Will a 6600GT run off a 250W dell PSU?

It is a tough call. I'd be more worried about fitting the 6600 into a Optiplex.   There so cramped inside.


Find out the +12V Amperage on the powersupply. I would say at least 16A for it to be ok.

Cheers for the reply, the +12V amperage is labelled as 16A MAX.

Theres no problem fitting it inside though for some reason my optiplex is full sized :s

Would I be stupid to consider a 7600/7800 GT? Forgive my ignorance, ive never encountered a PSU problem before.

-MustangTC

Try getting maybe a 7 series card, because from what I've read neverwinter nights 2 is a VERY demanding game and will not be satisfied with a 6600GT (keep in mind i'm not talking about running full eye candy, but at least getting a playable 40-50 fps on low-medium settings)

It will work just fine. Enjoy!

I have a 6600GT running off a 250W Shuttle PSU no problem with a very similar rig, mind you I have an Athlon 2400XP not a P4 2.8 space heater but it should still work.

It will work fine. Dell psu's are underrated 25-30%
My Dell 305w is 22amps

I have a bfg6600gtoc running from a 300W PSU.

It is rated to run on a 350W PSU.

Chances are that 2.8 is a 2.8C Northwood, as Optiplex 270s were socket 478 machines circa 2003/2004. If that is the case, you can rest well knowing that your Althlon XP is the better furnace. :wink:

why not get a 7600GT it use less power then the 6600GT about 13watts less o.O
From what I gather your computer will use about 260ish your power supply will not be able to cope with a new videocard it should with a 300w PSU tho.
Here check it out:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.js...
just select what you have got and your set  

Thanks everyone, I think ill choose either the 6800 gt or the 7800 gt and cross my fingers over the PSU.

That price is nice psychomunkey, unfortunately i live in the UK and theres no shipping to there   It would be good if i could find an american dealer for this card though as prices are way cheaper than here in england. The equivolent card is almost twice the price!

-MustangTC

A 6800 GT or 7800GT on a 250 Watt PSU Dell or not? Well, it's your own choice.

No. 300w minimum.. I had a setup similar to that, and my 300w evetually fried from being near maximum load all the time.

And worse is, you have a Dell =) A normal PSU may not fit.

A normal PSU might not fit into my dell? Can someone explain that please? Opening the dell the psu looks to be about "normal" sized, im guessing 6''x6''x2.5'', looks alot like the half cube shaped ones that you can buy. Or do you mean it might not fit due to the connectors?

-MustangTC

We've had several Dell's and some had miniature PSU's and some were with extra connectors I've not seen before, yet others I wasn't able to "hotwire"
because their pinout was different..

But count the cables you have, and check if they look the same on a normal one..

Ok, looking at the PSU, there are a total of 4 clusters of cables coming from it. One larger cluster going straight to the motherboard and 3 smaller ones going seperately to the disk, hard and floppy drive. Thankfully it looks normal to me.

actully get an 8600GT, they use power than the 6600GT or 7600GT, though they recomend a 400W, i personally ran one on a backup 200W with an X2 EE, ram, HD, CD-RW, and fans with no hickup, while i waited on my PSU RMA

The 8600GT is slower than the 7600GT in most cases though, if you are to trust reviews..

Like this one: http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=637&p=2

Sure the 8600GT can DO Dx10... But at what fps... 2-3?

haha your kinda funny, and legionhardware are morons, but what ever you choose to think, i personally owned an 8600GT and upgraded from a 7600GT to it, and guess what i saw a massive preformance increased between the two. Farcry with 8xAA and 16xAF was playable at 12x10 with an average of 53FPS, enabled HDR7 with those settings with AA and AF still on forced via drivers and it droped to 47FPS average and the lowest i got once was 36FPS, not to shabby. COD2 4xAA 8xAF max everything, smoke soften all, @ 12x10 average FPS was 43, min was 32. CSS, 8xMSAA, 16xAF 12x10 average FPS from stress test 77. Find me a 7600GT that does this, also 3dmark06 5106, no 7600GT can do that, dont spread lies and please find a better site to get your info from.

Spread lies? I searched and that's what I found about the two.
Seeing how Tom's prefers Nvidia over all, I can't trust them, so who to trust?

Either way, I don't believe your benches.

Frrankly speakimg, the 8600gt perfoms considerably better than the 7600 gt while the 8600 gts performs almost in par with the 7900 gs

I ran an x860pro with 16 pipes unlocked( ala XT version ) with a Zalman cooler off a 250W Dell PSU on my old Dell 4600, im guessing that the 6600 will require even less power, should work fine, Dell underrates those PSU's also and as far as i know theyre the rated constant output

i have not the slightest idea where you ppl get these numbers, talk to owners of the card, and ask them how they preform, i do not in general trust hardware sites for any concerte information on preformance, being as how i can with a worse system get better numbers. I know how my 8600GT preformed and i know sevral people with the 8600GTS that have said personally that the 8600GTS is about on par with the 7950GT and 1950pro, and the specs of the card would agree with that statement. Let me put it this way ive compared my 8600GT numbers to a friends 1900XTX numbers, im 13-8% worse in any game, thats it.