Best card for a 300w system

[Corbae]

I bought my Mother a Gateway i5 2300 6g ddr3 300w system recently, great price. I may just go the route of upgrading the psu but wanted to understand all the options. What would be the best gpu possible for a 300w system without taxing it to the point where it would be unstable? I have been looking at cards on sites like newegg, tigerdirect, and microcenter but never can seem to find a power rating on the card. I am not sure how to figure out how much power the system uses now and how much individual cards use.

 

[12345690]

Hello,
if the pc is not a slim pc then the best you could get would be a 5670 here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102871

But even then your pushing the psu to its limits, other alternatives would be the 5570 here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161357


Or the 4670 here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150579

The 5570 and the 4670 would be the safer options and you could also get a GT 430, but im 70% sure the 5670 will work. If you do want a psu upgrade get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027

This psu would handle most other cards if you want a future upgrade.

 

[Djentleman]

Yeah, get the power supply. IMO, power supply is way more important.

 

[ram1009]

Do the smart thing and buy the biggest quality PSU you can afford. Consider it an insurance policy.

 

[12345690]

Yeah the psu is important, only if you're really into gaming and want to upgrade later on, but don't go overkill and buy a 900W psu. They're useless,
a 600-650W psu is just fine for most gpus