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Low power card

vorm said:
Whats the best performing gpu you can get that won't require extra juice??
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Depends what you mean by performing?

HD3450 is the low power low profile card of choice atm but its not gonna be playing Crysis any time soon! It's mainly aimed at HTPC type machines that will be playing a lot of DVD and HD content.

Does a good job with Team Fortress 2 though!
 
Sorry, probably didn't explain sufficiently.

I need a new GPU that does not require any additional power input i.e 6 or 8 pin molex. So it's just getting it's power from the pci-e slot.

What's the best performing card that meets that requirement.
 
the ati cards are great on the power front

i would look at reviews on them and work out what fits your budget best
 
I'd say a 3650. Great card for money and fits your requirments. A short while ago a guy posted about how his 3650 played oblivion perfectly well. TBh as long as you have decent RAM and a CPU ect then you will be able to play quite a few games at decent detail.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Check the reviews on that. Im just gunna go check reviews to see whther 8600Gt or 3650 is better. But still, outperorming an x1950 is good.

Edit: After looking around it seems the 8600GT JUST beats the 2600XT and 3650.

REMEBER - I think a dell Inspiron is quite thin, so you may well need a low profile graphics card, if you find normal graphics cards don't fit, then come back here, i have had a lot of epxerience with low profile graphics cards.

Final Verdict:

Buy an 8600GT, 8600GTS or a 3650, all of them should do well, just search around those 3 cards :)
 
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I made sure it was the Normal case when I bought it.

The 8800GT does fit (just) and then I noticed the power problem so had to take it out.

I need to sell the 8800GT now but don't have access to the buyers market yet :)

Still looking into the 8600GT and the 3650. Still undecided but looks like it will be between those two.
 
Yeah, i looked at the 8800GS or the re-release of it named the 9600SO. Unfortunatley that does require 1 6 pin plug, so 8600GTS is the best card for you to get. Does anyone know if a 4650 will be released by ATi? That could actually be a good buy if you wait a bit.

Edit: Yep i've just read this is their product lineup over the next month or two:

HD 4870 X2 2x 480 1024MB GDDR5 2x 256bit 1050/1800 250W
HD 4870 480 1024MB GDDR5 256bit 1050/2200 150W
HD 4850 480 512MB GDDR5 256bit 850/1800 120W
HD 4670 240 512MB GDDR4 256bit 1000/1200 100W
HD 4650 240 256MB GDDR4 256bit 800/1000 80W
HD 4470 40 256MB GDDR3 128bit 900/800 50W
HD 4450 40 128MB DDR2 128bit 700/500 30W

So maybe wait for a few of those.
 
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Thats interesting thanks for looking for me.

I'll see if I can find out a release date for any of them...
 
Doesn't the 8600GT require additional power?

Soz I only really know about the low powered low profile cards mainly designed for HTPC style computers.

Also if your PSU doesn't have a PCI-E power connector could you not just use a molex > PCI-E adapter to power a beefier card?
 
Big.Wayne said:
Doesn't the 8600GT require additional power?

Soz I only really know about the low powered low profile cards mainly designed for HTPC style computers.

Also if your PSU doesn't have a PCI-E power connector could you not just use a molex > PCI-E adapter to power a beefier card?
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Doesn't look like it.

The problem is that its a [cough]Dell[/cough]. and only has a 305w power supply with limited connections.

There is only one spare which I could use a PCIe > Molex converter on but the molex > PCIe 6 pin converters require two molex plugs to provide the power. The only way I can run the 8800GT in it is to change the PSU but at the moment, I'm unsure as to whether or not the motherboard connection is a proprietary connection. I'll have to check tonight.

If all goes pear shaped with the PSU then only option I have is to get a GPU that doesn't require an extra power supply. At the moment it looks like its between a 8600GT or a 3650.
 
A 3650 will happily run CSS nevermind the 8600 and the new ATi releases. As long as its a 512 GDDR3 Version. I don't see OCUk selling an 8600 of that though :( so maybe somewhere else for now.
 
I'm going the other way on this one now lads. The Dell user forums have made it clear that I can run a normal ATX power supply on my Inspiron 530 with no issues at all, so I've ordered a replacement and will be able to use my 8800GT. Which I don't think will have an issue with CS:S :)
 
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