Hello, 

I am thinking of buying a graphics card for my PC with a 300W PSU. However, as I am a console gamer, I am not interested in buying a card that can run this generation's high end PC games, like Crysis, Bioshock, or whatever ridiculously good looking game that is out there, on max settings. My budget shouldn't go over $200, either. Currently, I am playing previous gen games like Black & White 2, Civ4, KOTOR2, Fable, and Riddick on extremely low settings; that is, settings lower than 1024x768. Hell, I can barely run those even on 1024x768. So now I will ask the humble folks here on GB to recommend a card that should run the aforementioned games on max settings, if possible. Thanks in advance for your advices and recommendations. Stay awesome! :-)

Oh, I forgot. Here are my specifications:

• Vista 32-bit
• Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz
• 2.80 GHz CPU Speed
• 2.0 GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE
• Direct X 10
• 300W PSU

6600GT

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102726

Go for the Radeon HD 4850, its mid range, low price (Under 200 anyway.) and according to this http.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4870,1964-15.html ,will work at under 300W.

I play alot of prev. gen games like Battlefield 2 and Age Of Empires 3 and it runs them at max.

I agree with the guy who suggested the 4850.

I'd go with the HD 4770 instead. It uses less power since it's built on a 40nm process (I believe the HD 4850 is 65nm) and it's pretty much the same as the HD 4850 in terms of performance. It's only $100.

I would suggest going with the best card that doesn't require external power, this would put the 4850's out of the question, trust me you need at least a 450-500W to run that puppy.

Wattage isn't the only important thing on a powersupply; the amound of a on the +12v is as well. Your PSU only has 19a on it and often powersupplies will say how much they require roughly to run so consider that. I will second or third the 4770.

I always hear that question alot and my answer would be to actually just replace the psu. 300 watts is really nothing and my advice is to buy a 600 watts and up, for cheap online. It's really easy to install, just take out one wire at a time and look for one that's similar. There is only one type of slot each wires can go to.

I recommended this because you won't be limited by what cards you can run on your rig. Those cards will be a real bottleneck for gaming.

Edit: wait not a dual core? Well anything is good enough then. Like the next post said, your cpu will bottleneck your videocard regardless.

No his pentium D 2.8 will most likely be the bottle neck. You don;t need 600ws you need something with a strong 12v rail and heck my 6 year old 480w from Antec puts out 28 on a single rail. He has no reason to replace, as any video card he gets will most likely just be limited by his CPU anyway. Spend 50 bucks get a 3850 and be done with it. Save your cash for a new computer down the line or heck save up $500 and build from scratch something cheap.

I agree with anyone who said the 4850.
However, even most of the low spec HIS's require a min of 450 from the powa supply. (Yup, I said powa)
Anyhoo, I would recommend an 8600 GTS, or something similar. I have the OC'd one and I can basically run the latest games on high. (I have a shitty monitor)

Oooops. I'm sorry. The 8600 requires a 350 watt psu.
My bad.

Does your motherboard chipset support PCI-Express 2.0?

^Yes. I finally decided to go with the 2nd poster which was the 3650, just to be on the safe side :P

I really appreciate what you all had to say! Big thanks!

Cheers.