XPS 420 375 watt psu video card upgrade

[ahol29]

Hello,

I would like to upgrade my graphics card since the fan is going bad and plus it is a 2400hd card. I would prefer not to change the psu seeing that i just bought a new hard drive and I haven't ever changed a psu.

My pc is a core 2 quad 6600 2.4ghz with 3gb of ram

I would like to get the best card for my money but not sure what to get with Directx 11 now out.

My comp is about 3 years old and I really only play Civ 5 and WoW.

 

[harakou]

A couple things that would be nice to know to better answer that:

What's your budget? For WoW and Civ 5 you won't need a very strong card, but knowing how much you're willing to spend will help pick the best one.

What's the brand/model of your PSU? A good quality 375W PSU from a brand like Corsair or Seasonic is much different than one from some no-name brand.

 

[jaguarskx]

Dell currently has been using FSP (Fortron Source Group) PSU's since 2006 I believe; and they make above average quality PSUs as well. Dell tends to under rate their PSUs too.

Assuming a relatively small budget, you can install up to a Radeon HD 5770 / HD 6770 in your PC. The HD 6770 is just a rebranded HD 5770 with HDMI 1.4a and some extra circuitry that is supposed to improve HD video quality a little bit.

 

[harakou]

Dell currently has been using FSP (Fortron Source Group) PSU's since 2006 I believe; and they make above average quality PSUs as well. Dell tends to under rate their PSUs too.

Assuming a relatively small budget, you can install up to a Radeon HD 5770 / HD 6770 in your PC. The HD 6770 is just a rebranded HD 5770 with HDMI 1.4a and some extra circuitry that is supposed to improve HD video quality a little bit.

[strike]Not exactly sure where you got that he has a Dell, but [/strike]I agree that the 5770/6770 is a great card for that sort of gaming.

Edit: Right in the title.

 

[ahol29]

Yes, i have a dell xps 420 with a 375 watt psu.

I would prefer to spend $100 or below. Obviously i need to upgrade the psu but would prefer to wait awhile to do that. I have seen both the Hd 5770 and the 4670 in other forums but I am really worried about the 5770 requiring 450 watts. I really don't want my computer to get all screwed up.

 

[harakou]

I can't blame you for not wanting to risk overloading your PSU. You definitely don't need 450W to run one as long as it's a quality unit, but I'm always wary of stock PSU's.

A 5770/6770 will also run you closer to around $120, which isn't much more than your price range. If you really want to stay under that, I'd recommend a Radeon HD 5670. You can easily find those for $70 and it'll handle Civ 5 at a playable frame rate assuming you're willing to play on lower detail settings/resolution. Your PSU will definitely handle that too.