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Will this GPU play it...

Stickman

Stickman

Stickman

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Joined
7 Jun 2009
Posts
394
Location
East mids.
My little bro has recently bought himself a new world of warcraft expansion pack which says it recommends a GeForce 8600 to play it well. He says old GeForce 6800 LE is struggling even with the graphics on minimum, so he's thinking of buying this GT 430 sold here on OCuK:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-239-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1863

He's a bit skint and sadly he only has a 250W power supply so my question is, will the 430 do the trick, without using considerably more power than his old GeForce 6800 LE?
 
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-216-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1515 would be the ideal card for WOW.

Edit:

Seems a 250W psu might struggle with the above 5770.

The 430 will play WOW but you might have to turn down several video settings and i think a 250w PSU isn not enough,seems a 300W is recommended

What res does he play at?

This would be much better than a GT 430: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-071-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1833

But quoted from Nvdia :

Maximum GPU Temperature (in C) 105 C
Maximum Graphics Card Power (W) 105 W
Minimum Recommended System Power (W) 400 W
Supplementary Power Connectors 6-pin & 8-pin
High Dynamic-Range Lighting 128bit
Unified Architecture

Ideally you would need a bigger PSU for a graphics card upgrade i think,this is the cheapest for a decent brand:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-033-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084
 
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Who makes the PSU?

I'd be taking a look at the 5670 over the GT430 if you're going for a cheap, low power card. It's pretty frugal with power usage, not too far off the 6800LE from looking around.
 
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kmufc77: He's currently playing it at the lowest resolution and graphics settings. Thanks for the info. :)

Emlyn_Dewar: Not sure who makes the PSU: it's a prebuilt from a certain high street shop.

I suspected he'd need to upgrade his PSU so thanks for clarifying, I'll make sure I let him know it would certainly be advisable. Cheers. :)
 
As others have said, you will require a new PSU, just get a decent one (Be Quiet or something) 500W and you will be future proof for a much better GPU.
 
Stickman said:
so he's thinking of buying this GT 430 sold here on OCuK
Click to expand...

There's a GT 440, which is slightly quicker than the 430, for sale in the members market at £45 :

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18268796

Benchmarks in WoW here :

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GT_440/20.html

The £25 saved over the GT 430 could go towards the cost of a new psu.

It might be worth checking the members market occasionaly, as an ATi 4870 / 5770 or gts250 / gtx260 will be much quicker and they normally sell around the £50 mark.
 
To be honest, GT440 and 5670 are both too slow for res 1680 or 1920. And if he was only gaming at 1280 res, he should get a 2nd hand 9800GT instead as it faster than both the GT440 and 5670 by a fair margin.

But of course, if he can afford to pay more for the graphic card, then £77 for the 5830 is a great deal. But either way, he's gonna need a new PSU. Make sure he get a decent branded one.
 
You might do well to check out the mm here you qualify for it and keep your eye open for him. You should be able to get a psu and a gfx card pretty cheap for him.

Fortunately for my brother he seems to magically inherit my pc parts...
 
Well the HD5830 rules it's price point completely but I can't see the PSU being enough. I'd get the Corsair PSU recommended above and then you're golden.

Even without getting the PSU I can't bring myself to recommend a GT430 for that price - it's really only good for HTPC usage.

The other option would be second hand, something like an HD4850? It might still be cutting it close, mind.
 
The trouble with old tech is that it puts more strain on the PSU and any 4870, 9800Gt etc replacement would require a new PSU which is a non starter given the tight budget. I would suggest getting a Hd5670 or a HD6650 which should be fine given he's running a 6800Le on that setup.
 
Freddie1980 said:
The trouble with old tech is that it puts more strain on the PSU and any 4870, 9800Gt etc replacement would require a new PSU which is a non starter given the tight budget. I would suggest getting a Hd5670 or a HD6650 which should be fine given he's running a 6800Le on that setup.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing you don't know about 9800GT too well do you? It's power consumption is nowhere close to 4870 level, and the 9800GT Green edition will run on bus-power without needing external power.

Definitely wouldn't recommend 5670....it's only around 75-80% of 9800GT's speed. Also with the price of the 5670, it would be crazy not to pay £15 extra for the 5830, which is around twice as fast.
 
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Surprised no one has mentioned this but what cpu does he have because no point going for a decent gpu if the cpu can't provide the power for the gpu to do the work.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
I'm guessing you don't know about 9800GT too well do you? It's power consumption is nowhere close to 4870 level, and the 9800GT Green edition will run on bus-power without needing external power.
Click to expand...

You need to check out the power usage of the 6800LE though, it's very low compared to the newer cards. The 9800GT, even the green version uses a good bit more I believe.

Edit: I assume that the 6800LE is the PCI-e one? :|
 
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