Graphics Card Recommendations

Budget: ~ max 300$ USD (I live in the US so its no problem with shipping)

my bus is PCI (express i think, shouldn't matter anyways) 2.0 x16

I've been sifting around newegg and i'm considering getting a 9800 gtx +, or a gtx 200 series. I'm worried about size, if it will fit in my case. mine's pretty big, its a dell optiplex 360.

mostly looking for a nvidia, evga specifically. here's some i'm thinking of:

My desktop is almost 16 inches high, depth is a bit more than 14 inches

quick question though - how can I figure out how much power supply my PC has?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130372 This one's good but i'm afraid it'll be too large and my power supply isn't enough.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130436 Then there's this one, which will probably work with whatever power supply I have, and I think it will fit in my case. The problem is, neither of these cards say how big they are. So i'll do more research on that ^^

Any other recommendations?

According to the official nVidia site, both cards are 10.5 inches long (267mm).

I checked some pics of the Dell optiplex 360... It looks like it's designed to open on the right side, rather than the left side. I'm not sure how the hardware for that PC is... in the worst case, none of the cards will fit, since they are made for standard ATX boards. I'd say though that you'd just have to install the card the other way around (with the stickers facing upwards, and the backside of the PCB facing downwards)

Also, make sure your power supply has at least 2 PCIe 6-pin power cables for those cards.

I don't really know about Dell and what they use, and how compatible they are with standard hardware.

What do these look like? Where could I find them? Thanks

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psucon...onnectors.html

Here's a complete list of all power supply cables nowadays. The PCIe power connectors are usually black or red to better tell them apart from the rest. If you don't have a pair of those, you'd probably need two of these adapters.

What kind of PSU have you got? The official minimum Wattage needed for the whole system with either cards is 450W for the 9800GTX+ and 500W for the GTX260.

To be honest, it looks rather grim for you at the moment.

Open your case and look at your PSU, it's usually the box in the top left corner as you look at it. It should have a sticker that will tell you the maximum wattage.

so i'm looking in my case, and its EDIT: large enough to fit a 13 inch card. however, the max watts is 255. anyway i can make it go up?


EDIT: So i've done some looking on newegg, and found this nice power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817189005

its pretty cheap and should work for those cards that are huge, since my case is already big enough (there's a huge slot just for video cards, apparently).

then there's this one, which not only has BLUE lights, its 500W and free shipping. could save me some buck! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182044

seems as if users from the first power supply i linked to had it die after a year. i think the rosewill lasts longer, according to the comments.

tell me which one may be better

EDIT2: Then there's THIS one, which has RED lights, and is SLI ready as well. More watts than the others, 54$ after rebate and free shipping. so i'll probably go with this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341022

both are pretty meh actually, though both should be good enough. btw, don't take the customer reviews too seriously. one guy having the PSU fail after a year doesn't mean yours will.

I'd say buy the GTX 260 personally. EVGA is great and they include proper adapters in the event that your PSU doesn't have them, at least in my experience after buying a few cards from them.

Additionally shiny lights and watts don't account for how good a PSU is, you also want to look at how much amps are on the 12volt rail(s), 500 watts should suffice so from there on it's the amps that count, if you don't have enough then your computer will buckle under the lack of power.

The first two PSU's don't really look dependable imo, here's why: (GTX 260) Requires a Minimum of a 500 Watt power supply. (Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 36 Amp Amps.) Neither of the first two Power Supplies you put up can put out 36 amps, it'd need 18 amps on each of it's rails for that and neither have that.

The OCZ (one with the red lights) evidently puts out 25 amps on it's two 12 volt rails, so that one would be the better of your choices, it's also modular for cable management which is a plus.

This one is interesting too, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139004

80+ Certified, 41 amps on the single rail, and 550 watts, that's perfect for the card(s) in question. (Non-SLI)

It says SLI - ready. Doesn't that mean it should take SLI cards?

anywho, the last power supply I linked has 25 amps on the 12v rail. Would that be enough?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814121282R its $15 over your budget but its worth it

Yeah it's SLI ready but that depends on what you're going to SLI of course, think about the power requirements of the card you're using on that PSU, and then double it.

I was just stating that I'm not referencing SLI when I mentioned "Card(s)". Also according to the specs that OCZ Power Supply should give you plenty of breathing room.

of the ones mentioned I'd suggest getting the OCZ power supply, I am quite happy with OCZ products, for reliability and performance. That PSU should be fine for you.

It's open box though...

i'd absolutely go with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130448 (free mirror's edge ) and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341017

in case that's over budget: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102810 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341016

the 4870 will do great too, but the gtx260 is just... nvidia!

1. Make sure any power supply you get is compatible with your Dell. Dell has the habit of using custom pin layouts on their power supply connectors. (As far as I can tell from a basic search, your Dell is not compatible with standard power supplies.)

1.a. Also make sure that any power supply you get is physically compatible with the Dell's case.

2. Make sure that the proper, compatible, power supply is powerful enough to run what ever card you want to get. Or, conversely, get a video card that only requires as much power as your power supply can deliver.