Video Card Power Supply Concerns

[tkpb938]

Hi! Recently I've decided to upgrade my system so that I can play games like Elder Scrolls etc. The graphics card Im upgrading to is a Radeon x1600 pro. The minimum power supply that it says you need for it is 350w but mine is a 300w Antec pp-303xp. Will this be a good enough psu? Here is my system after the installations:

AMD Sempron 2600+
2 sticks of 512mb RAM
Radeon x1600 pro video card
1 60gb 7200rpm Hard Drive
1 DVD drive
1 CD/CDRW drive
2 floppy disk drives

Also, does anyone know if this system will be powerful enough to play High end video games? My CPU says it is 1.61ghz, but its performance rated around 2.6ghz.
Thanks

 

[emp]

Oblivion will bring it to it's knees and make it beg for mercy, I think you're up for a new build. I think it should work just fine if it takes power only from the slot.

 

[H_Togakure]

Emp is definitely right. Oblivion rocks even really high-end systems. I would recommend looking into an entirely new machine.

 

[superkevin]

I'm sure you'd have enough power to run that card, the rest of your machine however is about half of what I'd recommend. Also, can I ask why you have 2 floppy disk drives?

 

[tkpb938]

Ok. I could probably use a better processor and maybe more RAM, but is the graphics card good enough? I just bought it so I dont really want to take it back. Also, if I do decide to upgrade my processor, how would I do so without having to buy a new case/motherboard?

Honestly I'm not sure why I have 2 floppy disk drives. This computer was "handed down" so...

 

[mactronix]

You would need to post what motherboard you have ie which socket CPU is it.
I know what you are saying about the rating on the cpu but trust me it wont cut it in Oblivion i have a rig that i used to play it on with a 3000+ and that was playing it ok but i susspect it was holding back the graphics card.
Talking of graphics the card you mentioned in all honesty wont be good enough i went through a whole upgrade path for Oblivion from a 9800 pro that wouldnt play it to a X800XL that was playable at about 20ish frames to a X1650XT which plays at about 35ish fps.
Now the x800 would slow down when it got busy but the X1650xt never has and i would recomend that card or a 7600GT as minimum to play Oblivion properly.
Mactronix

 

[tkpb938]

The socket for my cpu is 754.

 

[mactronix]

Thats a bit of a evolutionary dead end no easy core 2 duo upgrade for you i am afraid, its time to consider if you want to put more money into this rig or get a new one. Personally i think if you have any chance of playing newer titles properly then its a new machine.
If you cant do that for whatever reason then i think that a 754 goes up to a 3400+, i think there may have been a 3700 but im not sure? If you can find one then it should be quite cheap and given your power supply i would think the 7600gt would be about as far as you could go with the graphics cards.
Mactronix

 

[kpo6969]

http://www.starmicro.net/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=92

 

[mactronix]

Im speachless those chips are a lot cheaper in the uk!
Mactronix

 

[systemlord]

Oblivion was playable with my old P4 3.0 GHz, 7800GTX 256MB, 2GB Ram, but it really was hard on my system at times. Even after I upgraded to my new system in my sig, I'm still bottleneck by my graphics card and got no more FPS with my new set-up. The highest frame rate with my old/new outside was capped at 39 FPS, inside is a hole new ball game that my system had no problem with. Hope this helps you.

 

[mactronix]

To systemlord
Sounds almost exactly the same as how my 3 gig rig worked i thought it was the cpu doing the limiting and what you say seems to back up my theory, i do plan to get a bigger lcd soon so will be able to up the res which should in theory off load some of the work from the cpu to the graphics card so increase the fps a little bit.Thats not why im getting it but it will be good to put it to the test.
Mactronix

 

[randomizer]

My CPU says it is 1.61ghz, but its performance rated around 2.6ghz.
Thanks

The 2600+ doesn't mean it is rated at 2.6GHz, that is simply to compare performance between chips of the same line (like sempron 2600 is not as fast as a 2800, obviously).

 

[mactronix]

Dont know if its true or not but i was once told that for example a athalon 64 3000+ is so called because although its classed as a 2gig chip it performed the same or similar to a p4 3gig chip, i always took it with a pinch of salt but perhaps some one actually knows why.
Mactronix

 

[andybird123]

Yep, AMD realised that if they pitched their new architecture purely on GHz then people would by the faster clocked 3 or 3.2Ghz P4

however the athlon 3000+ was actually faster than the 3ghz P4, and close to / on par with the 3.2Ghz in some applications (plus it overclocked better)

that's when Intel stopped sleeping and started work on the Core architecture

 

[randomizer]

Yes, but you can no longer use that as an indication of performance. An A64 6000 is not on par with a 6GHz C2D :lol: but maybe a 6GHz P4 I guess. But since P4's are obsolete and the C2D is the current mainstream intel CPU you just can't base performance on the model number anymore.
Besides AMD just says the number is for comparing chips of the same type, same as Intel does. And right now, that is what matters, the reasons behind the numbers in the past no longer matter now because Intel also has "low" clocked chips.

 

[cleeve]

Lowering some detail, that system will play Oblivion at 1024x768.

 

[mactronix]

To randomizer
Good point and worth pointing out saves people who don't know from getting confused.

Cleeve,
I take your point but there is a difference between physically playable ie the hardware will do it and properly playable for the detail level you would need to run to get decent fps so that it didn't slow down when things get busy you would have to turn down the draw distance which takes away a lot of the spontaneous playability.
By this i mean that you would like as not be sticking to the main quests as the side quests a lot of the time need you to find things or come across castles etc, Which with the draw distance turned down is near impossible believe me i know i have been through it.
I would seriously recommend a 7600gt minimum.
Mactronix

 

[cleeve]

I maintain it's properly playable. I've done it, it was fun.

Keep in mind that Oblivion like the X1x00 architecture alot more than it like 7x00 architecture. A 7600 GT isn't going to be much faster than an X1600 PRO in oblivion... heck, from what I remember the X1600 PRO might even be a mite faster...

 

[mactronix]

Yes Oblivion does seem to have a bias towards the X1*** cards but i was recomending the 7600gt based on the ops psu. Originally i said X1650XT or 7600GT but on reviewing the thread i saw that in all probability the psu wouldnt handle it so i droped it from my recomendations.
As far as a X1600 pro being a mite faster take a look at this
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/vga-charts/oblivion-the-elder-scrolls-4-outdoor,260.html?p=461%2C430%2C460%2C464%2C439%2C443%2C434%2C470%2C473%2C433%2C440%2C436%2C442%2C448%2C481%2C450%2C453 Mactronix

 

[randomizer]

Mactronix neither of them are playable on those settings :lol:

Maybe if they were lowered it would be a different story. I think it would be good to have an oblivion bench not at max detail because there are so many cards that have no hope at running it at max and many people won't be running it that high. Just adds another 60 or so runs to the suite though, not much fun...

 

[mactronix]

Yea i know that those setting are too much i was just posting it to show that a 7600gt is faster at oblivion than a 1600pro. I know there are probably better benchmakks out there for the purpose but i was short on time lastnight and knew that one was there.
Mactronix