Best Graphic Card for 300 Watt Power Supply

[Aakaar]

Hello ,last month i have purchased a new assembled Computer , While Purchasing it i did not opt Graphic Card as i did not have the Budget for it But now I have decided to purchase , upon Checking the Power Supply i found out that it has only 300w power , and now i Cannot Afford to Change the power Supply So , which PCI-E x16 Graphic card do you recommends So that i dont Have Change the Power Supply . i Have Windows vista 64 bit Edtion installed with 2 Gb Ram and intel Core 2 Duo processers, Please Give Proper Suggestions Thanks in advance For Your Replies

[Archibald]

Hello , It depends on what interface you have. If you have PCI-E x16 2.0, which is standard on most new motherboards, you can look at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102726

300W is not very much when it comes to powering a graphics card other than the integrated one. This one is minimum 300W, so you should be ok. It is very cheap ($40.00 after rebate). Just make sure your interface is right.

[David23]

I would get a bus powered(gets power off the graphics card slot only) graphics card as even an HD3850 needs additional power from the PSU. Have you thought about upgrading your PSU? The best bus powered graphics card I know off is the Nvidia 9500GT which has performance between that of an 8600GT and 8600GTS withou needing any additional power from the PSU. If you can wait a few weeks I would check out the ATI HD4650 and HD4670 as these maybe bus powered but offer similiar performance to an HD3850. The professional version of the HD4670 has been reviewed and has the same 320 shaders as the HD3850 but needs less power to run.

[Birdie]

That PSU will run barely anything more than what you already have. In fact, I don't even trust it to run what you have now (in terms of stability and not the low power rating; a good 300W PSU might even do a small GPU upgrade, but not that thing). Whatever the case (even if you don't get a graphics card), you need a new one.

[kiLLer]

The PSU would have to be replaced. What you want is a 400+ watt PSU
with two 12-volt rails carrying 15+A each, that comes with PCIe graphics connectors (which means you can be sure the CPU will be on a separate rail from the graphics card). You could comfortably run even an 8800GTX card with that PSU, so you wouldn't need to filter your choices by power consumption. You could just get the best PCIe card for the amount of money you're willing to spend.