Hey guys, got an interesting one for ya. My company is looking to upgrade our Dual monitor solution for our dell machines. The Optiplex 620, 745, 755 machines we get are shipped with 280 Watt (I know I know) power supplies. So, I'm looking for a sub 300watt card, hopefully in the Nvidia 8000 series or the ATI 3000 series cards. The only ones I have found have been 300 watt minimum. Anyone has a ~250W dual DVI dual link card? We currently use a Jaton card based off to Nvidia 6000 series. We need a little but more horse power and have power restraints. If anyone has any advice please let me know.

I would bet that it could handle an ATI HD 3650, which is the lowest power card that I know of with dual dual link DVIs.

I have this exact same problem with Lenovo desktops in our office that come with 280W power supplies; the power connectors are also proprietary so it won't be possible to upgrade power supplies. Don't care about dual link DVIs. One DVI that supports a wide screen would be fine. THe ATI 3650 card requires a 400W power supply. Is there a true low power DVI video card out there?

@CJL, thanks for the reply. I have ordered one of those cards and an eVGA 8600 GTS. I will test both and see if the results are ok.

@tww I will update this when I have tested the cards and we will see if 280W is enough to power them.

Careful! I think an 8600GTS will cook your PSU.

A HD3650 should be fine though

Both cards list a recommended PSU of 300W. The 8600GTS has a 4 pin molex connector for power, while the HD3650 does not. I will test them and see if 280W is sufficient.