Power supply for graphics card.?

Question

I have an on board graphics card right now and the PSU is a 250Watt unit.
I do have a 450watt PSU add on that fits into the 5.25in bay designed  to supply graphic cards - A Visontek 450
I also have the PCIe slot to install a new card.

The question is - do the PCIe cards only get their power from the board or is it possible to supply the new card via the Visontek.

Also - any recomendations on the cards (NVidia preferred) that are available thru tiger-direct.

Thanks.

C-Man · Accepted Answer

How expensive of a card are you looking for?  What games do you want to play?

There are supplementary power supplies which work for powering graphics cards, they're just somewhat expensive and less convenient than replacing the main psu.  The FSP booster is fairly well known, I guess your Visiontek is similar.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104054

Higher-end cards with the 6-pin PCI-Express plug will draw power primarily through that.  Cards like the GeForce GT240 and GT220, Radeon 4670 and 4650 don't have the 6-pin plug and therefore wouldn't work with a supplementary psu, they draw all their power directly from the PCI-E x16 slot.

You also want to avoid "Eco" or energy-saving 550Mhz versions of the 9800GT as those don't have the 6-pin plug either.  The standard 600Mhz versions should be fine... so would a GTS 250.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121352
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134094

There's not a lot of variety on the Nvidia side.  Anything faster needs more juice than your supplementary power supply can provide (The GTX 260 requires two 6-pin connectors)

On the ATI side, the Radeon 4770, 4850, 5750 and 5770 are would all work.  They're all superior to the GeForce 9800GT.  However, only the 5770 outperforms the GTS 250.

http://www.techspot.com/review/209-ati-radeon-hd-5770/page7.html

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Power supply for graphics card.?

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