Need help choosing Budget Video Card

[Finzz]

Needed help deciding between these video cards, I'm on a budget and just wanted to know which would be the best bang/buck.

 

Sorry if this is a retarded question because they are all very similar cards and I don't know much about specs.

 

Also I am wondering if I can even run these cards because my power suply is only 350W :S

 

Thanks to anyone who can help.

 

1.) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4111742&pagenumber=1&RSort=1&csid=ITD&recordsPerPage=5&body=#ReviewStart

 

2.) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4486366&CatId=1558

 

3.) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4035118&CatId=1558

[Tcp-Kill]

Well, you need atleast a 500W PSU to run those cards, i would consider buying a 600W one, and i would go for the first one. But i havn't used any of those cards.

[Finzz]

Ok, how do you figure out what psu you should have?

 

And I just saw that is reccommends a 350 watt heres a pic

 

[Tcp-Kill]

It normally says minimium, but you would want to go higher if you run lots of things in your PC, and depending on how your motherboard and hd are./

[Finzz]

Dang, so I gotta drop another 50/60 on a psu too, also I was thinking about getting the second one, what made you go with the first one? Unless ur just a DDR2 fan?

[Shadowex3]

Actually those numbers are BS. I ran the equivalent (or worse) of those cards on 300w PSUs before. If you've got a REAL powersupply from someone like corsair, seasonic, or those names I keep repeating in every graphics card thread you'll never need more than ~520watts even for SLI. Videocards don't need tons of wattage, even the highest end system anandtech could build only drew 300ish watts from the wall when it was under full load. It's the amps on the 12v rail that your psu can deliver that are the deciding factor.

 

As for the ones you've got, and getting a new PSU... those graphics cards suck so much you're honestly really better off waiting until you can afford a real upgrade and saving your money than buying those.

[Coffee Crisp]

The 9500 GT is fine with a 250W to 300W PSU. I've ran it before with one and I've had no problems actually. The 9600 GT though may need a little bit more power, possibly a 300-400W PSU would be good. In alternative you can go with an ATI Radeon 4650 and 4670 1GB. I tried running a 4650 1GB on a 250W? I believe or 300W, I forgot and it ran fine as long as you didn't overclock it. The 4670 wouldn't need a significant amount of more power too.

 

By the way. Cards like the ATI Radeon 4870 are considered "Low End Cards" and you can probably grab one on the street for about 150 bucks. You just need a powerful enough power supply to run it.

 

TCP is also right considering other things on your PC. I'm pretty sure if you're running a nForce 790i with a X-fi Titanium, Three DDR2 1GB Ram Sticks, a 7.1 Speaker System, i7-975, with a 30 inch monitor--250W won't cut it. But if you're running low end things that consume little to no power a 250W to 300W would be good for a 9500 GT.

[Shadowex3]

Ram takes almost no power, the monitor and speaker system don't draw power from the computer, and the processor really only needs a few volts. Modern powersupplies pretty much exist solely for the sake of the graphics card and hard drives. Three hard drives spinning up at once puts a pretty harsh strain on a weak psu, and like I said even if it only needs a handful of real watts the amps that a modern graphics card draws on the 12v rail is insane.

 

This isn't so much about how good your gpu is as how efficient it is. a GTX 200 series will actually pound for pound be more efficient than the bloated over-siliconned 9000 series.

[Coffee Crisp]

I should of said that I was exaggerating. With that said, if you have the money to upgrade your PSU--do it and get a cheap 150 buck 4870. Maybe get a GTX 260 for a couple bucks more, though I don't see a much performance difference.

 

Burning a little hole in your wallet is well worth it in the long run

[Finzz]

Ok first of all, I know that card sucks, thats why I said budget. I'm not going to be playing crysis on high settings or anything, I just want to run my games at higher settings and actually be able to play call of duty 4.

 

Guess what I'm running right now? an Nvidia 6800GTX (Yes laugh at me all you want) so for me it's a significant upgrade, I'm not looking to spend $100 here although I do know it would be more beneficial to spend money on a waay better card, I;m just trying to upgrad an old shitty computer so it's a little more playable, once I'm out of the house I'm gonna build my own rig and I most certainly won't use these cards.

 

Back to the OP, nobody really said which card was the best lol but the 9600 for sure needs something higher than a 350 Watt PSU?