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Good cheap graphics card for HP/Dell Type machines?

I think 8800gts will suck too much power.

I think ones got a 300w psu and the other 250w, which doesn't leave much room to play with.

Have been looking at AMD's 6670's as it appears AMD lower end parts offer better performance per watt?

Supposedly these 6670's provide enough gaming juice to get by on. Anyone used one?
 
Get one of this Power Meter and see how much power is the pc's drawing from the wall and see if it got spare power to get this 9800 GT @ £35.99
Underclock it to 550 | 1375 | 1400 ==>> Core | Shader | Mem to match the green edition if really needed.
The power draw on the wall is not the actual power delivered by the psu on its output, it is actually lower depending on the efficiency of the psu.
If the PSU has 80% efficiency on a specific load (PSU efficiency is not constant and varies at diffrent loads) lets say at 100watts then it will be drawing 120watts at the wall.
 
The 9800GT can draw up to 100W alone, so depending on the 12v rating of the PSU it might not be a viable option.
 
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DaveJ-UK said:
It would be a lot more sensible to measure it on the output side using a multimeter.

To make a good decision you also need to consider the games you will be playing and at what resolution and quality settings.
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You can't measure the power output of the psu with a just multimeter alone.
 
Goodluck measuring the current from the +3.3v, +5v, +12v.
You need the total wattage not just the current needed by the vga card.
 
AtaRo said:
Goodluck measuring the current from the +3.3v, +5v, +12v.
You need the total wattage not just the current needed by the vga card.
Click to expand...

3.3V and 5V is irrelevant - the 6/8 pin PCIe connectors are 12V only.

Up to 75W can be drawn from a PCIe slot, or 150W with an additional 6 pin connector. You can easily do the maths (W=V*A) if you have a multimeter handy.
 
DaveJ-UK said:
3.3V and 5V is irrelevant - the 6/8 pin PCIe connectors are 12V only.

Up to 75W can be drawn from a PCIe slot, or 150W with an additional 6 pin connector. You can easily do the maths (W=V*A) if you have a multimeter handy.
Click to expand...

How is the 3.3 and 5v irrelevant?
How can you get the total power without it?
The PSU supplies power to the motherboard chipsets, etc too, not just the vga card.
 
AtaRo said:
How is the 3.3 and 5v irrelevant?
How can you get the total power without it?
The PSU supplies power to the motherboard chipsets, etc too, not just the vga card.
Click to expand...

3.3V and 5V are both seperate and independent from 12V rails and will only become relevant if the PSU is operating right at its limits.

However we are not talking about total power output - we can check that just by looking at the power supply spec. The OP needs to know how much spare power he has on the relevant 12V lines. Checking total power consumption at the wall will not help. If you check power consumption on the relevant 12V lines and compare it to the PSUs spec then you will know how much extra you have to work with.
 
Craterloads said:
I think 8800gts will suck too much power.

I think ones got a 300w psu and the other 250w, which doesn't leave much room to play with.

Have been looking at AMD's 6670's as it appears AMD lower end parts offer better performance per watt?

Supposedly these 6670's provide enough gaming juice to get by on. Anyone used one?
Click to expand...
6670 is roughly as fast as a 9800GT, but consume much lesser power (bus-powered and doesn't require external PCI-E power). With those cheap low watts PSU, the 6670 is probably the best bet.

It should handle "most" games up to 1680 res with may be the AA turned down or off, and may be some graphic quality settings turned down to medium for the more demanding games.
 
DaveJ-UK said:
3.3V and 5V are both seperate and independent from 12V rails and will only become relevant if the PSU is operating right at its limits.

However we are not talking about total power output - we can check that just by looking at the power supply spec. The OP needs to know how much spare power he has on the relevant 12V lines. Checking total power consumption at the wall will not help. If you check power consumption on the relevant 12V lines and compare it to the PSUs spec then you will know how much extra you have to work with.
Click to expand...

The load on the 12v rail can easily be approximated by taking into account the tdp of the processor and other parts connected to it like hdd and optical no need to hack cables.
 
AtaRo said:
The load on the 12v rail can easily be approximated by taking into account the tdp of the processor and other parts connected to it like hdd and optical no need to hack cables.
Click to expand...

If an approximation is sufficient then why suggest measuring power consumption in the first place?
 
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