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Midrange graphics card for occassional 1920x1200 gaming

So I bought a watt meter in town and I've been looking to see what my current system pulls.

At idle it pulls 120watts and that rises to 190watts under load.

Which parts inside a computer pull from the 3v and 5v lines? Which pull from the 12v?

The 190watts is of course the amount the system pulls inclusive of any power lost to heat in the PSU, so the actual draw from the system will be lower. The 12volt rail is rated at 18amps so that gives 216watts of 12 volt power.

I wish I could work out how much extra the 5850 would pull.

M

EDIT - I've been doing a little digging and some maths.

My current PSU is, at best, 80% efficient (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article185-page5.html)

This means that the peak of 215watts I witnessed on the watt meter is 172watts of actual power the components require.
 
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No offence but isn't all this a little extreme? I think where all agreed you definitely need a decent PSU so just look at reviews to find a nice quiet/silent one and from the reviews I've read about that 5850 it's pretty much silent when idling. There as to be some balance between power and cooling and that will include some noise at some point! you either have to learn to live with that or set your sights on lower end equipment. Again no offence meant :)
 
pumaz said:
No offence but isn't all this a little extreme? I think where all agreed you definitely need a decent PSU so just look at reviews to find a nice quiet/silent one and from the reviews I've read about that 5850 it's pretty much silent when idling. There as to be some balance between power and cooling and that will include some noise at some point! you either have to learn to live with that or set your sights on lower end equipment. Again no offence meant :)
Click to expand...

Well if I can save myself £135, I certainly will!
 
The 5850 appears to be pulling fewer watts than the 8800GT!

It's also a little bit too noisy for my tastes, so I'll have to do something about that.
 
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My 5850 (MSI Twin Frozr) was quite loud by default, but I set up a custom fan profile in MSI Afterburner so that the fan speed scales with the GPU temperature. Worth a look - free download.
 
The 5850 isnt a bad gpu choice, however its in the same performance category as the 460.

Like I said before, if it was my £150 I would buy a 5870.

Sure CIV5 may benefit from an Nvidia card, but overall across lots of games the 5870 will be better than the 460.

Also with CIV5 performance, Im sure ATI will improve the drivers....

Here you can see the lead the 5870 has over the 460, it also seems to do better in CIV5 as well...

I'v got one, and I can say it is a good card.
 
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Much better than Sapphire's winey little fan!


IMG_0071.jpg
 
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