on a part that's just going to sit for 9 months starting at the beginning of September? I'll probably play through a game over winter break, but usually that's some RPG & those aren't generally too heavy unless Bethesda makes it. Oblivion cost me $1100... (7900GTX when it was new + $550 mainboard. Dual procs are not cheap.)

I've done some digging around looking at benchmarks. It looks like a 9600GT or 4830 are marginal for running Fallout 3 at 1920x1200 w/ 2xAA and AF on. Bioshock & Mass Effect are apparently less stressful, and I might not even buy them. Gothic 3 needs a replay with the expansion, and I could easily blow half the summer playing Hearts of Iron 2 (2D!... and my favorite game ever) & Medieval Total War. I figure I could put up with either, but I'd cough up a bit more.
 
1) Ok let's do some math:

Your PSu only has 34A on the +12V rail. Most parts these days draw power mostly from the +12V rail. So 34A x 12 = 408W available.

Two of those Opterons use up 190W of power by themselves. Typical hard drives use up 25W of power at startup. So that's 100W reserved for the drives at startup. So 408W minus 290W is 118W of power leftover. So basically about 100W. So the HD4830 would be your best bet since it uses only about 105W of power. The GTS 250 and 9800GTX+ uses 150W and 168W of power respectively. The GTX260 uses about 185W of power.

Another problem here. Straight from our PSU editor's mouth:

Paul_Johnson said:
Yes and a quick search would turn up this topic a million times over. Here is the recap:

1) APFC can fool Kill-A-Watts into giving you abnormally low readings (some times giving better than 100% efficiency)

2) Power supplies derate with temperature anywhere from 2w/c above a nominal rated at value to 10w/c.

3) Kill-A-Watt's and most power meters sample too slowly to catch transient loads (the Transient load from our tests is 117w and is COMPLETELY missed by Kill-A-Watts).

4) Power supplies last longer if you stay in the 40% to 60% range of their output.

5) power supplies are quieter if you stay in the 40% to 60% range of their output.

6) Power supplies are cooler if you stay in the 40% to 60% range of their output.

The power meters in UPS software are just as bad. You have to spend some change before you get anywhere near an accurate power meter when your PSU has APFC.
Click to expand...

So basically loading that PSU at nearly 100% load is eventually gonna hurt the PSU in the long run, Considering the age of your PSU, you're bound for a PSU upgrade soon regardless of what GPU upgrade you get.

As silent-circuit said, your best bet for a push-pull PSU fan configuration would be this PSU:
$120 - PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W PSU

If you want to play FO3 at high settings, you will need the GTX260 at a minimum which means you're due for a PSU upgrade. However the GTX260 might be limited by that AMD Opteron CPU so you'll have to upgrade to a C2D or Phenom II based build to take full advantage of the GTX260.
 
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