Best grfx card with 400w PSU

[Chong Warrior]

Young lad at work is into PC gaming and asked me what a decent upgrade will be to tide him over until he buys a full new rig:

Semperon 64-bit,
2gb DDR PC3200
nVidia 6400
400w Silverstone PSU - Dual 12v lines, 14A on each.
PCI-E 16x capable motherboard

Although he's a gamer he knows suprisingly little. He phoned me yesterday saying he'd found an nVidia 9400 1gb for £45 inc P&P on fleabay! Had to tell him if he bought that I'd hack into his PC and blow it up with a virus lol

I originally told him to look for an 8800GT but these are going for about £55-£70 and are 2nd hand.... good choice? What about the PSU with one of these?

I've noticed OcUk are selling dual slot XFX 4830 for £77 with 2 year warranty... seems like very good bang for buck?

Thing is he only wanted to spend about £50-£60 tops. I'm thinking of telling him it's well worth spending the little extra but.... will his PSU handle it and is it worth it considering his system specs??

 

[Malazan]

Looking at the rest of the rig, i'd just get 9400. I'm guessing, and it is only a guess that the 8800GT will be bottlenecked by that ancient CPU. No doubt someone with greater knowledge will help you out there.

 

[Wizardskills]

I would have said a 4650 as the extra power of the 4830 would be wasted with his cpu. Also a 4650 doesn't need a external power source. So his PSU should handle it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-087-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1274

Plus it is in budget

 

[Duke]

4670 would be better - it has GDDR3 rather than GDDR2, so is quite a bit quicker. Higher GPU clocks as well.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-175-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1274

 

[Chong Warrior]

Yeah I was looking at the 4670.... I'm just thinking for an extra £17 he'll be getting about an extra 50% extra performance?

It's just wether or not his PSU can handle it?

Also I'm thinking he'll get more legs from it and when he upgrades to a Quad core he could leave the grfx card upgrade until last.... Tricky as it'll look like my fault if the card doesn't work properly.

 

[neon.uk]

An 8800GT would be the way to go - a decent 400W should be enough.

 

[Wizardskills]

4670 would be better - it has GDDR3 rather than GDDR2, so is quite a bit quicker. Higher GPU clocks as well.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-175-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1274

Very true, didn't see that card in the list

Yeah I was looking at the 4670.... I'm just thinking for an extra £17 he'll be getting about an extra 50% extra performance?

Not with his cpu and when he does come to upgrade new cards will be out so there isn't much point in spending more than you need to. There is also the risk that the card may not run on his PSU. I'd just go with the 4670, that way you know it will work and he will be getting a decent card.