Recommended low power card

[SquirrelTakos]

My friend purchased a cheaper HP desktop that has only an integrated graphics card. I looked at the specs on his power supply a ways back and it's only a 300 watt power supply. I know this doesn't leave him with very many options, but I can't seem to find a good way to tell what amount of wattage is needed for cards (on say newegg). Can anyone recommend a low power card that would be acceptable for gaming (preferably with GDDR5 and under $100). I don't want to pick him a card that won't work on his system.

And yes, it does have a pcie 2.0 slot, and it's not a low profile bracket.

Thank you to anyone who can help.

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Don't ask for much do you? Found this:Newegg.com - PowerColor AX3450 512MD2-H Radeon HD 3450 512MB 64-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
But its absolute garbage for gaming, Three generations back and DDR2...Now I had a HP with the oddball PSU...A little determination, and a pair of tin snips I got a standard ATX power supply in....If the system is out of warranty is there ANY way you can get a better PSU? If so "make it happen" or be stuck with this:Newegg.com - XFX PVT86SWHLG GeForce 8400 GS 256MB 64-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card

Four generations back DDR2 (missed the cutoff for a 9400 by 50 watts), but probably the least smelly of the two options....I doubt either will run crysis even at 640X400 /maximum ugly

 

[SquirrelTakos]

So he would just be better off to get a new power supply as well? Because it doesn't seem like much will run on a 300 watt from what you're saying. He just purchased the tower maybe 3 weeks ago so it's still under warranty. But would he have to ship the entire thing back to get a better one? Or should he just purchase a new power supply?

 

[Sardonicus]

You can't run most, if any, of today's games on a 300 watt power supply.
Today's gaming requires power and a capable card.

You could contact HP to see if they'd do an upgrade for you, or buy a better power supply and a graphics card.
Either way, you'll have to spend a few bucks.

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Changing a PSU will void the warranty....but if it will take a standard ATX PSU you could swap it out/save the old one in case of a problem....

Then the only factor would be room/budget....

 

[gazz9496]

you could try the ati 5450 1gb gddr5

it's by no means a fantastic card but doesn't require extra power and can do dx 11, comes with 1 x dvi 1 x hdmi 1 x vga may change depending on vendor from what i've seen.

benchmarked one for a customer and for games it's not to shabby it will strugle with games like crysis but then most cards do anyway but for games like rift/wow/ suppreme commander it did just fine avg of 30 ish fps for all.

best bit is no fan and the price at around £30.

also being fanless may be the better choice depending on how the hp is put together the pcie slots are usually just below th psu so fans there end up with air flow problems.

alternativly you could go for a better version above that but at that point you'll need to upgrade the psu.

lets look at this in a more objective way, you have a 1 year warranty, now you could spend the next year with substandard performance due to not wanting to void the warranty or you could just say to hell with it and fork out for a better psu and a 6850/nvdia equivilent and enjoy 3 years+ of happy gaming and never look back.

the choice is yours

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

you could try the ati 5450 1gb gddr5

it's by no means a fantastic card but doesn't require extra power and can do dx 11, comes with 1 x dvi 1 x hdmi 1 x vga may change depending on vendor from what i've seen.

benchmarked one for a customer and for games it's not to shabby it will strugle with games like crysis but then most cards do anyway but for games like rift/wow/ suppreme commander it did just fine avg of 30 ish fps for all.

best bit is no fan and the price at around £30.

also being fanless may be the better choice depending on how the hp is put together the pcie slots are usually just below th psu so fans there end up with air flow problems.

alternativly you could go for a better version above that but at that point you'll need to upgrade the psu.

lets look at this in a more objective way, you have a 1 year warranty, now you could spend the next year with substandard performance due to not wanting to void the warranty or you could just say to hell with it and fork out for a better psu and a 6850/nvdia equivilent and enjoy 3 years+ of happy gaming and never look back.

the choice is yours

The 5450 needs a 400watt PSU...The Op's system has a 300 watt psu....

 

[SquirrelTakos]

As a followup, I was looking into an affordable reliable PSU, and the 430 watt Corsair would be perfect for the amount of power he would need, and it's pretty damn cheap after MIR. I was also looking at decent gaming cards under 100 dollars, and came across a few. But I was wondering if anyone could tell me how much of a bottleneck a Athlon II 250 3.0Ghz would be if he installed this card.

Also here are his system specs as of now (note the PSU and GPU will change).
HP Pavilion p6750z PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• AMD Athlon(TM) II 250 dual-core processor [3.0GHz, 2MB L2, up to 4000MHz bus]
• 4GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs]
• 750GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
• Integrated graphics - ATI Radeon HD 4200 [VGA, DVI]
• LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
• Integrated Ethernet port, No wireless LAN
• 2 USB, front audio ports
• Integrated sound

I've looked at benchmarks of this CPU vs benchmarks of mine to get a comparison. But I was hoping someone will realworld knowledge could let me know how well this will perform. I that his CPU isn't extremely powerful or a quad core, but as long as it doesn't hold him back from getting smooth games at med/high settings, it's no problem.

Thanks again

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

No bottleneck at all...Now not meaning to make things difficult, but get a 500 watt Psu with two 6 pin connectors and check out thisNewegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100297L Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ ATI Eyefinity Technology

Over twice the power for $10 more...yes it will be bottle necked, but knowing that, he will never upgrade...at least on that system...

That Psu is out of stock $10 more check out thisNewegg.com - Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL 600W ATX12V v2.01 SLI Ready Power Supply

Now this card is about 9 inches long so measure first!