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Looking for a low powered graphics card with good spec

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Looking for a low powered graphics card with good spec

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pollitt   08-31-2008 at 05:00:53 PM

Im having a little trouble looking for a good spec graphics card that produces low power suitable for my iDEQ 210. The machine only has a 200wt power supply so one that produces the least amount of power would be ideal. Im not looking for anything ultra modern but something that would be good for basic games, internet and video playback. Obviously the better the spec then the better. It certainly has be a big improvement over the viachrome onboard graphics.

The pc will be running the following:

P4 SL6WH 2.6GHZ - Specs here: http://processorfinder.intel.com/d [...] Spec=SL6WH

80gb Hitachi Deskstar IDE HD

1gb PC3200 on two sticks for dual channel (Ive not got these yet but I soon will do)

Sony DVDRW

Two internal fans


Any advice would be much appreciated, I cant seem to find any power consumption specs on any the cards ive been looking at!

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Anonymous   08-31-2008 at 05:21:27 PM
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Honestly your best option is to grab a slightly more powerfull PSU but check out ATI's new 4600 series graphics card to be released sept 10th those are supposed to be very low power draw and decent performance however I still think it might be out of your range with a 200wt psu.

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pollitt   08-31-2008 at 05:29:33 PM
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Hi Losiluke. The problem is that a new psu wouldnt be worth my while, its a special sized unit for the sff case so finding one would be costly and tricky. Thanks though, are the Radeon 4600 cards both AGP and PCIE?

Reply to pollitt
alvine   08-31-2008 at 08:56:34 PM
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tell me if you need agp or pcie card and I will take a look (:

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pollitt   08-31-2008 at 09:19:02 PM
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Sorry - Its AGP

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timaahhh   08-31-2008 at 09:21:41 PM
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I would think the 4600 would overwork a 200 watt PSU. I had a friend with a shuttle case with at 200 watt powersupply and it would shut down after a few seconds when he installed his 7600 gt.

Reply to timaahhh
pollitt   08-31-2008 at 09:22:50 PM
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I read that the 7300 gs uses 16 and the 7600 gs uses 27 wts but Im not sure what my other components will leave me to play with.

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timaahhh   08-31-2008 at 09:48:47 PM
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If I were to guess I would say the 7600 GT is going to be closer to 75 watts. I don't think the 7600 GS would be that low, maybe 50. I would guess your CPU is around 60 watts. If you have only one harddrive a few fans and an optical drive I would guess the rest of your computer would consume around 50 watts. You would most likly be left with sufficent power but those 200 watt small form factor PSU are not the greatest...

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pollitt   08-31-2008 at 09:54:19 PM
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The intel website says the cpu Thermal Design Power is 69wt. I got the ratings for the 7600 and 7300 from this page: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000662.html

Id a like a card that takes up around 20-30wts at load.

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Bronze Graphics badge jaguarskx   08-31-2008 at 10:34:10 PM
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pulasky wrote :

3850 agp :D

 


No. At peak power consumption of 63.1w that's too demanding on the 200w PSU given the other components.

 

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video/msi-hd3650/rhd3650_power.gif

 

Someone mentioned the Radeon 4650, but that is estimated to use 50w of power.

 

Without knowing the exact specs of the PSU, I will simply assume it only has 13.5 amps on the 12v rail to power the CPU, GPU, fans, hard drive, optical drive.

 

Under load the amp consumption on the 12v rail would probably be as follows:
P4 CPU................................5.8a
1 Hard drive........................1.2a
1 DVD drive.........................1.2a
1 120mm Fan......................0.6a

 

Total Amp Consumption......8.8a (under 100% load)

 

That leaves an estimated 4.7a available. But, it is not a good idea to max out the any rail on a PSU so I would recommend looking at nothing using more than 2.7a or 32.4w. The remaining 2a (24w) will act as a buffer zone for those sudden spikes that may occur.

 

I would say that the Radeon 2600 Pro is probably your best bet (unless there is no AGP version).

 

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video/powercolor-hd2600pro/pc2600_power.gif

 

It would be wise to look at the PSU's specs before buying a GPU.

 


Message edited by jaguarskx on 08-31-2008 at 10:35:31 PM
------------------------------ Q9450 |Corsair XMS 4GB DDR 800 | ABit IP35 Pro | HD 5850 | Audigy 2 | Seasonic S12 550 | Cooler Master Centurion 532 | NEC LCD2690WUXi and Planar PX2611w | WinXP

Peace on Earth by means of the destruction of all life on Earth.
 Reply to jaguarskx
Bronze Graphics badge jaguarskx   08-31-2008 at 10:43:19 PM
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The 8600GT performs better than a Radeon 2600 Pro, but I haven't seen any power measurements of the card itself. I'm sure the 8600GT consumes less than 40w, but I'm not sure if will be a low as the Radon 2600 Pro.

------------------------------ Q9450 |Corsair XMS 4GB DDR 800 | ABit IP35 Pro | HD 5850 | Audigy 2 | Seasonic S12 550 | Cooler Master Centurion 532 | NEC LCD2690WUXi and Planar PX2611w | WinXP

Peace on Earth by means of the destruction of all life on Earth.
 Reply to jaguarskx
pollitt   09-01-2008 at 12:57:14 AM
- 0 +

Thanks for the info Jaguar, the power supply I have can be found here:

http://www.itus.se/pdf/tfx12v/enp2220e.pdf

Any specific info on my set up with the psu and what id be left with to buy a card would be much appreciated

Reply to pollitt
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