looking to upgrade Video Card on 300 Watt system. Suggestions??

Question

I currently have an ATI X700 256mb PCI-Express

My system
AMD 64 3200
1GB RAM
120 GB HD
300 Watt Power Supply.

Have considered the Following Cards"
ATI X800 256mb
ATI 1300 256mb
Nvidia 7300 GS 256mb
Nvidia 7300 GT 512mb

Any other card suggestions would be good. Not looking to spend lot of money say about $150

Did not want to upgrade power supply due to cost

Thanks for help!!

Answer 1

Well first off, its a good thing you came here, you can do better than those cards. I would recommend this one:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814186004
Now if you are gutsy enough to buy recertified, you could get this one:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130077 which is a better card than the previous. Either should work on a 300W, although I would recommend your next upgrade to be a power supply because you are cutting it very close.

Answer 2

According to the minimum PSU requirements for Ati and Nvidia cards, there are no graphics cards worth buying. Even though the 6450 has a minimum requirement of 400W, it probably will work. The 6450 won't handle gaming properly though, so don't bother with that choice. Just buy a new power supply and a cheaper graphics card. You can get 450W power supplies for about 35 dollars. You can get a HD6670 for 65 dollars so you don't go over your 100 dollars budget, but i'd recommend you to spend a little bit more for the HD6770 and the power supply.

Answer 3

I'd do the Nvidia 7300 GT, only because I have a couple of the Gigabyte Turbo Edition ones with the heat pipes and they run flawlessly, and doesn't require a power connector.

and they were only about 84 bucks apiece.