[Solved] Running the Radeon HD 5670 on a 300watt Power Supply Unit

Hello,

My computer has the following specs:

HP Pavilion 6210y(NY544AA-ABA)
300 watt PSU (unknown details)
Windows 7 Home Premium
AMD Athlon II x4 620
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9100
500 WD Caviar Blue HDD
15-in-1 media reader
DVD drive read/write
6 USB Devices

i have a 1680*1050 monitor
i am deciding on purchasing the 5670 or even the 5750.
The gts 440 is a bit on the expensive side, i would like to spend no more than $100.

i play mostly racing games and some fps.
i would like about 35 fps in the modern games.
any suggestions?

Get the 5670, no power supply issues for that one.

ok and how is overall performance of the card?
right now on my 9100 (intergrated) i get 15 fps on dirt 2 on the lowest settings @ 1280*768. i would like to have 40 fps at 1360*768 or better.
on burnout Paradise, i get 25 fps on medium settings at 1360*768. i would like to run high settings at 50 fps on this game.
additionally, i am thinking of purchasing a 3d monitor sometime in the future, and i heard that the only the 6670 supports 3d. is this true?

okay do you think the 6670 is worth the $30 more?

yea but thats the ddr3 one.
im looking at the (g)ddr5 versions. (they are faster rite?)
6670
5670
wats the difference between the ddr3 and the ddr5?
is it worth the difference?
i also see that there is quite a lot of different brands. is there a brand that i should be getting, or just look for the lowest price?

so i should go for ddr3 or ddr5?

the prices for the 5570:
1gb ddr3: $60
512mb ddr5: $70
1gb ddr5: $80

for 6670:
1gb ddr3: $75
---- ----- ---
1gb ddr5: $100

wats the difference between the 512mb and the 1gb ddr5 5670?
i want this card for at least 3 years for modern racing games. which one will be best for my $?

The 5670 can't really utilize 1GB of video RAM. If money is really tight, get the 512mb version, the performance on both are virtually the same. The 1GB might be slightly more futureproof if games start using a lot of really high resolution textures, but by the time that happens the card likely won't be powerful enough to offer good performance anyway. The 5670 is an entry level gaming card, don't expect it to give you good performance at high settings for the next three years. Even at your rather low resolution it will struggle with the high settings in some titles, particularly if you want to turn on the DX11 features. If you are okay with low or medium graphics settings it might just last you three years before you need an upgrade.

Personally I've really good luck with Sapphire brands, but to each his own.
This looks good, if you going with 512mb DDR5 version??
SAPPHIRE 100287VGAL Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 512MB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

alrighty!
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Rad [...] roduct_top
seems good for me!
can u take a guess what fps i will get on games 2 years from now on mid settings? (like NFS The Run 2 [the run 1 is releasing this year]) how about modern warfare 4? (if there is going to be one)

is there a comparable nvidia card?

Nvidia just fails in the performance/consumption segment.

The best option for money
HD5670 512MB/1GB GDDR5
HD6570 1GB DDR3 (even without GDDR5 it's pretty close or faster than the 5670 GDDR5)
HD6670 1GB DDR3

Consider the 6670 DDR3 if you want a 3D capable gpu(TV's).

*6670 comes with free Dirt3 coupon (MSI model).

Expect a 10x gaming performance increase. Even the integrated gpu's of the AMD A8 fusion APU's ar arpund 9x the performance of you gpu and 10% slowe than a 5570.

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp [...] -_-Product

I'm with supernova that you can't go any higher in the GPU class without a PSU upgrade. Most reliable and reputable PSU's will be in the $40-60 price range. So with a 5770/6770 (next up on the GPU rung) will be around the $100-130 price range and necessitate a PSU upgrade of $40-60 range. Thus this would put you in the $140-190 range if you can find the right deals.

Here's a 6770 w/free game at $123 - $20 MIR = $103, but it takes up 2 PCI slots (in space) so that has to be considered. Not sure if you have that much room in your case, but something to look into.
SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Here's a minimum PSU that I'd use with the 5770/6770/6850 for $40 shipped!:
Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
It comes w/1 x PCI-e power connector, but doesn't leave too much for GPU upgrades though, so keep that in mind if you go with this PSU.

ok so say i got a psu upgrade to 350+ watts. what cards would be the best for the last $ possible for better than the 5670/6670?
i would like to be able to play games like mw4 at at least 20-30 fps

You should be able to do MW4 of 20-30fps with the 5670. Did you read my post about the 5770/6770?? They are the next run up on the GPU ladder that make sense to get if your upgrading with the PSU I listed above.

I don't think you need to upgrade anything else at this point in time. The CPU is fine for most things and you have plenty of RAM. Is the PSU/GPU worth the cost?? Well if you want to have more possibilities for upgrades I think it is. If your going to buy yourself a new build in 1-2 years than the 5670 will do the job well for that period of time, unless your gaming needs go up.

i dont want to spend more than $150 total, sorry for not mentioning that.
and i dont really see a point in upgrading a $500 computer with a single $200 component.
right now im looking at the GTS450 at the same price as the 5770, which is betteR?

I wouldn't recommend any Rosewill PSU. They have had a pretty iffy reputation and reviews. The Antec PSU I linked earlier is all that he'd need for what he wants to do (if he wanted to upgrade the PSU). I think the OP is better off just getting the 5670 and calling it a day, IMHO. He could get the Antec 380w PSU and the 6770 for $143 after MIR's and have a much better setup, IMHO. It's up to the OP what he would like to do. I think there has been quite a bit of help for his situation

Yes and you get a quality PSU that'll last you for quite awhile. The 6770 consumes between 18-95w max!! All of your other parts shouldn't exceed around 125-150, so you have about an extra 100w to spare, which is plenty for your system

** Edit ** I've included a link to a GPU power consumption chart for your perusal
Here's the link, just click on the chart a couple of times to zoom in.

I use the 380w PSU all the time. Currently I have the older version powering a 6850 with a e6600 CPU, so you can get an idea what you can do with it.