Low-range GPU power usage.

[anamaniac]

I have a low budget, so I can't afford a new PSU at the moment.
...
I have a 300 watt psu. +12V is 19 amps.

I'm looking at a 4670.
Would there be any other recommendation that use possibly less power (55W from what I've heard) for a card in this price range (90-100 CAD, 75 USD), or is this the best I'm gonna get?

 

[WR2]

What else is that +12V of 19Amps supporting?

The Sapphire website recommends a 400W PSU for a 4670 video card. Check under the System Requirements.
Depending on what else your PSU is powering, and the quality and age of the PSU itself - you might be able to use a 4670 in your system. We just don't have enough info to make a good guess.

The Sapphire 4550 recommends a 300W PSU.

 

[anamaniac]

Sorry forgot to mention.
Pentium D 2.8g
250 and 80g HDD
CD drive, dvd/cd drive.
MOBO is RC400.
2x512 ddr2 533

I'm a bit behind on my tech...

 

[anamaniac]

Well just used http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
It's telling (with 4670) that recommended is 298 watt.
I have an old dial-up pci card thats never been used. Could save a few watts there.

Though a second opinion is always nice.

 

[WR2]

You didn't mention the make & model of your PSU or it's age.

 

[WR2]

What did you use for Capacitor Aging?
As PSUs age over time they loose the ability to provide full rated power.
The rate at which that happens has a lot of do with the quality of the parts used to build the power supply.

 

[anamaniac]

18 months old. Stock PSU in HP 1650y. Made by bestec. Forgot about the aging option...
Using 20% now.
Telling me 360W.
Though it is also telling me my vcore is 1.4v, while it is 1.15-1.2V

 

[anamaniac]

Odd. Intel says the pentium D 820 has a vcore of 1.25-1.4 stock. Is my sensor off? I should be using stock vcore.

 

[WR2]

360W is the recommended size of the PSU - not the actual power drawn from the PSU. You might be able to run the video card, but it will be pushing it very hard. You can expect a gaming session to push the PSU very hard, making it hot and noisy.
I think it's safe to give it a try. It's likely HP under-rates the PSU and you're not likely to drive all your components to max power at the same time.

 

[WR2]

Did you monitor the vcore under load?

 

[WR2]

I bet you could surf though the HP forums and find someone with a similar system who has already tried out a 4670 upgrade.

 

[anamaniac]

Alright.
Thank you very much.

I was gonna try it anyways, but assurance always helps.
If all else fails, I can just drop the vcore and do a small underclock on the card I guess.
Regardless, it'll be better than a nvidia 7500LE.

I'm curious at why the CPU is running a lesser vcore even though I haven't altered it.

 

[Guest]

I just put a 4650 into a stock HP dc7100 . Make sure you have pcie x16 slot and that you have at least 1 gig of ram . The overall performance has improved . I can play most games - some medium some high . I am not disappointed - the card does what it`s supposed to do . Enjoy .

 

[anamaniac]

I'm very happy.

Just got my 4670 locally for less than newegg ^_^

I thought the basic 512 DDR2 had 6.0 GPixels/s and 16 GTexels/s.
Mine is 6 GP/s and 24 GT/s
It's a sept. 10 release.

 

[anamaniac]

Can't overclock this GPU worth *** grrr... I could try and just get a replacement until I get a good one. Hopefully I get the dumb white guy at my local shop instead of an asian, they might actually ask questions. Very unstable with any memory clock. Stock of 750/873, however GPU-Z reports running memory at 1000 (conflicting with CCC).

However I managed to get my CPU to 3.1ghz (14x222), but anything higher and I crash.
Nice counting I'm actually running at 1.2V instead of Intel specs of the pentium D 820 at stock vcore of 1.4V at 2.8ghz, which either a sensor failure, or just a cpu that for whatever reason, at stock runs lower. Be nice for the 1.4V thouh, so I go go past 3.1ghz.

Tom Clancy's Hawx at max settings in DX9 or medium in DX10. Oblivion at max. Have noticed a few shadow shading issues in both oblivion (but only when personal shadows is turned on), and far cry 2 (noticed when looking at a shadow under water). Far cry 2 at lowest settings in DX9 but 1280x1024 is the only real playable setting though...
Most games are at max/medium however, and I like it. Wonder what CS 1.6 is at for fps.