7600GT Died, Replacing ~$100; 420W PSU

[bootdisk]

I built my PC almost 4 years ago, and I'm hoping to milk some more mileage out of it. My monitor only supports 1280x1024, and I don't really play any newer games (though I am waiting impatiently for Diablo 3). I would love to get a video card that would be good enough that I could upgrade my mobo and cpu in another year or so, but my budget is only around $100 (or less would be better).

Current setup:
Thermaltake Silent PurePower W0009R 420W ATX12V Power Supply: I've seen customer reviews on Newegg and Amazon mentioning that their PSU doesn't have enough "Amp rails", and I'm wondering if I would be in the same boat.
ASUS M2N-E SLI AM2 NVIDIA nForce 500 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
(Bad Card) BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Support Video Card: It only lets me boot up in safe mode or VGA mode, and everything looks all jagged in the boot sequence.
2 90mm case fans, 1 in the side and 1 in the back.

Preferably, I'd like to go no lower than a new video card with less than 512mb DDR3 ram, but a card with 1gb of DDR5 would really be nice. I'm certain that the mobo and cpu would end up being a bottleneck to most newer video cards. I've had bad experiences with ATI cards in the past, so I lean towards an Nvidia card. I wouldn't totally rule out ATI if it would be a better fit for my system. I'm pretty sure that anything would be an upgrade from my current card, especially since it is pretty much dead right now.

Anyone have any advice or suggestions? I'd especially like to know about the PSU issue. Thanks in advance.

 

[jryan388]

Radeon 5670, should work fine on that PSU.

 

[bootdisk]

So is it my PSU that's the big problem?

 

[Tamz_msc]

No, your CPU is considering you want to play a Blizzard game.

 

[nforce4max]

Right now there are two different models of the 9800gt on newegg now with one for $67 after ship and the other is like $78 and both are pny.

 

[VGKitov]

Right now there are two different models of the 9800gt on newegg now with one for $67 after ship and the other is like $78 and both are pny.

Well don't you think the HD5670 is a better choice. It should have the same performance and should draw less power (No need for a PCI-E connector).

OP Don't count on DX 11 though (on your resolution it might work, but FPS will decreace signifantly).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150504&cm_re=5670_xfx-_-14-150-504-_-Product

On your resolution 512MB should be plenty. Also these card's realy can't use 1GB exept maybe for HD Video at very high resolutions.

Your PSU does seem to have a very low 12V+ Amperage of 18A.

The 9800GT requiers 400W and 26A (officaly for the whole system) and the 5670 requiers a 400W (it doesn't have an minimum amperage requierment from what I can see ?)

PS I'm not an AMD Fanboy or something, but in this case for me the HD5670 is the best option

" I would love to get a video card that would be good enough that I could upgrade my mobo and cpu in another year or so, but my budget is only around $100 "

Imposible, exept you stay at 1280x1024

 

[nforce4max]

Why are you using quoted recommended power from the manufacturer when 26 amps on a 12v rail yields 312w which is enough to run a GTS 450 with just about any modern 95w quad core cpu. One of the cards that I suggest is actually a green edition and all you had to do was look. The average load physically is 60w for a 9800gt green edition while the other yes is a standard and worse yet a 65nm version. Both cards are cheaper than the average price of a 5670. Performance wise a 9800gt is a better choice as it has much better fill rates and can run physx for games that make use of it. No I wouldn't run physx on a cpu as there isn't one in production that can run it without bottle necking the system. A ancient agia ppu is faster in physx than a core i7.

 

[VGKitov]

I don't think he could run a GTS 450 on a 4 year old 420W PSU.

All you had to do is link it. You said a 9800GT and I assumend it's a normal one.

Agree with you about the PhysX.


OP get whatever you want, I reccomend a 5670, but if you prefer nVidia than go for it.