Power supply question related to a GPU

Falice

So I picked up a 1 gb 4670 ATI, which was meant to replace my x1900xtx, but I'm not very impressed with it, so I think I'll take it back and try the 512 4850 instead.

One of the reasons I picked up the 4670 is because I don't want to change too many parts, just the card really, but my PS is kinda weak compared to todays standards.

Would my 500 WATT PS2 ATX 12V 2.0 which came with my NZXT case cut it with regards to the needs of the 4850? In the AMD site a 450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended, I have the 6-pin, but I'm pretty sure that I only have around 30 watts...

Here's the rest of my rig:

AMD 4400+ Dual Core/ ASUS AN8 SLI mobo/ 4 gb of pc3200 @ 400Mhz/ XP Pro/

 

I'm not partial to ATI or anything, but it seems that most of the Nvidia cards require 2 6-pins, which I don't have.

I just want my system to last for another 12 months or so, at which point I'll dump the whole thing for something new. I primarly just play WoW on it right now, but since 3.1 and the new shaders, my poor x1900 couldn't cut the mustard. The 4670 was better but not by much and my fps was still turd slow...

 

So any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks.

Cleffy

Its not the GPU holding back your system.  Its the the old motherboard design.  My suggestion is just to wait those 12 months and save the money.  The way it looks trying to replace the GPU will only mean more problems.  You should not have any problems playing WoW.  I think the problem with your gameplay stems from something else like a networking issue, or system instability.

If you do replace the card.  My suggestion is the new HD4770.  The reason is that its replacing the HD4830, doesn't require a 6-pin connector, and performs better then its predecessor.

noquarter

500W is actually enough to run the PC, provided the 12v rail provides enough amps to power the video card. If you look on the sticker on the PSU it should say how many amps it provides on the 12v rail(s).

 

I'm not sure what brand PSU NZXT throws in their case but it should be decent enough.

 

The Radeon 4850 and Geforce 9800GTX+ are very equal cards, depending on which games you want to play one will be ~3 fps faster than the other so whichever one you can find a better deal on would do you well but your CPU isn't really up to the task. There is a Sapphire 4850 for $120 and an EVGA 9800GTX+ for $130 on newegg and both have a small mail in rebate.

 

You would probably be fine with a 9600GT/9800GT or Radeon 4830/4770, for WoW - those are really their entry-level cards, anything below those are just crap they sell so you can get your grandparent's computer working - and those shouldn't quite a waste over your CPU so you don't spend the extra money.

 

You can get a great deal on the 9600GT from newegg right now actually, I saw one for like $83 with a $25 mail in rebate.

Agricola1

I agree with Cleffy, you do need a new motherboard. I kind of feel that paying for a new GPU would be throwing good money after bad, I'd suggest saving up for a new motherboard. I think this motherboard would be perfect or anyother 790g or gx model, since you get an intergrated graphichs card that is better than the one you have now and it brings you out of the stone age

Then your only trouble is that proccessor, so I'd suggest saving up for it rather than buying a new GPU. I know it's not what you want to hear but you're using DDR1 and with DDR2 and the spider platform being so cheap it's time to change. To answer your original question I'd say the PSU is enough for all your needs at the moment, but if changing the motherboard you'll probably end up changing your whole system and then I'd reccomend a 750 watt PSU.

noquarter

Those guys are right though it's not worth buying the video card at all if you don't upgrade that mobo/CPU.

You can keep it really cheap with a $50 AM2+ mobo, $20 2gb DDR2 800 ram, $70 Athlon X2 7850 and $80 9600GT if you need something now but if you plan on doing a bigger investment into it next year you may want to save the money.

I don't see how you could last another year on that 4400+ though