Need help finding low-power PCI grahpics card

hypnoticstate

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Hi everyone, I'm new here.

I need help finding a suitable graphics card but it needs to meet some specifications. My uncle has an old computer (an IDEQ 220t) which is an SFF. His power supply is 250w and there's no power supply more powerful that will fit his case (checked with the manufacturers "Biostar").

He's just got Windows 7 but Aero doesn't work because of his old on-board graphics chip. Naturally he wants a new card and he's asked me to help but i need some serious help of my own and i hope you can help (that's a lot of "helps")!

Here's the GPU i need help finding:

* It needs to use no more than a 250w PSU in order to run
* It need to be Windows 7 compatible and run Aero (so also needs to be at least DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher)
* Must be compatible with Intel MB chipsets
* Preferably 512MB but 256MB if the higher is not possible.
* Can't be physically too big because of the small case size (case port is normal size as far as i know so doesn't need to be low-profile)
* MUST be PCI....NOT PCI-E.

Please help if you can, I'd appreciate it!
 
GeForce 8400

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609642+1068625271&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&Subcategory=48&description=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

HD 4350

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609642+1068642010&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&Subcategory=48&description=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=


The HD 4350 would be the better choice since it consumes less power than a HD 4550 (no PCI) which consumes 19w of power.
 


YEs that is better since the bandwidth of the AGP bus is much higher than the PCI bus - but AGP cards are getting harder to find and are still more expensive for the performance you get vs. PCI-e but about the same or better than the PCI options !!

Avoid the Nvidia FX series cards as they have some problems (they use a propreitary implementation of some of the shaders and will have problems in many programs because of that - Nvidia tweaked their implementation of the shaders to get better results on benchmark testing and in actual use it causes alot of issues ! - like dropping to 1fps in some games in areas that use specific shaders or crashing the system !)

Of the AGP in stock at newegg the best fit for your needs would probably be the HIS 4350 - the 4650 for $10 more would be a better performer but would be on the edge of being able to run on that PSU - and unfortunately the only Nvidia AGP cards they carry are either the FX series with the problems listed above or the 7300 -which also pushes the PSU limit and is not that good of a performer.
 
The HIS 4350 I linked in the earlier post will run it fine and the power rating of 300W is overrated - the card will run fine on a 250w PSU like you have (since you are not using alot of other peripherals and high power consuming HDDs, CPU, etc !

I also have an old FX5700Le AGP card <-- Linkie - that I could ship to you for the cost of the shipping ( figure the USPS has a small flate rate box that it would fit in for $4.95) - If you'd like to try it (the card works fine for most things but due to it being an FX series it does have problems with performance in some games (ie. when playing Oblivion the shaders would cause it to drop to 1FPS or less when looking at a fire - which is why I stopped using it 4 years ago !!) - IF you can figure a way to prepay to have it shipped to you and send me the shipping info I'd be glad to drop by the post office (or other shipper) and send it to you (bettter it get some use than just sit in a box !)

If your interested just go to my profile and send me an e-mail
 

hypnoticstate

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Thanks for the offer but I'm in the UK so "just pay shipping" becomes not worth it I'm afraid. I appreciate the gesture though ;)
 


Ahh - didn't realize you were in the UK - let me check a couple sites there then to see what they have at a decent price.
 
Geez it is getting tough to find a decent AGP card that will work for your situation - I did find an x1650Pro on DABs for $30.49 used ( Link ) - It would be pushing the 250w PSU ( there is a benchmark showing an amd 3700+ system with it installed using 152W under load so it should work since you are not really using alot of components in your system but a 7600GS AGP card uses a bit less power and would be better if you can find one. (perhaps EBAY or another reseller)