Low Power Pulling GPU

[wilska]

One of my friends recently bought some black friday AMD HP computer at Best Buy after staying in line for 2 days. Despite the good deal for what it was made for, he expects to game on it:

AMD Quad 2.3GHz (stock hs)
Offbrand 6gigs DDR2 667Mhz
Offbrand 300w PSU
Borderline integraded GPU
Unsure of mobo specs

Hes talking about getting a new graphics card for it, since it came with a terrible one. The only thing is, his motherboard has a single PCI-e bus. Since he is entirely oblivious to computers and how they basically work, I am afraid that he is going to burn out his computer parts by buying the latest and most up to date card to accompany is 300watt power supply. Because he wont get the full performace from a PCI-e 2.0 card, is there a relatively low watt pulling PCI-e NVIDIA graphics card on the market?

 

[lollerskater69]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130397

 

[wilska]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130397

This is in no way, shape or form of what I was looking for.

 

[Asylum]

He will need to upgrade his PSU to a good name brand 500 watt or better. He could get a cheap graphics card that wouldnt use much power but it wouldnt be much better than the onboard he has now!!

 

[unsmart]

This is probably the best card that doesn't need a pci-e power connector, though it's ATI/AMD. Your friend should also look into a new PSU if he plans on making this a gaming rig and when you say a single pci-e lane do you mean a 1X pci-e slot or a single 16xpci-e slot. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125244

 

[lollerskater69]

You are looking for a nvidia card that doesn't have high power consumption, am I correct? If he is looking for something High End like a GTX 260, 4870, etc, he needs like a 550 psu to run at least one.

 

[wilska]

This is probably the best card that doesn't need a pci-e power connector, though it's ATI/AMD. Your friend should also look into a new PSU if he plans on making this a gaming rig and when you say a single pci-e lane do you mean a 1X pci-e slot or a single 16xpci-e slot. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125244

I could try to convince him to upgrade the PSU, but he will either get a no name brand or wont get one at all. As for the bus type, he has one PCI-e x16 slot.

That looks like a great card for him, except for the fact that he is dead stuck on nVidia cards and is unwilling to change.

 

[wilska]

You are looking for a nvidia card that doesn't have high power consumption, am I correct? If he is looking for something High End like a GTX 260, 4870, etc, he needs like a 550 psu to run at least one.

Err, I am looking for a lower end GPU that does not have high power consumption. What I meant by the "high end card" comment was that, he is more than likely to buy one (despite his PSU) because he has no knowledge of computers.

 

[unsmart]

Show him some benches and he may change his mind since ATIs 4xxx cards are the top for performance per watt and performance per dollar. Really a higher watt no name PSU is better then the low watt no name PSU he has now. does he have a price range or just window shopping for now.

 

[wilska]

Show him some benches and he may change his mind since ATIs 4xxx cards are the top for performance per watt and performance per dollar. Really a higher watt no name PSU is better then the low watt no name PSU he has now. does he have a price range or just window shopping for now.

Ah I never thought of showing him benchmarks and youre right about the PSU upgrade. Ill have to enquire about his price range, but Im sure he is just window shopping for now. Unfortunately he buys almost everything at Best Buy, so hes limited to what they have in stock. Newegg suggestions are always welcomed though. Perhaps when I show him their extremely lower prices, hell have a change of heart.