300w PSU - Need a new graphics card - suggestions?

gogetta

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I have an HP p6320y

Specs:

AMD Phenom II quad core

1 TB HD

8 GB Ram

Integrated nvidia 9100

PSU: 300W


So far I have been able to play Starcraft 2 pretty easily on low settings. However, I want to throw in a vid card that would allow me to run the game on medium to high and I am hoping to do so without having to upgrade the PSU.

I don't need anything high end, just something that doesn't require a lot of power, but can also increase my SC2 settings.

I have thought about just grabbing a card that has a minimum wattage of 300, but I feel like my specs are pretty solid other than my integrated graphics and I am not sure how much power I am already consuming and I don't want to overload my PSU.

Any help is appreciated.
 

gogetta

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Just checked into that one and it looks good. According to their website, the 5570 only used 39 watts at max capacity, yet they recommend a 400w PSU?
 
I dont know of any card that recommends less than a 400W PSU, but their power recommendations are based off of worst case scenario. I saw one that admitted to the system the recommendation was based off of was using an Intel QX9775 and a high end motherboard, of course these will cause the minimum PSU requirement to be inflated a bit higher than it should be, and they also account for your average PSU not being very strong.
 

gogetta

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Well I just ordered from newegg, so we'll see how it goes. I read a lot of reviews from people buying pre-configured comps and throwing that card in there to complete the rig. Some people were even running on 220w PSU and not reporting any problems. Like I said, the max power usage of this card is said to be 39w so I can't imagine it being too stressful on my PSU.