What is the best graphics card i could get without upgrading my power supply?

Question

I Have a HP Pavilion A6109n.My budget is anywhere from $100 to $250

Will i be able to get this w/o upgrading the power supply.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2900230&CatId=2669

or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3244224&CatId=1558

Answer 1

That 8800GTS card draws about 10 amps from the +12V rail of the power supply. It could be too much for you current power supply. The card could also be bottlenecked by your processor if it is just the X2 3800+. Full potential of that card gets unleashed by the X2 6000+ or by the lower models but overclocked.

You current power supply may just be enough for low power cards like 8400GS or HD 2400 Pro.

Consider upgrading your power supply too. Do not let it hinder your upgrade options.

Answer 2

BFG Tech BFGE86256GTSOC2FE GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $249.99
3 Business Day Shipping $5.84
(Not available in HI, AK and PR) for a little more i would get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150171 its a XFX PVT80GGHF4 GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported HDCP Video Card - Retail

Answer 3

wow. nice budget.

go to www.newegg.com

Evga or Gigabyte. Pretty much any of their cards will kick butt. the two though that you definitely will not have to upgrade PS, are the ones around $100. You won't need any higher

Answer 4

Motherboard specifications table
Part / Feature Specification / Support
Motherboard description Motherboard manufacturer's name: Asus M2N68-LA
HP/Compaq name: Narra2-GL8E

CPU/Processor Socket: AM2
Supports the following processors:
Athlon 64 X2 with Dual Core technology
Athlon 64
Sempron

Front-side bus (FSB) 2000MT/s (2.0 GT/s)

Chipset NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

BIOS features System BIOS core brand: Award
Keyboard combination to used to enter BIOS: F10

Form factor Micro-ATX: 9.6 in X 9.6 in

Memory Dual channel memory architecture
Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
Supported DIMM types:
PC2-4200 (533 MHz)
PC2-5300 (667 MHz)
PC2-6400 (800 MHz)
Non-ECC memory only, unbuffered
supports 2GB DDR2 DIMMs
Supports up to 8 GB on 64 bit PCs
Supports up to 4 GB* on 32 bit PCs



NOTE: *Actual available memory may be less

Expansion slots Two PCI
One PCI Express x16 graphics (for a graphics card)
One PCI Express x1 (for cards such as network, sound, tv-tuner)

Video graphics Integrated graphics using nVidia GeForce 6150SE
Up to 256MB (with 512MB or more PC memory)
Also supports PCI Express x16 graphics cards*



NOTE: *Either integrated graphics or the PCI Express x16 slot are usable at one time; they are not usable concurrently.

Parallel ATA One 40-pin UltraDMA 100/66/33 connector
Supports PIO, multi-word DMA modes
Supports two PATA disk drives on one PATA ribbon cable (two drives total)

Serial ATA Four SATA connectors:
SATA1 = Black
SATA2 = White
SATA3 = Blue
SATA4 = Yellow



Supports 1 SATA-150 or SATA-300 disk drive on each SATA connector
Speed up to 1.5Gb/sec or 3.0Gb/sec, complying with SATA 1.0 and SATA 2.0 specifications



NOTE: The faster rate of 3.0Gb/sec requires that both the hard drive and the motherboard support it. If one or the other does not support 3.0 Gb/sec, the PC negotiates down to the slower 1.5 Gb/sec.

RAID Some Narra2 models ship with RAID (model dependent)
nVidia's onboard RAID solution is called nVidia MediaShield Storage
RAID modes supported*:
RAID 0
RAID 1



NOTE: RAID 5 and 10 are not supported by this motherboard.

Onboard audio 8 channel high-definition audio
Audio CODEC: ALC888S
Onboard LAN PCI Realtek RTL8201N 10/100 Mbps LAN PHY

Onboard USB USB 2.0
Ten ports total
Four connectors on back panel
additional headers on motherboard support 6 additional ports/devices



NOTE: Some USB ports may not be available externally for customer use. For more information, see model specifications.

Onboard 1394 Type: IEEE 1394a 400Mb/s
Agere LFW3226-100 (or equivalent) controller chip
Two ports total
One port on back panel
One header on motherboard supporting one additional port/device

Back panel I/0 One PS/2 mouse port (green)
One PS/2 keyboard port (purple)
One Coaxial SPDIF out port
One VGA port
Four USB 2.0
One IEEE 1394a
One RJ-45 networking port
Six audio ports support 8-channel audio:
Line-in (light blue)
Microphone-in (pink)
Line-out (lime)
Center/Subwoofer-out (yellow-orange)
Side speaker-out (gray)
Rear speaker-out (black)

Internal connectors One 24-pin ATX power connector
One 4-pin ATX power connector
One PATA connector
Four SATA connectors
One floppy drive connector
Two 12v fan connectors for CPU fan and PC fan
One 9-pin header for power button, reset button, power LED, and HDD LED
One SPDIF digital audio output header
One front line input connector (interupts line input on back panel, Vista capable, requires matching front audio jack module)
One 9-pin audio header for headphone-out and microphone-in (yellow, Vista capable, requires matching front audio jack module)
Four USB headers supporting 6 additional USB 2.0 ports or devices
One 1394a header
One Intel high-definition Audio/Modem Link (not used by HP)
One jumper for resetting BIOS settings
One jumper to disable BIOS password checking

Is this your motherboard ?

Then I'd Go for PCI Express x16 graphics (for a graphics card)

My pick would be best Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GTS (640MB, PCI Express x16) $349.00
Mid range Radeon X1650 XT 256 MB PCI-E Graphics Card

Manufacturer Part# 100-437750 $229.00 about

Low end Evga
e-GeForce 8600 GT 512 MB DDR3 PCI-E Graphics Card
$165.99

You wont need sli since your mobo only has one slot at 16x