Graphics Card Question

[suvayanr]

What is the minimum amount of power needed to run a NVidia 8400GS on a average system..

What are some inexpensive but good PSU with 350-400W?

 

[rodney_ws]

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=39313

Although the 8400GS doesn't have a value listed on this chart, it's clear that it would be LOWER than the 8500 GT that requires 300 watts. That said, virtually ANY PSU being sold today should be fine... just don't go TOO generic.

Btw, the 8400GS will be a TERRIBLE gaming card if that's what you were thinking.

 

[suvayanr]

Why would it be a bad gaming card? Would a 7900 be bettter? or should i drop in some extra money and get the 8500 GT?

 

[cristip60]

You should probably get and 7600gt.

 

[suvayanr]

what's wrong with the 8400?

 

[aevm]

It's slow. There are better cards for the same money or very little more. How much can you afford?

Here are some cards that offer good value for the price:
7600gt, x1950 Pro, X1950XT, 8800 GTS 320 MB, 8800 GTX

 

[suvayanr]

I was looking to spend about $50-75. But then I realized that I would probably need a better PSU. Right now it only has 250W, which is inadequate to run a good graphics card.

 

[aevm]

Yeah, that bites. You would probably be happy with a x1950Pro and a PSU that can handle it, but you'd need $200 or so...

 

[demowhc]

for that price and psu maybe get a 1650xt or 7600GS minimum..that psu wont suppport a 1950pro i dont think.

 

[suvayanr]

Do you really think that it will support a 7600GS?

 

[cristip60]

I don't really think it will support any decent video card at all.

 

[aevm]

What kind of CPU do you have? Even if you replace the PSU and video card, if you got a horrible CPU it will hold everything back and your video card won't work as well as it can. Are we talking about a Pentium 3 here?

 

[suvayanr]

No, it's actually running a Pentuim 4, 3.0 gigahertz

 

[suvayanr]

With 1.25 GB of ram.

 

[aevm]

That's not bad, it may be worth going for a new PSU and the X1950Pro.

FSP Group (Fortron Source) FSP400-60THN-R ATX 2.0 400W $50
HIS Hightech H195PRF256DDN-R Radeon X1950PRO 256MB $115

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104935
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161060

 

[shadowmaster625]

if it is that old, then you're probably talking AGP, right?

 

[Maziar]

I doubt if a P4 3.0 has PCI-E support , i think its AGP

 

[aevm]

He asked about the 8400GS, so I thought of PCI-E. If it's AGP I still like the x1950Pro but the AGP version costs $20 more

suvayanr, do you know if you have AGP or PCI-E, or the model of your current video card, or the model of your motherboard?

 

[rodney_ws]

The 8400 is probably the most gimped card ever released by Nvidia... if anything it's meant to compete with an Intel GMA 950.

Yes, a 7900 would stomp the living daylights out of an 8400.

 

[rodney_ws]

http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce8.html

Here. Check out the table at the bottom of the link... look at the difference in memory bandwidth. That's just PART of the story... the 8800 GTX and Ultra are the only two cards listed with 128 stream processors. You're down to 92 if you go with an 8800 GTS and all the way down to I believe 8 for the 8400 GS. From 128 to 8... that's a rather large drop don't you think? So in simple terms you'd be buying 1/16th of a 8800 GTX/Ultra.

Oh, their site did mention that the maximum power draw for an 8400 GS was 71 watts. I'd still avoid the card like the plague, but I did at least answer your initial question.

 

[aevm]

That's actually enormous, 71 watts for 8 stream processors, when a GTX with 128 processors and a ton more memory only needs 370 or whatever? It's not even efficient from this point of view

Or was that 270 W for the GTX under load? Can't remember right now, but at that rate you'd have the GTX consuming 71*128/8=1136W

 

[suvayanr]

Motherboard name: ASUS P4GV-LA
CPU/Processor
Socket: 478
Intel Pentium4 3.0 GHZ processor


The computer does not have an AGP, but it has 3 pci slots.
Now that I look, it seems to only have PCI, not pci express.

I guess i could go with

 

[suvayanr]

I guess I could go with a geforce 6200, and that would give me a OK display. I'm not looking to play really high end games on this computer, I just want to upgrade the current 64MB card with one that has at least 256 MB, so my programs which require more than 64MB of video memory run correctly

 

[aevm]

Oh, no... Yeah, it only has PCI, no AGP, no PCI-E. Forget about the x1950Pro. At least you won't need a new PSU, the PCI cards consume little. The bad news is they also do little.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00363478&locale=en_US

Just make sure you don't spend too much upgrading this computer, OK? It's time to start thinking about the next one, I think.

 

[Maziar]

agreed^^^ , it even doesnt have AGP (