I know that 8800gt is better, but i'm looking for a card that will work with the stock psu. I have just enough money to buy the card, but not a decent power supply as well. So i'm looking for the best graphics cards that will work on my system as is.
There are several other posts the come close to answering the question, but none actually do.
The stock PSU is 350watt. The max I had in mine was the ATI x850xt. I know that you need a 400+ for either of thoese cards. You might be able to get an 8600 model in there or something by ATI, but I am not sure about it. I ditched my 8400 14 months ago. You might check on the 1950pro or such. Good luck on that.
Yes the 400W supply in your dim 8400 would be sufficient for the 9600GT.
Though if you're looking to play high end games likes Crysis, you need to upgrade your CPU as well, cos a 3.6ghx single core isn't sufficient for those kind of games.
Edit: I spent a few minutes looking at www.newegg.com not very many of the cards list the wattage requirements. From the 8800 line and up its 400 watts min. The HD2400+ look like they are 400+ watts as well. Might want to wait a bit to see if you can save a bit more up. A cheap gaming rig would be more cost effective than upgrading that dell.( I know I finally gave up on it.)
X800 XT needs 170-180 Watts of power @ load. 9600 GT need 95 Watts @ load so theoretically yes it'll be fine. However, your PC must be getting on 3-4 years old so your PSU will have degraded as well.
But if every thing's still running fine and your current gfx card isn't freezing or randomly blanking out I'd go for it.
He has a 350watt Dell PSU with maybe 14-18amps on the 12volt rail. He will not be able to run a newer GPU. I was in that boat last year. I just saved up for a new rig instead of kicking that old rig to death.
For clarification:
The Dell 350w psu = 28amps
375w = 30amps
305w = 22amps
The amperage is there but if your not comfortable with the wattage by all means upgrade.
FYI: XPS's came configured with 8800GTS, GTX's with the 375w
Message edited by kpo6969 on 04-30-2008 at 10:45:21 PM
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P35-DS3L l E8400 @ 3.8Ghz l OCZ Vendetta 2 l 4GB G.Skill 8000PQ@1018mhz 5:6 l WD3200AAKS 320GB l Evga 8800GT SC 713/1782/1998 l Zalman VF-900 w/unisinks l Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Music l Corsair HX520 l Antec Sonata III 500 l Vista Home Premium-SP1
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P35-DS3L l E8400 @ 3.8Ghz l OCZ Vendetta 2 l 4GB G.Skill 8000PQ@1018mhz 5:6 l WD3200AAKS 320GB l Evga 8800GT SC 713/1782/1998 l Zalman VF-900 w/unisinks l Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Music l Corsair HX520 l Antec Sonata III 500 l Vista Home Premium-SP1
I know that 8800gt is better, but i'm looking for a card that will work with the stock psu. I have just enough money to buy the card, but not a decent power supply as well. So i'm looking for the best graphics cards that will work on my system as is.
There are several other posts the come close to answering the question, but none actually do.
Thank you very much for any help.
If your machine was brand new, I would say yes, without a doubt, the PSU could handle a 9600gt. Since it's a few years old now, I would recommend a new PSU.
One warning though- I had to replace the PSU in a customer's Dimension 8400 a while ago and I had to cut metal on the back side of the case because the plug on the old PSU is in a different place as the Antec Earthwatts 380W I had in stock. Your mileage may vary.
