Power supply and video card (I need some help)

Status
Not open for further replies.

pro2a

In Runtime
Messages
382
Location
Pennsylvania
I need a little help here. Attached is a photo of the side of my power supply (I'll get to that in a bit) It says it's an 'ATX 300W Switching power supply'. I have no clue what that is. Currently I am running a 1GB GeForce 8500 GT graphics card. I just got Starcraft 2 and while my 8500 runs it ok, I want to max it out. My other system specs are dual core AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and 4GB of DDR2 667 RAM. Those specs are more then enough for the game to run... it's just the graphics card is holding it back.

To optimize the game they recommend at least a Geforce 9000 series or Radeon 3000 series. I was looking at the 1GB GeForce 9800 GT which exceeds the optimal settings. I understand it's a year or two old, but it meets my budget and I can still max the graphics out for a few of my games. Mostly SC2 and MW2... currently my video card will run them, but I have to keep the settings to a middle to low setting to play without the lag.

The specs for the 9800 GT are here and since I know power can be an issue with graphics cards, I was hoping one of you techies could look at my power supply specs and then look at the video card I would like and tell me if they are compatible. If they are not, what you would recommend I do for a video card that will meet my requirements? I fried a previous computer because of a power supply/video card mix up and I'm not making that mistake again.

I will be plugging it into a PCI-E x16 slot if that matters any. Thanks for the help!
 

Attachments

  • DSCN0307.jpg
    DSCN0307.jpg
    91.4 KB · Views: 54
I would recommend you go for at least a 500W PSU. THe graphics card will run OK with 400W but having a larger capacity will be less stressful for your system.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom