300W powr supply

[oosiilentcoon]

as you can see from my title, i have a 300W power supply.
and i want a good graphics card. so i was wondering whats the best graphics card i can get without having to upgrade my power supply.
i've seen a few that work, but they arent very high on the graphics card hierarchy chart. so before i go and buy anything, i wanna make sure i'm as high on that chart as i can possibly get. any ideas what to get? thanks in advance!

 

[Bluescreendeath]

What brand is your 300w PSU? How many amps on the 12v rail?

Most 300watts can take an ATI 4670, which is a low power card. The 57x0 series coming up might have some fairly powerful cards that are also low power.

 

[oosiilentcoon]

The brand is Bestec. Its what came with my HP Pavilion p6180t PC.
And as for the number of amps on the 12v rail, I wasn't entirely sure what you were talking about. So i opened up my computer and looked at the power supply, and there was a part that said +12v followed by 19A, and there was also a -12v followed by 0.8A. So I'm assuming that's what you are referring to.

You mentioned the 57x0 series, did you mean the 5750 and 5770, or are you referring to more models? And do you happen to know when those would be coming out? Because i don't want to wait too long to get a graphics card, i was hoping on getting one before the end of the year

and thanks for the really quick response.

 

[jaguarskx]

Buy the HD 5750 since the HD 5770 consumes a little too much for a 300w PSU.

Review:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5770-hd5750.html

The HD 5750 will require a 6-pin power connector even though it only consumes about 43w under a typical 3D load, so to play it safe buy a HD 5750 that comes with one.


The HIS H575F1GDG Radeon HD 5750 1GB comes with one for $145 w/ free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161307&cm_re=hd_5750-_-14-161-307-_-Product

 

[cyberkuberiah]

it is the safest to get the 5750 , both for the price and psu requirements , and it is quite powerful : beats 4850 , gts250 etc from the chart . it also has dx11 and 1 gb fast gddr5 , integrated dvi , hdmi , displayport .

 

[MARSOC_Operator]

Yeah the 5750 is a great option, but I'd get a 4890 for the sheer horsepower...

 

[obsidian86]

 

[oosiilentcoon]

thanks for all the responses.

but, 5750 recommends a 450w power supply, at least the one that jaguarskx recommended and a few others i checked did. so does that not matter since it apparently has such a low power consumption? and would there be any risks to getting a graphics card that doesn't meet the recommended power supply like that?

 

[cyberkuberiah]

no , there is no risk .