ASUS GT440 1GB GDDR5 and ASUS HD6670 1GB GDD5 Power Usage

[tduanebarr]

I've been doing a lot of research on a new card for my HP tower. I don't really want to upgrade by PSU, and I am wondering what card I should go with. I don't play new games much, though I am considering buying SC2 and I would like it to look nice and pretty. I may use this machine as a HTPC someday soon, and that is the main reason I want the card. I figure I might as well get the best my machine can handle.

My tower:

Hp p6142p

300 watt stock psu

AMD Phenom quad core (X4 9650)

8GB DDR2 generic ram

integrated nvidia geforce 9100 graphics

640GB SATA HD

1 DVDRW drive

Windows 7


Cards I am considering: Asus 1GB DDR5 GT 440 & Asus 1GB DDR5 HD6670


The cards currently cost exactly the same amount on newegg and on amazon (~$75 with rebate). I am leaning towards the GT440, although I know that the HD6670 has reportedly better performance. This is because NVIDIA reports the psu requirement as 300W for the GT440 and ATI reports it as 400W for the 6670. According to gpureview.com, the power usage of the Gt440 is 65W and the 6670 is 66W.

This seems strange to me that one watt difference requires 100w bigger psu. What is going on here?

Can my machine handle the 6670? Or should I not risk it? Can it even handle the GT440? Is there an altogether better option?

On a slight sidenote, does the amd processor or the nvidia chipset matter as far as which company's card I use?

Thanks in advance for answering a lengthy post.

 

[lakshitharxx]

HD 6670 slightly beats GT 440..

 

[tduanebarr]

Best answer selected by tduanebarr.

 

[tduanebarr]

Thanks, but I decided to go with an HD7750. I'm installing it right now.

 

[lakshitharxx]

Happy Gaming...