Sorry that I insulted your graphics card, but for gaming that is the truth, it's simply not powerful enough for the price, throughout it's relatively long life. As a passive card it's perfect, though. From nVidia, there are plans for a few cards based on the GF104 chip, arriving in mid-August. It might be worth waiting for that, maybe not. Based on previous Fermi cards, they'll be hot and noisy, but they might push the prices of GTX260s (especially the second hand ones) down as they will offer your bog standard GTX260 gamers an easy upgrade path.
Just before I order it, does anyone see an issue with my PSU? Its a Corsair CX400. Phenom II 955 8GB Dominator DDR3 4 HHDs (3 hippy, low-power green one and a WD Blue) + 1 SSD Couple of fans No other pci cards or anything. Idling as I type this I'm reading about 80W, I will of course be removing my 9500GT. Using the PSU calulator here i get 391W recommended, that's cutting it close. Last question, promise!
I just plugged all your stuff into the PSU calculator: http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine and with fans and stuff included, they want at least a 456w power supply for full load stuff. With your current PSU, you are basically limited to what you've got.
It should be okay - Corsair make good stuff and the PSU will probably run a little bit higher than spec if needed. The only way is to try!
Up to 10% maybe, but it's still a little risky. Since PSUs can take the rest of your system with them when they go pop, I certainly wouldn't want to risk destroying it. It's up to the OP though, clearly, and it's definitely Corsair's budget PSU.
Bkes: I must have been editing my post whilst you were typing yours. I might just see how it goes, I do kinda want the card.
I would firstly like to say no, 400W is no where near enough for a GTX 260 I'm afraid. I was using a 450W Tagan when I bought mine, and it couldn't handle it at all. I am now using a 650w and it seems fine - NVIDIA recommend a 550w minimum... XFX recommend 650w minimum. Secondly, regardless of how good the PSU make is, it will not run above its peak. If a PSU had a peak of 450w, then it will NOT run above that at all - it can only run at 450w for a short while before slowly dying. Also, those online power calculators are next to useless. Before I bought my 260, I did one of those - it said I would be using around 300w - actually its using almost 400w... so don't trust them at all. If you're getting a GTX 260, I would suggest looking at the manufacturers recommend power requirements. E.g. if you're getting XFX, look on their website for what they say etc. A standard NVIDIA card requires 550w - so that is your bare minimum.
Well I've just helped myself to a Palit Sonic card. 1792MB of RAM, pre-overclocked a little too. Those 2 80mm fans keep it cool and quieter than the standard teeny fans too by all accounts. Looking into PSUs as well, having been persuaded not to destroy my system via stupidity.
Haha I wouldn't worry about that - with a Corsair, you wouldn't harm your system. My Tagan wasn't enough to cope - but it didn't die. It just made a horrible noise whenever I played a game. If yours isn't up to the job it will let you know - but be ready to replace it fairly quickly after that. Most good makes have so much safety features these days that it is rare for a PSU to harm other parts of your system if it were to give up Also, good card choice
Have just checked Palit's website and they recommend a minimum of 500W - so would probably opt for a 600W (if you're getting a new one) and that leaves you a bit of room if you were to upgrade something else in the future.
Good stuff! Just some advice about the Palit card: when the system is turned on it'll spin up to 100% until it starts to load windows, after which it'll drop right back down. I'm glad you've decided to get a new PSU - 400W is cutting it close, a good quality 500-600W PSU from the PSU list (kindly maintained by Moyo2k ) should do nicely.
260 would run on a 400watt psu just be a bit touch and go. 500 watt is enough for the top end ati cards ( exept 5970) nvidia likes electric 480 needs most people think about a 600 watt psu
I'm regretting not buying a powerful card or psu to begin with. I don't (didn't, I guess) game on a pc so I thought I'd be covered. Having learnt the lesson to do it right first time (again!) I have set about purchasing a Silverstone Decathlon 850W from the market place here. I think 850W of modualarly-cabled goodness should sort me out for a good while. With regards to the 9500GT, keep it in there or take it out? I know PhysX would run better on the 260 than the dedicated 9500GT, so it's got no use there really. I only have 2 screens so there's no point there either. Would it serve a purpose or should I just pull it out and sell it?
I remember that anything below a 9600GT in physX might give framerate drops. Although that's debateable.
Surely the secondary screen runs from the same card? That's how it is now, I have a screen from the HDMI and a screen from the DVI. Or would there be a benefit to having from each card? I might just hand it on down to my brother though, or sell it here.
In Windows 7 you can have a screen on each card. You could do it as you do now, but people think it would be a good way to reduce noise. I'm not so sure, though, and it would certainly increase power usage, if I were you I'd just pass on your old card or keep it as a backup.
