gpu thoughts..

[Night Fox]

Well I was looking around for a new graphics card and I have found that the best one that is not ridiculously priced (over $200..) is the Radeon 5770. I first only thought about the wattage requirement which was 450. Mine is a 500. I also used Newegg's psu calculator and it gave 449 with a regular motherboard and 475 with a high end motherboard (I'm not sure what qualifies for a "high end" motherboard..). I'm assuming the wattage is fine for this graphics card...my more recent speculation has been about the +12v which is only 28 amps. That being said, I'm also assuming that gpu's use the +12v. Should this power supply be enough: Ultra LS500 500W (also below ↕)?

 

[patonb]

Most likely...... my 2 260s and oc'd q6600 only drew 520W at maxed out load.

But it's gonna be a toss up. 28A is pretty low

 

[Trotter]

From what I could find the 5770 needs 20A so you should be good to go.

 

[Abstract Hero]

Not to throw a wrench in but wouldn't a 460 768mb or 1gb be better in that price range?

 

[patonb]

Abstracts correct.... But with the discounts out there is a toss up.

 

[Night Fox]

Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

I was looking at this as well as the 5770 but the 5770 won for various reasons. 1) It gives the minimum wattage requirement. 2) It has a lifetime warranty (I don't plan on overclocking this at all, so a long warranty is somewhat important.) 3) Ignorance <--I don't know how to compare ati vs. nvidia chipsets...all I have been doing is going to Google and searching "compare ... with ..." and this relies on the existence of a review in the first place and that they know what they're talking about. (Also the price is another factor that tells me if they are similar...which isn't very accurate..) Any secrets to compare these?

 

[Muffin Man]

the 5770 is better. there are a few games where the 450 manages to be about on par with the 5770, but it's usually slower.

 

[Night Fox]

Not to throw a wrench in but wouldn't a 460 768mb or 1gb be better in that price range?

A 460 probably would be better for under $200...however, when I said "under $200," I meant if you move up from the 5770, then the next ati chipset is way over that price..

the 5770 is better. there are a few games where the 450 manages to be about on par with the 5770, but it's usually slower.

That's what I read on some reviews.



http://guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5770-review-test/11

I just found this...it says 5770 requires 40 amps. However, I've also found other places that says 10 amps..

 

[Slaymate]

Don't buy an Ultra Power Supply. It's a piece of crap. Spend a little more and get a power supply from a reputable manufacturer.

 

[Night Fox]

lol I won't be doing it again...being that this is my first build, I had little knowledge of what I was doing. Reflecting on it now, based on how much I knew then, I'm surprised it works as well as it is..