Upgrading HP m9340f graphics card and have question?

[ohlook]

I am wanting to upgrade my good old HP Pavilion Elite m9304f (specs here)

I am looking at the SAPPHIRE AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCIE Graphics Card (and upgrading my RAM from 6GB to the max of 8GB.)

I edit RAW files in Photoshop CS5 and usually have it open along with Lightroom 4 plus I want to be able to play World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2 with my kids (not at the same time of course, lol). Right now I can do it but the performance isn't great. I know the extra RAM will help the Photoshop situation but I have to set the graphics down a good bit in the games.

I am also thinking of upgrading to Windows 7 from Vista but $300 for all this is about my limit.

Will this be a good upgrade for my computer? Will the graphics card have any affect on the Photoshop editing or will that just be the RAM?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[fpoon]

If you want to upgrade the graphics card, you will need to change your power supply too. This one will work fine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094

 

[ohlook]

Ah, I see. Hmmm... I just realized that I upgraded both my kids' computers to the Radeon 6850 and they only have a 300W power supply. I didn't even realize I needed to upgrade that (not so smart on my end it looks like). However, theirs have been running great for a year now playing games like Skyrim and Battlefield 3. What kind of problems can that cause?

Thanks for letting me know!

 

[Deemo13]

Well........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVN6eOEPins&feature=related

Nah but I would highly recommend changing all of those power supplies. Running high end cards on low end parts is not a very good idea. It stresses the power supply, which could fail and eventually fail, and take components with it.

EDIT: I like this video better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=sxEXBXG0ymg&NR=1

 

[mohit9206]

a 500 watt psu from a good brand should be enough .. 300 watt for an hd6850 is dangerously low. I cant even believe you are able to play games on that..

 

[ohlook]

Thanks for the replies! I think I have decided to wait and just get a new computer in the coming month or two. As for the two computers with the 300w power supply, I'll be looking to get those upgraded soon as well. I didn't realize what it could do so I appreciate you all letting me know. I sure don't want a fire!