Time For A Upgrade?

250W is rather weak. If you want to upgrade your video card without replacing the power supply, your best options would be either an ATI Radeon HD 5570 or Nvidia GeForce GT 240. If however you want to invest a better power supply (usually recommend about 500 - 550W for midrange machines http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171038), then you can step up to something like a Radeon HD 4870 or 5770 or GeForce GTS 450 or GTX 560 Ti.

Hi

250w psu is not enough for either of them vid cards- I would say 450w is low ball- but might be ok- what you should look at is amps on the +12v rail. If you can find something 550watts and say 40amps on the +12v rail might be ok. Cheap no name psu's can ruin your whole system it is the only thing in a system that can do so.

As for vid cards it more depends on games you play- ATI can not do physx. As for that 9800gtx- I do not know if you can find them any more- but my 8800 gts ko g92 is more powerful and out performs the stock 9800gtx and my 8800 cost less and is a 9'' card where the 9800gtx is like 10.5'' My 8800 takes only 1 6x pin pcie connector- I think the 9800gtx takes 2 6x pin connectors.

you are willing to spend 150 for that 9800 gtx these cards cost 20-25 bucks more and is a far better cards and can do dx11 and physx and has a life time warranty- Think I would prefer a 256bit or more high card but this should be fine on a budget. I can not find min psu requirements..

You can shop around and maybe get prices a lil better than these posted..>

Amazon.com: EVGA 768-P3-1362-AR GeForce GTX460 768MB Superclocked DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card - Lifetime Warranty: Electronics

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130564

** Here ya go an even better vid card and life time..>

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814187111

I am sure this psu can handle most any single vid card.. As a fact this psu can most likely run 2 of the 460 in sli. it has 52amps on the +12v rail- is a single rail hard wire set up- said best versus multi rails and modular wire set ups. And has long wires you might get a full tower case someday- you will be glad for the long wires...>

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

If was my money and my budget I would go with this tx650 psu the 550 cost the same- corsair makes some of the best psu's on the planet and at a lower price point than many- these are a few years old now and cost less and has a 5 year warranty the vid card' above have life time and with these parts you are pretty much future proof if you might plan on other system upgrades in the next few years- you can carry over this psu and vid card to your new future system.. You can not have to much psu you can have to lil and or cheap crap..

You might need to open up your case and see if your psu is 1 of them tiny things- these normal atx case psu's might not work in your case.. My money would feel silly buying any psu less than 550w 40 amps on +12v rail- and they might be only 20 bucks or so less than the tx650 I just posted- Again you can not have to much psu you can have to lil and or creap crap.. If need be you might have to buy a normal mid or full tower atx case- you can find some cheap ones for 50 bucks or so or maybe a bud or something has an old one laying round- maybe it is some pc repair place near you and might have an old used 1 and sell ya for 20 bucks or something..

As a fact any video card over 9'' might not work in your case- 9'' cards you might even have to move around your hdd to make room for the vid card. Some of them cases are odd ball and not normal atx tower cases. Just some things to think about.

With nvidia vid card you have far less game problems over all and can play games etc that use physx- I am not a ati hater it is just the facts..

** I would guess your 250 watt psu is maybe only 18 maybe 24amps- it might not run any video card listed or talked about in this thread. You should be able to look at the psu it should have sticker on it and tell ya its wattage and how many amps on the +12v rail..

What about your mobo- I guess it can take a pcie card others are telling to buy that type- what about slots under the pcie vid card slot is it 1 free pci slot under it? Most all of these cards need 2 slots- the pcie vid card slot and 1 under it for the cooler they are 2 slot cards. If you have some other card in the pci slot under the pcie vid card slot- do you have another pci slot where you can drop what ever pci card to the lower slot ? All of these things you need to take into consideration- or you will buy stuff and not get it into your case and be pissed off..

Good luck- see ya..

That psu darician posted might be ok I am not sure about cooler masters rep as far as psu's go- but they do make other good products- 550w and 2x 18amp +12v rails 36amp total- it would be pushing things for say that 465 vid card..

As far as buying anything and or budget or common sense things go- Say you are looking to buy a new pinto car the standard car cost 200 bucks but the better car with ac cost only 30 bucks more- unless stupid you spend the extra 30 bucks- Or save another week or month what ever until you can afford the better bargain.. And ride in comfort with your ac. Or hang your head out of the windows in summer time and hate your self for being so cheap etc..

With multi rail psu's- you have to think about and try and spread your load over the wires coming out of the psu- you are talking 2 rails 18amps each- no 1 rail may be enough to power everything in your case- and can be a head ake trying to spread it out- where you do not have them worries on a single rail psu.

I said before hard wired psu's are better than modular types- this is just part of 1 of many postings on the topic->

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/pow...-psu,8016.html

" Despite modular power supplies being a hot product, don't be quick to grab the up-take. The companies we spoke to told us that modular power supplies are less efficient than those that have their cables hard-wired. The reason being that the extra connection you make, adds resistance, and hence, increases heat and reduces efficiency."

Also 2 slot vid cards that vent the extra hot air out of the back of the case are better over all- the total temps inside your case will be lower versus a vid card that just circulates the hot air around inside your case.

If your budget is like 275 bucks- you can get the tx650 and the sparkle 465 vid card- good to go- provided your case can take your new hardware- Should include shipping and a few bucks left over. Again- you can shop around for better prices?

Just things to think about..

if you don't have enough PSU juice, you can easily run ATI HD5670 on a 450 W psu, it'll run most of your new games. And it doesn't require a power connector.