8600gt alternative on a 305W dell psu?

[gogoman123]

hi all.
my 8600gt in my old pc failed recently (capacitors blew up!), so I am looking to get another card, however I am limited by my psu. I dont want to get another 8600gt as I read somewhere that the reason they fail is bec. of a design flaw.

here are the specs of the pc (its a Dell E520, purchased in 2007):
Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz
some dell mobo
4x512MB Ram
305W dell stock psu
WD 500GB Caviar Blue 7200rpm 16MB Cache

as u can see its an old rig and i dont want to spend money on upgrading it (psu, mobo,..) cuz its not worth it. I know its not good for gaming, but i was playing games on it on a 19" moniter with the 8600gt with decent fps.

my brother uses this pc for gaming, browsing the net, movies, music, ect.
I read that that the 305W rating of my dell psu is actually the continuous power not the peek, and that dell PSUs are generally underrated.

so I am looking for an equivalent (or a better) gpu to the 8600gt which my psu can handle.
I know this question has been asked in the past, but the threads I found are at least 1 year old, and they didnt agree on a specific card, many were suggested (7600gt, 9500gt, HD4670, gt520,..).


Thanks

 

[carlos33]

hi all.
my 8600gt in my old pc failed recently (capacitors blew up!), so I am looking to get another card, however I am limited by my psu. I dont want to get another 8600gt as I read somewhere that the reason they fail is bec. of a design flaw.

here are the specs of the pc (its a Dell E520, purchased in 2007):
Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz
some dell mobo
4x512MB Ram
305W dell stock psu
WD 500GB Caviar Blue 7200rpm 16MB Cache

as u can see its an old rig and i dont want to spend money on upgrading it (psu, mobo,..) cuz its not worth it. I know its not good for gaming, but i was playing games on it on a 19" moniter with the 8600gt with decent fps.

my brother uses this pc for gaming, browsing the net, movies, music, ect.
I read that that the 305W rating of my dell psu is actually the continuous power not the peek, and that dell PSUs are generally underrated.

so I am looking for an equivalent (or a better) gpu to the 8600gt which my psu can handle.
I know this question has been asked in the past, but the threads I found are at least 1 year old, and they didnt agree on a specific card, many were suggested (7600gt, 9500gt, HD4670, gt520,..).


Thanks

You will need to upgrade to at least 550w for the the PSU, that will save $ in the long run. Check out newegg and compare.

 

[carlos33]

What games are you playing? If they are not very demanding you may save alot of $. GPU 5670 0r better, up to 6670. Check prices.

 

[zeromikey]

That PSU is the first thing you need to upgrade man and usually are the first things to die on you when you buy a build computer.

 

[carlos33]

I am sorry, if you can only use NVIDIA check out the versions that match your setup. The 210, 220 or 400 series

 

[origin1992]

9600gt should do, if your not looking for any real upgrade, but more of an equivalent

 

[gogoman123]

thanks all. ok let me clarify some things:
1.Iam not limiting myself to nvidia.
2.the point of this thread is that I dont want to upgrade anything else (psu or cpu).
3.I know this pc is not good for "gaming", its fine for my needs (low resolution, medium settings).
4. I want to play games like split/second, mass effect 2, war for cybertron, not very demanding games.

so, for this pc as it is, what do u think would be a good gpu that my psu can handle?

Thanks

 

[jyjjy]

Either an HD5670 or GT 240 would be a nice upgrade on your 8600GT and should have no problems on a 305w from Dell.

 

[gogoman123]

thanks jyjjy, yeah the gt240 i think is ok. i wish i can get the 5670 but its says on amd's website i need at least 400W psu for that http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/ati-radeon-hd-5670-overview/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-5670-overview.aspx#3

i was also suggested a 9600gt, what do u think? thanks

 

[loneninja]

Radeon 5570 or 6570 would be lower power options both more powerful than your old geforce 8600.

 

[gogoman123]

thanks loneninja. but amd's website says i need at least a 400w psu for a 5xxx or a 6xxx. do u think it would still run fine in my pc? or is it better to be on the safe side and get a gt 240 since I am likely to be cpu-bottlenecked and not get the extra performance out of said cards.

 

[jyjjy]

We wouldn't suggest the cards if you couldn't use them. The recommended power from AMD is vastly overstated. None of the cards we are talking about use an external power connector which means they all actually run on 75w or less, most of them significantly less. The number is just made up beyond that. The Dell 305w PSUs are actually quite high quality and better than a lot of supposedly 400w power supplies out there. I've seen people on here mention running an HD5770 on one and that card uses nearly twice as much power as an HD5670.
That said you are correct about not seeing much difference with your CPU so it really doesn't matter all that much if you get an HD5670 or GT 240.

 

[jaguarskx]

thanks jyjjy, yeah the gt240 i think is ok. i wish i can get the 5670 but its says on amd's website i need at least 400W psu for that http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/ati-radeon-hd-5670-overview/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-5670-overview.aspx#3

i was also suggested a 9600gt, what do u think? thanks

Get the Radeon HD 5670, your Dell 305w will be able to handle it. It uses about 30w under load. It is a little more powerful than the GeForce 9600GT which consumes around 70w of power.

 

[origin1992]

thanks jyjjy, yeah the gt240 i think is ok. i wish i can get the 5670 but its says on amd's website i need at least 400W psu for that http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/ati-radeon-hd-5670-overview/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-5670-overview.aspx#3

i was also suggested a 9600gt, what do u think? thanks

If you went for a 9600gt you'd probably be better off getting a green edition (uses less power)

 

[gogoman123]

ok thanks all, very helpful input.
ok so I decided to get the GT240 as I am cpu bottle-necked anyway, and its cheaper on ebay. so I narrowed it down to these 2:
XFX GT240 512MB DDR3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150475
PNY GT240 1GB DDR3 http://www3.pny.com/font-color999999GT-240-1024MB-DDR3-PCIe-P2889C396.aspx

which one should I go for?

they are both being sold brand new on ebay for less than £40 and as far as I can tell they are both reference cards with same specs. so I guess the only factor remaining is the warranty service. now I know xfx provide lifetime warranty but I cant find nvidia cards on their european website (theres only ati cards), how am I going to register the card to benefit from the warranty? on the other hand PNY provide 3yr warranty.
thanks

 

[jyjjy]

Here is an HD5670 for £50
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/ATI/ATI+5600+Series/Sapphire+ATI+Radeon+HD+5670+1024MB+GDDR3+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=46891
It's worth the extra if you can afford it.

 

[gogoman123]

@ jyjjy yeah but with delivery it will come up to £56, its out of budgut
I appreciate u taking the time to look for something though. thanks

so which one out of the 2 I posted earlier should I get? the xfx or the pny?
thanks

 

[jyjjy]

It doesn't matter much. They should perform the same.

 

[gogoman123]

Just a brief feedback for anyone in a similar situation. I purchased a "PNY GT240 1GB GDDR3" for £40 and it fitted without problems in my dell Dimension E520. The 305W Dell psu handles the card without any problems, the card doesn't need any dedicated power cables. Now as for the games, all games I ran were on 720p without antialiasing on windows xp 32bit. these are the games I tried:

1. Assassins creed 2 on low settings was smooth. on medium settings theres a slight performance hit but still very playable fps.
2. Dues ex human revolution on high settings is very smooth.
3. COD MW3 on higher resolution and high settings ran perfect and very smooth without any lag.
4. Saints row the third on lowest settings was ok with playable fps. textures can be upped to high with a slight performance hit.
5. Split second runs perfect.
6. from dust was laggy on lowest settings

I think its a very nice upgrade (compared to my old 8600gt) and it ran recent games with playable fps at 720p. I think my cpu (Pentium D 2.8GHz) is really holding this card back, as I can only play most games on low to medium settings, but at least I am able to play them which is great. anyway, thank you all for the input.

what do you guys think?

 

[origin1992]

lol Deus Ex Revolution for me on gtx 275, c2d 2.8 8gb ddr3, was laggy@ high settings 1920*1080 and all other games ran smooth@ max settings 1920*1080, why deus ex lags for me i dont know.