neeed to know best Nividia card i can get with 250 watt p su

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narhic_fd

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Nov 23, 2005
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OKey , i only have a 250 watt power supply to work with. Whats the best nividia agp card that can be bought and work with this low end power supply?
 
Get a bigger PSU there is no way around it because Nvidias cards run only on
350 watts and above, that is unless you want to use one of Nvidias ancient GPU's like the TNT, or Riva.
 
ditto, ditch your current PSU before considering an upgrade. Just about any decent card these days will require more power than you could get with that Power Supply.
 
I don't understand why you don't just buy a new PSU... If you read some of the VGA articles right here on THG, you will see that the top-end video cards can consume over 300 watts when under full load!

Seriously, don't cheap out on your PSU or you will regret it. If you don't believe me, ask anyone who has owned an E-Machine for more than 12 months.

A crappy, generic, 500w PSU can be had on newegg for $25 with shipping. A good PSU in that scope will run you around $75 - $100.

If this is a matter of budget, chop $50 off your video card budget and sink it into a new PSU. Otherwise you're going to be stuck with whatever you have now, which obviously you don't want.
 
well its not for my computer, its for a friend. and they cant get a new power supply because they hava a old dell computer , with a 250 watt power supply in it. THey cant get a better power supply because the mobo thats in it, will get shorted out if they put in anything higher then the 250 watt supply thats already in it. I called the Dell company about this and said that series of computer that used that mobo cant take any stronger of a power supply.
 
well its not for my computer, its for a friend. and they cant get a new power supply because they hava a old dell computer , with a 250 watt power supply in it. THey cant get a better power supply because the mobo thats in it, will get shorted out if they put in anything higher then the 250 watt supply thats already in it. I called the Dell company about this and said that series of computer that used that mobo cant take any stronger of a power supply.
Click to expand...

wtf?

they got to be lying to you. if you put in a more powerful power supply the mobo will just take what it needs. although what they might be meaning is that the standard psu is different size to one that you will be able to buy therefore a new psu will not fit. prebuilt systems sometimes do this.
 
well its not for my computer, its for a friend. and they cant get a new power supply because they hava a old dell computer , with a 250 watt power supply in it. THey cant get a better power supply because the mobo thats in it, will get shorted out if they put in anything higher then the 250 watt supply thats already in it. I called the Dell company about this and said that series of computer that used that mobo cant take any stronger of a power supply.
Click to expand...

wtf?

they got to be lying to you. if you put in a more powerful power supply the mobo will just take what it needs. although what they might be meaning is that the standard psu is different size to one that you will be able to buy therefore a new psu will not fit. prebuilt systems sometimes do this.

It's called proprietary. On my old HP, the motherboard was made by ASUS, but it was a model made exclusively for HP, which you couldn't buy seperately. The case might also be a strange form factor or size to prevent you from putting a new power supply. Even the Windows CD that comes with it probably won't let you install Windows on a retail motherboard. Your best bet would be to get a new case and name brand power supply.
 
To answer the actual question, it depends on what else is in the machine currently, and the specs of the machine.

Not only will the specs of the machine dictate how much power might be left over for other uses, but it will also give an idea of what video card will be a good match for the computer.

The other part of proprietary PSU's is the pinout of the connector. Older dells had this, and if you plug in a regular power supply....bam, smoke.

Back to the question again, here is a chart that shows video cards your computer will probably match up with, and as you can see I personally think some people assume video cards draw more power than they actually do.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-vs-nv-power_10.html
 
I don't understand why you don't just buy a new PSU... If you read some of the VGA articles right here on THG, you will see that the top-end video cards can consume over 300 watts when under full load!
Click to expand...
huh???? can you show me that? isn't it the whole system, INCLUDING a high end video card that consumes that power?

as for the question, i guess a plain 6600 would run on a 250W psu...
 
Yeah, from what I remember there is no easy way to measure current draw of a video card. So, they measure the power drawn by the entire machine, idle and underload, and then use those numbers to show the total computer power consumption using different video cards.
 
yeah, that's what i know too... then, depending on what components he has on his computer maybe he can stick some 6600, maybe a 6600GT or something
 
You can get a 450watt psu for a mere $50 and that is for a good stable unit. Don't just rely on your current psu and certainly do not decide a graphics card based on it. Besides a good psu is very good for your pc as well especially when overclocking comes is play.

But for the answers to your question. Even a 6200 Turbo cache requires a minimum of 300 watt power. So there is none, that is if you want a good performing card for 3D applications and games. That would be a 2D card then that is capable of supporting two monitors. So if you just want to run a decent pc with some 3D performance then get a 450 watt psu or more.
 
:roll: Try a GeForce3 from EBay. Seriously though, you will need to upgrade that unit before upgrading to anything, less you want to risk frying something expensive when the PSU dies under stress.

And no video card on the market consumes 300 watts, that's just incorrect.
 
Don't listen to all the hype. I've run 7300GS and 7600GS cards on 250watt psu's. If there is not an abnormal amount power using devices in the system, it'll be fine. Make sure the motherboard will support the upgrade though, those proprietory remarks are very correct. TOO much of a pain to deal with. Those above cards are only available in PCIe
 
well its not for my computer, its for a friend. and they cant get a new power supply because they hava a old dell computer , with a 250 watt power supply in it. THey cant get a better power supply because the mobo thats in it, will get shorted out if they put in anything higher then the 250 watt supply thats already in it. I called the Dell company about this and said that series of computer that used that mobo cant take any stronger of a power supply.
Click to expand...

wtf?

they got to be lying to you. if you put in a more powerful power supply the mobo will just take what it needs. although what they might be meaning is that the standard psu is different size to one that you will be able to buy therefore a new psu will not fit. prebuilt systems sometimes do this.

It's called proprietary. On my old HP, the motherboard was made by ASUS, but it was a model made exclusively for HP, which you couldn't buy seperately. The case might also be a strange form factor or size to prevent you from putting a new power supply. Even the Windows CD that comes with it probably won't let you install Windows on a retail motherboard. Your best bet would be to get a new case and name brand power supply.

8O

well you learn something new everyday lol.
 
huh???? can you show me that? isn't it the whole system, INCLUDING a high end video card that consumes that power?
Click to expand...

I was thinking of this.

You're right though, it was measurements for the entire system's power draw, not just the video card. I either mis-read it back in January, or just didn't remember correctly 😳

Regardless, you can't run much worth running on a 250W power supply these days.
 
To answer your question...I just replaced (two weeks ago) my 2 year old HP rig.

Athalon XP 3200
2 WD IDE drives
2 DVD/CD burners
1G (2.x512) Ram

Power supply? 250W
GPU? BFG 6800GT

It made more sense to do a total build then upgrade (what would you save??). So I gave it to my son.

No issues with lack of power.

Don't get into the hype of HAVING to have some 800W power supply. See my rig below? Add 3 120 Antic Case fans, 1 80 Antic case fan, dvd light scribe...

My NEW power supply? A thermaltake 550W. Powers it like a champ.
 
you can get a geforce 128mb card. this was the first geforce released back in 2000 i believe. it's still a good card. i get 85 fps in quake and 40 fps in the original unreal tournament

hope this helps you poor boy.
 
okay one big important thing i forgot to mention is that they live in a diff stated then me, and for them to change their Psu, or mobo would be like brain surgery for them, he dosnt have that kind of experience. I can guide them easyly in putting in a new video card, but buying a diff psu and mobo, then explain to them how to connect it all, not to mention that would be to much money for him. I was hoping i could find a video card that would go in his systme. His system specs as far as i know is:

pentium 4 2.8 gig , 800mgz front side bus
512mb ram
40 gig hard drive

i had their belarc specs but erazed it.

hey what about this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814170082

i was looking at the specs and i didnt mention of what kind of power supply you need to run it. Does that mean you dont need much??
 
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