350W PSU for Dell Inspiron 300 - Whats the max midrange graphics card I can get?

ramit

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Hello,

I've got a Dell Inspiron 300, with 3Gig RAM, and Quad Core 2.4 GHz.

Its CPU is only 350W though.

Its only got an onboard graphics card, and I was looking to upgrade to a midrange card, which will play most of todays games.

Any suggestions? I want to spend around £50
 
Hello,

I've got a Dell Inspiron 300, with 3Gig RAM, and Quad Core 2.4 GHz.

Its CPU is only 350W though.

Its only got an onboard graphics card, and I was looking to upgrade to a midrange card, which will play most of todays games.

Any suggestions? I want to spend around £50

Best midrange bang for buck, and with low power consumption are:

The HD4670 starting at about £58: Cheap Laptops, Hard Drives, LCD Monitors, TVs and more at Ebuyer

or the HD4650 for £46 which is lighter on the wallet, lighter on power draw, but of course lighter on performance: Cheap Laptops, Hard Drives, LCD Monitors, TVs and more at Ebuyer
 
I've just thrown your config through a PSU calculator
(I've assumed a few things: Processor being a Q6600, 3 sticks of DDR2 RAM, a couple of SATA Hard drives, a DVDRW drive, a floppy drive, a couple of USB powered devices and a couple of case fans)

It comes out with an estimated consumption of 270W when including a HD4670 card. Dell PSU's aren't cheap tack, and should achieve at least their stated wattage safely - so you should be fine with either card on a Dell 350W.

If you want a more accurate estimation, try here: eXtreme Outer Vision - eXtreme tools for computer enthusiasts

I wouldn't advise pushing it any higher with a more powerful card though - the only ones you'll find at around a £50 budget will be older cards with a much higher power consumption. That said the 4670 can play almost all current games at decent settings at up to 1680x1050 resolution.

:)
 
Last edited:
Thanks guys.

How does the Inno3D 8600GT 256MB 128bit DDR3 DVI PCI-E Graphics Card
rate?

Or alternatively the Inno3D 9500GT 512MB DDR2 DVI VGA HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

Neither seem to require a power input - which one is better?

Assume these would be able to play the most recent games?
 
Thanks guys.

How does the Inno3D 8600GT 256MB 128bit DDR3 DVI PCI-E Graphics Card
rate?

Or alternatively the Inno3D 9500GT 512MB DDR2 DVI VGA HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

Neither seem to require a power input - which one is better?

Assume these would be able to play the most recent games?
No problem - we're both very glad to help... ;)

A couple more useful links for you:

Approximate peak power consumption of gfx cards:
The Truth About Graphics Power Requirements V2 - Atomic 3.0

A rough but very useful guide to relative performance of any cards you're looking at (the higher up the chart the better):
Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart - Tom's Hardware : Best Video Cards For The Money: Nov '08

Using the first link:
HD 4670 peak 47W
HD 4650 peak 33W
8600GT peak 52W
9500GT peak 28W

Using the hierarchy chart, order of performance is:
HD 4670
HD 4650
...big space...
8600GT DDR3 and 9500GT DDR2

So if you were choosing out of those two nVidia cards, then it would have to be the 9500GT DDR2, if only for the low power consumption and extra memory. Would be worth looking for a cheap DDR3 version though for better performance.

However, performance wise, the HD 4650 and HD 4670 are in a different league, and compete with the previous generation's high end cards but with really low power requirements.
 
Thanks Clunk.

The HD4670 is looking tempting.

But there are two bits of info I can't confirm from a bit of research:

1) Does the HD4670 need to plug into the PSU, or due to its low power requirements does it simply go into the PCI-E slot?

2) One of the key things I'll need this for is to edit high def 1080p footage shot with my new camcorder. Is this card still suitable?

Cheers!
 
Thanks Clunk.

The HD4670 is looking tempting.

But there are two bits of info I can't confirm from a bit of research:

1) Does the HD4670 need to plug into the PSU, or due to its low power requirements does it simply go into the PCI-E slot?

2) One of the key things I'll need this for is to edit high def 1080p footage shot with my new camcorder. Is this card still suitable?

Cheers!
1) Draws all its power through the PCI-E slot, no extra connector needed

2) As the tag suggests, the HD series (HD3***'s and HD4***'s) are pushed that way. The budget cards like the HD4350 are great for HD playback, so I would imagine the extra horsepower of the HD4670 and the DDR3 memory would be spot on for editing on a budget.

:D
 
I have a Dell Dimension 9200, it comes with a 375w PSU.

Dell were selling these with Nvidia 8800 GTX cards at one point and yet the requirements of the 8800GTX was supposedly a 'minimum' of a, IIRC, a 600w PSU.

All of which just goes to show that Dell's PSUs are at least rated to make the figures they claim and that some other manufacturers grossly exaggerate their own performance numbers.

I did talk this over with a guy from one of the big on-line suppliers and he told me that Dell tended to be the (reliable) exception but that for a genuine & sustained power output number take at least a 1/3rd off and sometimes maybe as much as a 1/2 of the figure some PSU suppliers state.

TBH I'm amazed standards are so lax that this sort of variance is possible.

But it is true, I did see Dimension 9200s like mine being sold by Dell (so they must have been tested & ok) with the 8800GTX card.
I have a 9600GT in mine (this requires the extra power supply and not just the PCI-E connection alone) and a couple of HDDs, a couple of DVD burners, a sound card and more RAM than standard and I never get a hiccup.
 
1) Draws all its power through the PCI-E slot, no extra connector needed

2) As the tag suggests, the HD series (HD3***'s and HD4***'s) are pushed that way. The budget cards like the HD4350 are great for HD playback, so I would imagine the extra horsepower of the HD4670 and the DDR3 memory would be spot on for editing on a budget.

:D


Thanks - I was just about to buy the Sapphire HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card when i noticed that according to the specs it requires a 400W PSU.

The Force3D HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 does not appear to require to be plug into the PSU.

Is this a misprint on the Sapphire, or is there something subtily different about this card?

Cheers

Ram

Sapphire HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer
 
Thanks - I was just about to buy the Sapphire HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card when i noticed that according to the specs it requires a 400W PSU.

The Force3D HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 does not appear to require to be plug into the PSU.

Is this a misprint on the Sapphire, or is there something subtily different about this card?

Cheers

Ram

Sapphire HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer
None of the 4670's require an extra connector as a PCI-E slot provides up to 75W of power to a card.

There are a lot of cheap and nasty power supplies around which supply nowhere near their stated wattage. This is why they have a 400W recommendation (a very cheap 400W PSU will often not provide more than 250W without becoming unstable, and the GFX card manufacturers are quite rightly playing safe because of this). Dell PSU's are not cheap and nasty, and you can be confident it can supply at least the 350W it is rated at and remain stable. :thumbsup:
 
i have a 350 watt antec psu(
image-3206434-10521304
Newegg.com - Antec earthwatts EA380 380W ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies), how would it run with a 4670, i plan on using my psu for at least 3+ years and have a 45w athlon x2 be-2400 overclocked to 2.76ghz.
 

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