305W stock ATX powersupply enough for 7600gt?

hamster · 17-04-2006 2:10pm #1

Anyone know would Dell's 305W stock ATX powersupply be enough for a 7600gt? I have good feedback that they do on the dell forums. Just wondering if anyone here has such a card.
The rest of the system is one 80Gb sata drive (7200rpm), 1 dvdrw+ and the 7600gt. Cpu is 2.8Ghz Pentium D cpu.

8T8 · 17-04-2006 3:05pm

Your PSU should be just enough for it as long as the system doesnt have too many DVDRW/HDD which you dont then you should be okay.

Some folks asked about this a little while back so far no-one has said it hasnt worked so I'd take that as a good sign.

hamster · 17-04-2006 5:12pm

I have done a pile of trawling on the dell forums and all looks positive. All good signs with a 305W PSU (underrated by Dell (more like 350W)). A lot of people very very +ve on the 7600gt. Got a kick ass system for €1060 now using dell's 5150 1Gb ram and P2.8Ghz (and a 19" ultrasharp monitor) for €840. Got the card and dvi cable from komplett for 220.

Can't wait.

stephenmarr · 17-04-2006 7:33pm

hi i have a dell dimension 5150
1 g ram
3.2 ghz
350w psu
my 7600gt extreme card works fine if a little bit nosy but i just turn up my speakers for that

hamster · 17-04-2006 11:52pm

Is it loud all the time or just when you are doing heavy 3D Gaming? Hopefully not that loud when typing up a spreadsheet. Might need to use headphones.

stephenmarr · 18-04-2006 2:36am

only when playing games or watching a dvd(but its only upon start up of application) i haven't heard it any other time

hamster · 18-04-2006 5:29pm

Thats sounds fine.

Son Goku · 18-04-2006 8:41pm

I got my 7600GT today, I've a 300 Watt PSU as well and the card is functioning perfectly.

In fact it's even better than I thought.

hamster · 18-04-2006 10:19pm

Son Goku wrote:

I got my 7600GT today, I've a 300 Watt PSU as well and the card is functioning perfectly.

In fact it's even better than I thought.

Son Goku / stephenmarr,

Do you have an LCD or CRT with the PC? I ask because when using LCD you probably find yourself playing at the native resolution. eg In my case it will be 1280x1024 - probably good enough for Half Life2 but Oblivion most likely not. Having said that some LCDs do scale down rather well to 1024x768 or 800x600 (certainly needed for demanding games). My old CRT (22") was getting on a bit and I don't think I will be able to lift it off the table in a few years (it's over 40Kgs!) - I went for a 19" flatscreen (dell's ultrasharp one - should be ok).

stephenmarr · 18-04-2006 10:44pm

i have the dell 19'' ultrasharp flat screen and Oblivion plays great on 1280x1024 @ 60Hz i have most things turned up max

texture size 'Large'

tree,actor,item and object :- max

grass :- off (dont like it)

distant land :- max

distant trees :- max

distant buildings :- max

interior and exterior shadows :- low 2 medium

self shadows :- off (dont really see them to often)

grass shadows :- off (dont have grass)

tree shadows :- off

shadow filtering :- max

specular light :- medium

hdr : on

water detail :- high

water reflections, ripples :- on

window reflections :- off (dont see the need)

blood declas :- high

i get very little slow down but if u play around with the settings u will get what u want

Son Goku · 20-04-2006 12:34pm

I'm pretty much the same as stephenmarr (very similar screen) except I play with:

Everything on high with fan mods to improve distant textures and increase water detail, but to compensate I also play on 1024x768 @ 75Hz.

I might be mad, but could somebody tell me does refreash rate effect the graphical performance?

hamster · 22-04-2006 8:43pm

Thanks for detailed feedback guys - it would be fab to get that at 1280x1024 native res. Should have the system early next and get the long bank holiday weekend setting it up. The 7600gt came today. Gawd - it's small compared to the Geforce 2 that I currently have.

Son Goku · 23-04-2006 1:13am

hamster wrote:

Thanks for detailed feedback guys - it would be fab to get that at 1280x1024 native res.

I put the game up to 1280 x 1024 today and noticed no real performance impact. This card was definitely worth the money.

hamster · 28-04-2006 7:38am

I tried out the PC this morning. The new PC is excellent. Right now it is so *quiet* I can't tell it is on and all I can hear are the morning birds outside...

The usb slots on the monitor are a great idea and well placed. You can actually rotate the screen by the side and turn it into A4. Will open it up later and put the new 7600gt in there (then it will be noisy!) and swop the dvd-rom. The old 5-year old P-3 is sulking in the other room... unwanted, unloved and retailing for €250. Ha!

hamster · 28-04-2006 7:40am

Actually I meant to show the usb slots on the monitor it is really a neat idea. Any more updates will be on the graphic card to keep in topic - honest

hamster · 28-04-2006 10:33am

Freeing up Dell's 4Gb and 50Mb partitions and backing up the OS.

hamster · 28-04-2006 8:21pm

I ran 3D Mark 2006 and got a score of 3197. Wow... those tests *really* do stress out your system. I was getting an average of 7 fps and occasionally a few peaks of 12-17 fps for a few moments in easier parts.

I better stick to 2005.

Test was done accepting the standard test with no changes at 1280x1024.

7600gt went from silence to a little "wssss" and then to a moderate "wsss". But the noise is not too noticable and turns off again after the test after a few moments. The whole pc system is now dead silence again!

Checked the core temperature and stayed at 54 C. I am using the forceware drivers ver 84.21 on 1Gb of 533Mhz ram on WinXP media center 2005.