Please recommend a GPU for WoW on a 300w PSU?

Hi,

It is definitely recommended that you not plan what hardware you can run with a given PSU. You should go the other way around, in reality.

Here is a good PSU calculator: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

A great PSU will be $40-$80, depending where you go & how patient you are. It is important to remember that you need to consider the power on the 12v rail.


Some PSU's:
http://www.svc.com/ocz700gxssli-b.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=E...

a 9500gt

an 8600gs

a Radeon HD 5670(please note this is not a beast of a card, but fairly power efficient) should not take more then about 60 watts in very hardcore gaming. Your cpu is no power hog either.

That said, you should see how many amps your power supply can provide on the 12 volt rail.

If the power supply lists multi rails, do not just add them, look for a combined 12 volt rail power.

Here is a giant list of video cards and how much power they take at different states(idle load ect)
http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=264

I wouldnt recommend much on a dell stock power supply. Ive seen more dell power supplies fail than a regular aftermarket power supply. Its like a ticking time bomb because they use crap power supplies

I would definitely recommend the 5670, since it will most certainly run on a 300W generic power supply (or I just screwed alot of people over by telling them it would). At the current moment, it stands as the best GPU to run on that power supply at that price point.

With a good 300 watt, you are more then right. Personally am a little more brave(its not even brave, its all calculated and comes well under 300 watts) with a 5770 on a 300 watt  . Not that i recommend it to people.

Thanks for the responses. I'm a bit of a newb, so bear with me here.

Juniper - I went to the website. If I understand it correctly, I input my parameters and the video card I'm thinking of buying. If the recommended wattage is below 300, the card should be fine? How accurate do the parameters have to be, b/c I'm sure I inputted some wrong (e.g. I have 6gb ram but no idea how many sticks, reg or high rpm sata, etc.).

Nuke - I'm afraid I don't understand the amps and rails. I looked at the website, and if I'm reading the chart right, then both the 5670 and 6670 are coming in way under 300w.

Maxio - I've read several posters in this forum who say they trust dell power supplies more than 3rd party. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I certainly don't know who's right.

Deemo - I hope you're right about the 5670. Do you know if it will play wow on max settings?

Thanks guys

I am going to attempt to explain amps and rails to you (bear with me)

Take an average 300W power supply. Think of a rail as a power line. Certain things use certain sized power lines. There are a few different rails that I can't remember, I believe 3.3v, 5v, etc. Making something like a 300W PSU is just the addition of the power on the rails. If the 3.3v rail has 100W, the 5v rail has 100W, and the 12v rail (the graphics card one) has 100W, then the power supply would be 300W.

A graphics card will use the power from the 12v power line, and therefore to power a very high end card, one will need alot of amps on a 12v rail to power it. Most of the time, we assume that on a 300W PSU, there are not very many amps on the 12V rail.

Going to what was said above, Dell power supplies are not great by any means, but I will agree they are of much better quality than those of HP and other computer brands.

If the 5670 does not play WoW on the highest settings, it will do it close to high, or might bog down in fights with many units or whatever (have never played WoW, bear with me).

Wow, DellUser where are you ?

A lot of people here who know what they are talking about say Dell psu's are pretty good.

There are a lot of Dell pc's being sold, specially at offices so it's not surpricing there are more failing Dell's than others imo.

You can run a 6670 on a Dell 300W. ( not knowing from my own experience but i trust the veterans, addicts and experts here enough to repeat what they say )

Deemo,

Thx for the explanation. How do I know the watts that my 12v will use? Is it on the power supply itself?

Also, are there any stronger cards over the 5670 that you would feel safe with a 300w?

The 5670 (or the 6670 - they are the same I believe) is the strongest card you can run on a 300 watt power supply.

I went with the 5670. Thanks for all the help.

Best answer selected by confusedinlv.