Need help on buying a new graphic card!!

Diabolical said:

this might sound stupid but is there anyway u can add more power to your cpu? and like i said before is there anyway to really check how much power your cpu has just be on the safe side and make sure, becuase if am only stuck on 300-350 watts, then am basically screwed..

You are able to manipulate voltage of several components using your bios, however I would strongly caution against it. Your questions indicate an interest but I don't beleive you posess the skill level and the understanding of what the consequences will be. I think what you are asking is can you overclock your processor, again you must possess a basic understanding of processor speeds and the reasons for either O/C or under clock. Gamers have a high understanding and have a need to overclock their processors to enhance the performance demands of their systems to get optimal performance. Your initial inquiry concerning graphics cards leads me to suspect that you are a fledgling gamer. So power demand is crucial for you to pursue your gaming goals.


Adrian

hm... if you go get a good 500 or 600 watt psu you'll be covered look at brands like corsair, ultra, pc power and cooling, antec, and thermaltake and modular is nice but its up to you if you want that option or not... the 5770 is a great card, and yes you can't overclock with a prebuilt system, but since you are just upgrading graphics now you will be fine with a new psu and card, and later on think about building a new computer

Fumz said:

Read this: PC Power Consumption: How Many Watts Do We Need? - X-bit labs

Here's a tiered list, albeit from last year, that should get you headed in the right direction: Official XS Power Supply Ranking Phase I - XtremeSystems Forums

As has been stated before, do not devote too much attention to overall wattage, because that's going to differ from PSU to PSU, and more importantly, overall wattage is meaningless when it comes to powering a high end graphics card. You'll just give yourself a headache comparing wattage; psu's have different efficiency ratings, some are cleaner than others, etc etc etc...

What you want is a PSU with really stable rails. Most of the PSU that have been recommended in this thread will deliver, but again, some are better than others (refer to link 2).

It's all about the amps. Period. Get one with high amperage on the +12 volt rail and much of your concerns will evaporate.

To summarize: a lot of guys have already done the guinea pig work of figuring out what's good and what's not. Hit up link 2. :)

agreed......

IMO always buy a larger PSU than you think you need, invariably its one of the longest lasting components in a machine & if you buy good quality now it'll serve you for your future builds & any upgrades that may take your fancy.

i'll tell you about a GREAT PSU i picked up a year ago.......

Xclio 850w

what a great unit this is from an underdog company, this is their top end unit, superior build quality......

this has a whopping 70A on the 12v rail , & its bloody cheap..

it also has more connections than you'd know what to do with..

1 x 4pin ATX 12V
8 x 4pin Molex
2 x 6pin PCI-E Power <
1 x 8pin CPU +12V
2 x 8pin PCI-E Power <
1 x FDD Power
8 x SATA Power

its only downside is the fact its not modular, but that hasn't really bothered me (might be a problem with a smaller case due to cable storage)

but on the whole you cant go wrong with one of these.

Frostmourne said:

The 5770 will suffer with only a 128-bit memory bus. I'd choose between either a 4890 or a 5870. However, if you have a factory PSU I would upgrade that too or build a PC for gaming - your quad-core may bottleneck the graphics card.

If he buys some watercooling/very good aircooling he can overclock it to the standards of the power it needs to run freely with those graphic options.
That is if he wants to spend yet more money...