Best Card for a 450w PSU - 12v 25a

I know this thing gets asked regularly, but I think I've researched the subject as far as I can without help.

I'm trying to find a good graphics card for my pc. It's brand new so I don't want to upgrade the PSU but I think it will be powerful enough for a fairly decent card. I'm looking to spend under £150. The spec is as follows:

450w PSU
12v line 25a
5v 22a
3.3v 18a
Intel Core2 Duo e8400
160gb SATA2 7200rpm
2gb DDRII ram
GIGABYTE Mobo - GAG31MF-S2 S-SERIES

I'd like to get a decent card but one the PSU can handle comfortably. I'm no expert but I image the Intel Core2 duo E8400 saps quite a bit of power? Does this reduce my possibilities for graphics on this psu?

I've been looking at the following:
1) Toms Hardware - Recommended the 9600GT for £135. I don't think I could run this card because according to the spec it needs 400w with 12v 26a so that seems to rule out that card.

2) According to NVidia. The best card I can run is the 8600gts, or the 8600gt. What do you think of these cards? Is NVidia being generous with what I could spend for my system?

What model PSU do you have? Just listing the Wattage and +12V amperage doesn't tell us much about the quality of your power supply.

A decent quality 450W PSU should be able to handle a 9600GT along with the rest of your system.

The 9600GT will run fine on your PC.

I consumes 60w of power, or 5amps which is well within the capabilities of your PSU given the components you listed.

I meant 9600gt. I tried to edit my post but it said "you are not allowed to edit this post". Why the hell not? I tried to refresh only it said "this thread does not exist". ??? I went back to the forum and the post was still there so god knows what's up with the code.

Thats not possible, 221 watts for a 9600gt? Link?

I can't find any information on that power supply, so I can't guarantee that it will work. I'd say the odds of it having a 6-pin PCIe power connector are low, so you'll probably have to use an adapter. Most videocards that require a 6-pin connector come with such an adapter, but you might want to make sure before you make a purchase.

As others have already stated, that's just not possible. This graph shows a power draw of less than 200W for the entire system under a heavy load:

Can confirm that the ASUS card (from what I can tell is the fastest, quietest and has lowest power consumption in most circumstances) has a pcie 6-pin adapter so I will be fine in any event.

Thanks again.

Read the link
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums [...] c=7&t=9354

You would be surprised how much you can run.

My antec TP380s(Sonata Edition)

Can run a E6600 + X1900XT. Thats nearly the same as the 8800GTS 640. So a 9600 with be no problem at all...

To confirm, what psu do you have?

@ crusoe74 The 26 amps is listed for a fully loaded system not just the card. Your card takes at most 100 watts and in most cases less.

Hell my full system takes less then 26 amps @ 12 volts

My system going full balls 100% cpu and video load with ati tool(no game takes this much power). Take away about 210 watts from the total for my other computer, the screen, 1 router , 1 switch , set of speakers and 1 modem and you get my power use. 343 at the wall. Take off 20(this is a best case scenario) percent for losses and you get about 275 watts for the system.

I am not saying to get a 8800GTX, but a 9600 should work with ease...

PS. Final newbie question: This card uses a PCIE 2.0 slot. I assume that this is backwards compatible with PCIE1? My mobo has 1x pcie x16 slot. Is this PCIE 1,2? How would I know.

It's funny, I found that after asking myself. It does say that some cards will not be forwards compatible, but not back, so should be ok.