Honestly, who cares if you overclock? I actually thought they’d be pulling even more juice, but here I am with a full setup featuring dual HD 6870s and an overclocked i7—which is basically a space heater itself—and I'm only hitting 421W. http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...firex-review/4 A bunch of different sites are listing power draw right around 430W, so this level of consumption is totally fine. They even pointed out that their specific rig pulls about 50 to 100W more than your average everyday PC. Bottom line: when it comes to the PSU, you're good to go. 😁
Good lord 😁 Look, if you aren't asking for much, even a GTX 560 might cut it. That thing can still handle Halo 2 and Black ops at 1080p on max settings. Just an idea if you're trying to save some cash.
If you aren't really feeling the Nvidia vibe, this card from AMD is pretty much in the same ballpark:
By the way, what kind of power supply are you running? Personally, I’d much rather have one beefy card than two weak ones. If I were spending that kind of cash, I’d go with this instead:
I think it should run without any issues. Especially if you aren't running AA. Here’s some benchmark data to look at: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...50,2433-6.html http://www.overclock.net/amd-ati/590...s-5850-vs.html
That’s mostly something you look at when you're dealing with higher-end cards. If you drop a ton of cash on a powerhouse GPU but your rig is basically a potato, you're just throwing money away. You need enough CPU muscle to actually let that card breathe. Since I noticed your monitor only has a VGA port, you should hunt for a card that offers both VGA and DVI outputs. If your current setup has been doing the job and you aren't looking to build a gaming beast, I’d aim for something like this. Look for DDR3 memory and a combo of VGA, HDMI, and DVI ports...
or maybe:
or if you can swing a little extra:
🙂
If you don't care about buying brand new, honestly, check out the used market. You might snag an ATI Radeon HD 5670 if you find one still under warranty, then just slide it into your build and call it a day.
Drew Sanchez82 said:I don't see what the big deal is with that EVGA unit, and honestly, neither with Microsoft power supplies, because $67 it’s not a huge amount for a 550W PSU.
You can tell everything just from this. Besides, wattage isn't the only thing that matters when you're looking at a power supply 😉.
What’s even the point of buying a top-tier card if your power supply can't actually handle the load? If you drop this thing in now, you're basically gambling with your entire rig—you could fry the whole system, GPU included. It doesn't make sense to go all out on a beastly graphics card right now, but if you settle for something weaker just to save power, you'll probably regret it when you're building that dream setup this summer anyway. So... 😁 Let me know what PSU you're running. What brand is it?
I’ve got one myself, and honestly, my rig is pretty quiet. Nothing in the build stands out as being loud, which naturally means even the power supply isn't making any noise. 😁
It’s not that it’s trash, but that new Corsair CX series doesn't exactly have a stellar reputation. Do a little digging and you'll find the chatter. Most of them lack an 80+ certification and the build quality is pretty questionable, so you're better off sticking with something tried and true like this: http://www.adm.com/product_info.php?products_id=8575
Definitely go with the GTX 450, but make sure you grab the 1GB version.. http://www.newegg.com/p/NVIDIA-GTX-450-1GB/ This is the cheapest one I could track down. If that's out of reach, $17 then look at the 512MB model—though if you're planning on using a Full HD monitor, I'd strongly suggest sticking with the 1GB version instead.
Look, if you're aiming for Full HD, we're talking about that 1920x1080 threshold. For anything at that resolution or higher, you're going to need 1GB, but if you're staying below that, 768 MB should cut it just fine.
If you’re planning on doing any photo editing, video work, or even dipping your toes into 3D rendering down the road, just go with an Nvidia card. They’ve got this CUDA technology that basically acts as a force multiplier for your CPU during those heavy tasks. I won't bore you with the technical jargon, but the results speak for themselves—it makes the workflow way smoother. If you want to nerd out on the details, just Google "CUDA technology." In that scenario, the GTX 460 1GB is going to blow that 6850 out of the water, and for gaming, you really won't have any issues either. So yeah, that's my two cents on the graphics card situation. If you decide to pull the trigger on a full build instead of just a single GPU, start a new thread in this subforum. Just lay it out clearly—say you're looking for a setup centered around the $1000 plus a decent graphics card—and a few of us, myself included, will jump in to help you spec out the best possible rig.
You’re gonna need a card with at least 1GB of VRAM for that monitor, and honestly, I wouldn't settle for anything less than a Radeon HD 6850. 🙂 Now, if you’ve got a solid power supply (like that CX400), a decent case, a DVD drive, and an HDD, you’ve already saved yourself a chunk of change. If you flip that current CPU, motherboard, and RAM combo, you should be able to pick up 4GB of DDR3, a halfway decent processor, and a new motherboard for $1000 without breaking the bank. Personally, if you're looking at the 6850, I'd definitely keep a GTX 460 1GB on your radar too.
It's fine if you're using the Corsair 400w Asus P5B VM; that should cut it. Honestly, though, I think your CPU is going to be the real bottleneck here—it'll struggle to keep up with any of those cards you mentioned. If you go with the Nvidia GeForce GTS 450, sure, that works. You listed a pretty wild variety of GPUs up there. 😁 Out of that bunch, the 6850 is definitely the winner, but I have to reiterate: your processor is just too weak, even before we start worrying about the power supply.
The defense from this young squad isn't half bad... maybe partly because everyone’s running on fumes at this point, but they held their own. It’s also a relief to see we actually have some solid depth to pull from when things get heavy 😁
Man, everyone is acting like they just won the Super Bowl after that game, myself included. Let's just hope we don't get absolutely crushed tomorrow or in the next matchup...