This Sucks

for this card u need atleast 650 watts or above with atleast 30 amps on 12 v rail.its a very high end card
 
Kris: Take a look at the nvidia GT430. It is a much superior card and uses around 30W. It can be obtained from newegg in the $70-80 range. There are many makes and models to choose from.
 
It won't fit my computer most likely. I've looked it up. And I don't have enough money to spend for that anyways.
 
@ cascaderailroad

Sorry if I confused you. 300W is the whole system requirement. The GT430 itself only needs 30W of the 300. I have confirmed this with a watt meter on my Lenovo desktop (SSF). In fact total power consumption for the entire system, MB, GT430, sound blaster, HD, External USB drive, 7GB RAM, etc is only 100-130W so a 300W PS is more than adequate.

PS I noticed that nvidia rates it at 49W. Based on my measurements, that is quite generous.
 
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Yes finally!!!! I've got the Zotac NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS graphic card installed and you won't believe how much better my game is running because of it!!!! Yay!!!! I'm now off leave and back into Trainz!!!!

:clap::clap::clap::clap::Y::Y::Y::Y:
 
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@ cascaderailroad

Sorry if I confused you. 300W is the whole system requirement. The GT430 itself only needs 30W of the 300. I have confirmed this with a watt meter on my Lenovo desktop (SSF). In fact total power consumption for the entire system, MB, GT430, sound blaster, HD, External USB drive, 7GB RAM, etc is only 100-130W so a 300W PS is more than adequate.

PS I noticed that nvidia rates it at 49W. Based on my measurements, that is quite generous.

So I must be wrong in my thinking: I have a 300watt PS ... and the GT430 only needs 30watts (but the box says 300watts) ... so this means that I can install a much higher wattage video card tha my PS wattage, say a 450 watt video card on a 300watt PS ? ? ?
 
So I must be wrong in my thinking: I have a 300watt PS ... and the GT430 only needs 30watts (but the box says 300watts) ... so this means that I can install a much higher wattage video card tha my PS wattage, say a 450 watt video card on a 300watt PS ? ? ?

No. There is a HUGE amount of variation in the quality of power supplies. I think some of the cheaper ones can output as little as half their rated current continuously. It also depends on the load on the system - a system under peak load (as Trainz is excellent at doing) will draw much more current than a system at idle or using a less-intensive application. On top of all that, many people will want some extra power available for, say, a second HDD, or to recharge USB devices. All that adds up.
 
So I must be wrong in my thinking: I have a 300watt PS ... and the GT430 only needs 30watts (but the box says 300watts) ... so this means that I can install a much higher wattage video card tha my PS wattage, say a 450 watt video card on a 300watt PS ? ? ?

Definitely not. The 300W on the box refers to the GT430 and everything else needed to run the system like so.

Gt430 (30W) + eveything else (100W) = 130W Total. With a 300W PS that gives some headroom for expansion and keeping the power supply cool. Typically a decent PS is 75-80% efficent, so a good computer design would keep the total load somewhere around the 50% level. With a 300W PS, this would be around 150W (full load).
 
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OK ... A video card wattage that should match up to your Power Supply maximum wattage (never more wattage).

I'm glad to hear that Kris got his PC working in Trainz
 
OK ... A video card wattage that should match up to your Power Supply maximum wattage (never more wattage).

I'm glad to hear that Kris got his PC working in Trainz

Keep in mind that the 30W or whatever for the video card is what the video card will consume under load.

The 300W is what the power supply could theoretically supply to the entire system including the video card.

My rule of thumb is 10-12% of the nominal PS rating. For example, a 550W PS should be able to safely support a 55W video card.
 
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What the heck is holding up the mods. They were supposed to have closed this thing already.

They have this little thing called a "real life". It does slow them down on here from time to time, you know? They will get to it soon enough.

:wave:
 
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